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, O-R-T. 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 multi-billion 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