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/4Kids as the follow-up to the franchise's blockbuster theatrical debut, riding the peak of Pokémania in North America. Adapted from the Japanese original Pokémon: The Movie 2000: The Power of One, it introduced audiences to the Legendary birds and, most significantly, to Lugia, expanding the mythology beyond Pikachu and the original 150. For a generation of young collectors, this film marked the moment the franchise proved it could sustain a cinematic universe, and it remains a touchstone of that early theatrical run.
This cell isolates Lugia, the guardian of the seas and one of the most sought-after Legendary Pokémon in the franchise's visual history. As a singular presence on 35mm, it represents a fragment of hand-processed film stock from a era before digital projection, preserved outside the context of dialogue or plot. Collectors prize Lugia cells specifically because the character anchors the film's central conflict and mythos, making any surviving frame a direct physical link to the movie's most iconic figure and to the theatrical prints once run for paying audiences in 2000.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds two frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along the bottom edge of the picture area, with what appears to be a dotted digital timecode line (consistent with a DTS timecode stripe) immediately beside it.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
The base shows a cool blue-violet tint consistent with a colour dye-coupler image; the dye image appears saturated with no obvious fading.
Projection history
Several fine white vertical scratches are visible running through both frames, consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; both frames appear to be from the same continuous shot, and the visual content is consistent with the animated theatrical release on record.
Era check
The combination of a variable-area optical track with an adjacent DTS timecode stripe is consistent with a 1990s–early 2000s theatrical release print, matching the 2000 release date of the film on record.
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, 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.
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
