History Creator / FourKidsEntertainment

* Creator/KetherDonohue

* Creator/CarrieKeranen (worked in New York until 2010)
* Creator/CassandraLeeMorris (a.k.a. Cassandra Morris) (worked in New York until late 2000s)

* Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas (now resides and works in L.A. since the late 2000s)

* ''WesternAnimation/AlienRacers'' (from Mike Young Productions and Creator/CGCGInc, aired on Fox from May to July 2005. Formerly aired on Creator/{{Teletoon}}

* ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' (From French studio Marathon Media, the first 7 episodes aired from May to June 2004)

* Tara Jayne (a.k.a. Creator/TaraSands, now resides and works in L.A. since 2004)

* '''[[Creator/DanGreen DAN GREEN!]]''' (a.k.a. Jay Snyder)

* ''Anime/ShamanKing'' (License now distributed by Creator/DiscotekMedia) [[note]]North America only, European/Australian/South American rights were held by Creator/JetixEurope, and Asian rights were held by TV Tokyo [=MediaNet=], abit still using 4Kids' English dub. 4Kids' rights expired in 2010[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' (2004-2007; license dropped, picked up by [[Creator/{{Funimation}} FUNimation]]) [[note]]4Kids' rights expired in August 2009[[/note]]

** 4Kids entirely skipped the episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' in which the protagonists visit the Safari Zone, and Ash catches 30 Tauros in this episode. Whenever Ash uses the Taurus' from this moment on, the viewers of the dub are left without explanation as to how he gained possession of them.

* '''[[Creator/DanGreen]]''' (a.k.a. Jay Snyder)

* '''[[Creator/DanGreen DAN GREEN!]]''' (a.k.a. Jay Snyder)

* Creator/LisaOrtiz

* OldShame: Some of the 4Kids employees, Mark Kirk included, seem to agree with some of the public's opinion that their adaptation of ''One Piece'' was terrible since they were forced into dubbing it against their will. The adaptation was ''never'' rebroadcast on television after 4Kids stopped producing it in 2006, nor has it seen a digital release.

* PromotedFangirl: Creator/TiaBallard admitted that she watched their adaptation of ''Manga/OnePiece'' as a child and would later go on to voice Porche in Creator/{{Funimation}}'s adaptation of the series.

%% Remember, creators don't get trivia pages. Trivia items on this page should stay here.

However, [=4Kids=] also garnered a negative reputation among general anime fans due to their dubs, which were accused of not only disrespecting the source material, but also of cultural whitewashing. Common threads were high [[{{Bowdlerize}} bowdlerization]], script rewrites, removal of overtly Japanese content, and complete replacement of the original music — although the latter wasn't nearly as poorly-received, and their original songs for ''Pokémon: The Series'' remain beloved to the day. While those practices were par for the course for the English-speaking anime industry in that time period and many edits were mandated for a Saturday morning timeslot, [=4Kids=] drew significantly more backlash because of its greater visibility and [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2005-04-24/alfred-r-kahn an interview]] with CEO Alfred Kahn where he explicitly claimed that the edits were meant to make shows "more Western".

All is not bad, however. 4Kids also produced the widely praised 2003 incarnation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'', known for its good and complex storytelling compared to typical Saturday morning cartoons. It is the [[DarkerAndEdgier Darkest And Edgiest]] ''TMNT'' animated series to date, bizarrely featuring content that 4Kids would have normally censored in their anime dubs. This was likely due to Standards and Practices on American network television having DoubleStandard practices considering that Western cartoons that regularly air on Saturday Mornings usually kept in content that the foreign cartoons like anime had to censor, and the censorship was based on opinions rather than guidelines.

The hatred garnered from their dubs would be worn out as the company became significantly less prominent than it used to be, and its fan following became the only people who still cared. In the late 2000s, with the loss of its prized ''Pokémon'' license, 4Kids' focus shifted away from anime to homegrown properties and acquisitions from other countries, which generally fit the company's creative philosophy much better and have obtained much more faithful treatment. What anime they still dubbed was generally well-received -- or, at least, drew less ire. With Creator/KidsWB[='s=] demise in 2008, 4Kids became -- for better or for worse -- the last remnant of what was once an institution--[[http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/11056 a position they suffered for having.]] That year, long-standing issues with Fox over financial and contractual complications blew over,[[note]]Like its predecessor block, [=4KidsTV=] was turned down by the New World Fox stations and had to be leased to a WB, UPN (both of which would be replaced by either The CW or Creator/MyNetworkTV, depending on the market) or independent affiliate. Some Fox O&Os and affiliates who carried the block at launch would later send it to their sister UPN/[=MyNetworkTV=] stations in favor of expanded newscasts or infomercials.[[/note]] and Fox canceled [=4KidsTV=] in December 2008. Afterwards, 4Kids' only lifeline for the next several years was a [[Creator/{{Toonzai}} similarly-programmed Saturday morning block]] on Creator/TheCW.[[note]]Ironically enough, that was launched months earlier to replace Kids' WB.[[/note]] In 2009, the series and merchandising rights to ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' were bought out by Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} as a component of their purchase of [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles the franchise]]. Rainbow would also revoke 4Kids' license to the ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' franchise that same year, and later also partnered with Nickelodeon to reboot the franchise.

In April 2011, months after the departure of longtime CEO Alfred R. Kahn, [[http://www.screendigest.com/news/us-childrens-entertainment-company-4kids-files-for-bankruptcy/view.html the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy]], stemming from a [[ScrewedByTheLawyers lawsuit]] filed by TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems (NAS) over unpaid royalties regarding the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' franchise. An auction resulted in the company being sold in pieces; Creator/{{Konami}} bought all of their ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' rights, and Creator/SabanBrands bought the rest of the company, including the Toonzai Saturday morning block and rights to ''Sonic X'' and ''Cubix''.

With the acquisition from Saban, The [=CW4Kids=]/Toonzai ended in the fall of 2012, being replaced by a new block called Creator/{{Vortexx}}. [=CW4Kids=]' final broadcast on August 18, 2012 ended with a full marathon of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', before the names were relaunched as separate channels in 2015. Meanwhile, 4Kids successfully exited from bankruptcy in mid-December of 2012 as '''4Licensing Corporation''' without any notable entertainment assets, while the latter was revived as a [[SpinOff separate company]] on May 16, 2013. Their main focus was then shifted to developing and licensing isoBlox, an impact-blocking surface designed for use in sports equipment. Anime fans weren't able to experience the company's unique practices any longer. It also left the New York talent pool of voice actors, for the most part, without regular work; some even moved to Los Angeles to pursue work there. In September 2016, [[HistoryRepeats 4Licensing filed for bankruptcy again]] and quietly folded the next year.

* BittersweetEnding: The company's dissolution. Sure, a company infamous for [[{{Bowdlerize}} Bowdlerizing]] or otherwise toning down their properties for the sake of pandering, monopolizing Saturday mornings and poor publicity throughout the 2000s' closing is bound to draw cheers across the community, but the network was trying to do better in its final years and a lot of honest New York voice actors lost regular work or, in the case of Creator/DanGreen, have entered semi-retirement. Several voice actors have also moved out of New York and now work in L.A.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: While 4Kids was infamous for the heavy edits to the anime they dubbed, it should be noted that almost every other dubbing company at the time were guilty of the exact same practices as them. Both Viz and Funimation regularly changed names, plots and soundtracks in their earlier dubs and most dubbing companies still add a large amount of localization to children's anime. Despite this, none of them are ever subject to the same level of scrutiny as 4Kids. In fact, sometimes their dubs get mistaken to be made by 4Kids exactly because censorship in anime is most commonly associated with the latter, and almost never any other company.

* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Their dub of ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' being unfinished was due to TV Tokyo and Konami forcing them to abandon it to solely focus on ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's'' so that it would gain popularity in the West as soon as possible.

* TheScapegoat:
** Everyone insults 4Kids for their excessive script changes and animation edits. No one talks about how 4Kids had to get approval from the shows' owners whenever they wanted to make a major script change or animation edit in their dubs. This is especially notable for ''One Piece'', as Toei Animation forced the series onto them to get it to western audiences as fast as possible.
** Everyone also blames them for not finishing their dub of Anime/YuGiOhGX, as they believe 4Kids wanted to abandon GX in favor of Anime/YuGiOh5Ds. However, this is only partially correct. 4Kids only abandoned GX because Creator/TVTokyo and Konami forced them to since 5D's premiered in Japan around the end of the third season of the GX dub. This action left 4Kids pretty upset, and it possibly explains why their dub of 5D's ended up as a {{Macekre}} since they mentioned they didn't have time to test it.
** While [=4Kids=] gets a lot of flak for their censorship, no one brings up how it was done to appease the network and television standards at the time. Non-cable networks in general are a ''lot'' more restrictive on what can and can't be shown in children's television. Stuff that could fly on ''Creator/CartoonNetwork''s ''Creator/{{Toonami}}'' block would ''never'' be allowed to fly on a non-cable network. Often, the censorship they did was done just to get the shows on the air at all.

'''[=4Kids=] Entertainment''' was an American entertainment and licensing company based in New York City, responsible for several cartoons and English dubs of foreign programs. It later became a spin-off of [=4Licensing=] Corporation.