About

The Stars of 4Kids Sing The National Anthem is an animated short that aired on 4Kids TV which features characters from various 4Kids shows singing the national anthem of the United States of America, The Star-Spangled Banner. Fans of the video have used it as a template for other characters to sing the anthem.

Origin

The animated short originally aired on 4Kids during the 4th of July in the United States, most likely after its transition from Fox Box to 4Kids in 2005. The short shows characters from various 4Kids shows such as Monkey D Luffy and Usopp from One Piece, Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles from Sonic X, and Splinter and Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, singing a part of the national anthem, which ended with all the characters featured in the short singing the ending portion of the anthem. The video (shown below) was reuploaded to YouTube by Tomokocchi^[1] on September 12th, 2006, where it received over 1 million views in seventeen years. The video was also reposted several times across social media sites such as Twitter / X, usually during the 4th of July.

Spread

On July 4th, 2017, YouTube user Jimmy Davis^[2] posted a video using the format, but with popular characters from YouTube Poop such as Morshu and Dr. Robotnik. The video (shown below, left) received over 231,000 views in seven years. On July 4th, 2018, YouTube user Courtney (ProjectSNT)^[3] posted a video using the format, but with original characters and other characters from Sonic the Hedgehog. The video (shown below, right) received over 89,000 views in six years.

On July 4th, 2020, YouTube user The CherryBlossom490 Archive^[4] posted a collab project in which artists reanimated portions of the original video. The reanimated collab (shown below, left) received over 19,000 views in four years. On July 4th, 2024, YouTube user MediExcalibur2012^[5] posted a video in which the characters from Team Fortress 2 sing the national anthem. The video (shown below, right) received over 7,700 views in one day.