Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived from Warner Bros. and Nintendo at the height of Pokémania, the franchise's second theatrical outing following the original's surprise box office success. Built to keep young audiences returning to cinemas, its trailer reels circulated widely across American theaters in the summer of 2000, making surviving 35mm promotional cuts a tangible link to that first wave of Pokémon fever, before the series became a permanent fixture of pop culture.
This cell centers on Pikachu, the franchise's mascot and its most recognizable ambassador, shown here in a moment of plain, uncomplicated happiness. As a trailer fragment, it belongs to the promotional material meant to entice audiences ahead of release, a quick glimpse designed to sell warmth and charm rather than plot. Collectors prize Pikachu material for its universal appeal, and a cell defined simply as joyful captures the character at his most approachable, the emotional shorthand that made Pikachu the face of an entire generation's introduction to Pokémon.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible below the picture area, with what appears to be a separate Dolby Digital data-block strip running between the optical track and the perforations on the lower edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-green tint consistent with a safety acetate or polyester stock; dye image reads as warm yellow-dominant, neutral overall.
Projection history
No visible scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are apparent.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and depict animated content consistent with the Pokémon franchise as recorded.
Era check
The combination of a variable-area optical track with an apparent Dolby Digital data strip between perforations is consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the late 1990s to early 2000s, matching the release window 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
