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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000001985 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel
SCENEGengar & Alva
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR2016
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000001985
Film Record Public record
Directed by
Kunihiko Yuyama
Studio
OLM, Inc. · 82 min
Sources: Wikidata. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.

FILM NOTES

Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel arrived in 2016 as the nineteenth entry in the long-running Pokémon film franchise, produced by OLM and distributed through Toho in Japan before its international rollout. Built around the legendary Volcanion and its uneasy alliance with Ash and Pikachu, the film continued the series' tradition of pairing a mythical creature with a human story of trust, and it holds a place in fan memory for introducing Volcanion to a wide theatrical audience while tying into that generation's game releases.

This cell pairs Gengar, one of the franchise's most enduring and widely collected Pokémon, with Alva, a human figure connected to the film's plot involving the artificial Pokémon Magearna and the surrounding intrigue of the story. A frame joining these two suggests a moment of shared screen presence between character and creature, the kind of pairing collectors seek out for its narrative weight within the film. As a 35mm cell, it preserves a single physical fragment of that theatrical print, a tangible artifact from the movie's actual release.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel.

Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds one frame with partial frames above and below.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with rounded rectangular shape, no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a light-blue banded region with a modulated waveform pattern consistent with a stereo variable-area optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight cool-neutral tint; dye image shows saturated blues, oranges and browns with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; the single main frame shows a consecutive moment from an animated feature and is consistent with the Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel animated style.
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, saturated polyester-base colour print, and perforation style are all consistent with a 2016 theatrical release print.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
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 000063845
Original Film Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size