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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000000161 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokemon: The Movie 2000
SCENEAsh Holds The Lightning Orb
FILM FORMAT35MM
YEAR2000
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000000161
Film Record Public record
Directed by
Kunihiko Yuyama
Studio
OLM, Inc. · 81 min
Sources: Wikidata. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived from Warner Bros. and Nintendo in the wake of the franchise's first theatrical success, riding the peak of Pokémania as it swept American theaters in the summer of 2000. Built around the legendary birds and the balance of the elements, it stood as the second entry in a series that helped define anime's crossover into mainstream family entertainment, drawing enormous box office numbers and cementing Pokémon as a cultural force well beyond its television roots and trading card origins.

This cell centers on Ash Ketchum, the franchise's perpetual protagonist, placed in direct contact with one of the film's central artifacts, the Lightning Orb, tied to the mythology surrounding Zapdos and the elemental crisis driving the story's climax. Collectors seek Ash cells for his role as the throughline of the entire Pokémon saga, and a moment built around him holding a named relic like this carries narrative weight, marking a pivotal junction in the plot. As a 35MM frame, it preserves a physical artifact of hand-processed animation from a defining era of the franchise's theatrical run.

This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000059471