4Kids

**4Kids Entertainment** (commonly known as **4Kids**, later known as **4Licensing Corporation**) was an American movie and television production company. They specialized in the creation and distribution of children's entertainment around the world. The company is most well known for the large number of Anime and animated television series it has provided to television stations. These series included _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ and _Sonic the Hedgehog_. 4Kids Entertainment dubbed _Pokémon_ until 2006. The company was first created in 1970 as _Leisure Concepts, Inc_.

4Kids Entertainment has provided a number of series for the Fox television network. These series have been shown on the network using the name **4Kids TV**.

4Kids Entertainment filed for bankruptcy twice. They first filed for bankruptcy in 2011, and again in 2016.

## History

In 1970, the company was originally called _Leisure Concepts, Inc_. It was created by Mike Germakian and Stan Weston.  It was later called **4Licensing Corporation**

During the mid-1980s, Ted Wolf came up with the idea of cat<nowiki/>like humanoid superheroes. He told his friend Stan Weston, who  pitched it to Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment. Both Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass were impressed with the idea. They approved of it and "ThunderCats" started.

During the early development stage, Mike Germakian designed much of the ThunderCats' characters, vehicles and locations. He was also responsible for creating the now iconic ThunderCats logo, featuring a stylized black panther head on a red circle.

## Criticism

4Kids Entertainment gets most of its anime series from Japan. Before showing the series in the United States and United Kingdom, the series are edited. This editing includes changing the words from Japanese to English. It may also include changing other things which could be thought to be bad. For example, cigarette smoking is often removed before being shown in the United States. Changing the names of items from Japanese items to American items is also often done. This is done so the person watching can understand the show more easily.

Many times the story of an episode is changed completely to make it better for children. Some people believe all the changes to the anime is a bad thing. They say that the series should be shown exactly the same as it was originally created. They feel 4Kids made "Americanized kiddy version" of the original series and that it is not right to do this.

## Other websites

- 4Kids Corporate
- 4Kids Home Video
- Defunct website

## Infobox (_company)

- **company name**: 4Kids Entertainment
- **company logo**: 4Licensing Corporation Logo.svg
- **logo alt**: 4Licensing Corporation
- **logo caption**: Final logo from 2012 to 2017
- **company type**: Public company, Public (New York Stock Exchange, NYSE: KDE)
- **foundation**: 1970 (as _Leisure Concepts, Inc._)
- **defunct**: 2012
- **location**: New York City
- **key people**: T.C. Ross, Alfred R. Kahn
- **industry**: TV production, licensing
- **products**: 4Sight Licensing Solutions, Inc
4Kids TV/FoxBox
4Kids Entertainment#4Kids Productions, 4Kids Productions
- **revenue**: $7.9 million United States dollar, USD (2006)
- **num employees**: 325 (2007)
- **homepage**: [http://www.4kidsentertainment.com www.4kidsentertainment.com (defunct)]