RUSSIA: POKEMON LAUNCHED IN MOSCOW
(18 Dec 2000) Japanese, English XFA The controversial children s cartoon, Pokemon was launched in Moscow on Monday. A crowd of excited children saw the Russian premiere at a Moscow movie theatre, ahead of its first run on Russia s most far reaching public television channel, ORT. The young viewers were captivated by the pocket monsters magical qualities. The Pokemon phenomenon originated in Japan three years ago as a Nintendo Game Boy game. It quickly expanded into cartoons, comic books and trading cards, becoming a multibillion dollar enterprise. Despite the show s success, TV Tokyo Network took Pokemon cartoons off the air after viewers suffered nausea, hyper ventilation, convulsions and loss of consciousness caused by visually intense animation affects in a December 1997 episode. Hundreds were hospitalised. However, Sergei Suponev, Head of Childrens Programming for ORT, is confident that scenarios of this kind won t happen in Russia. SOUNDBITE: (English) If it s an
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