Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, released by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and Pikachu Project 4°C brought the phenomenon from Japan. It landed at the height of Pokémania, when the franchise dominated playgrounds, trading card aisles, and Saturday morning television alike. The film's promotional trailer served as an early herald of that theatrical push, circulated to build anticipation for Ash Ketchum's leap from small screen to cinema. For collectors of early Pokémon material, trailer reels from this release mark a pivotal moment when the brand proved it could fill multiplexes, not just living rooms.
This cell, drawn from that trailer, gathers Ash Ketchum alongside a roster spanning his own partners and the wider cast of creatures central to the film's story. Pikachu and Squirtle and Bulbasaur represent the familiar starter lineup beloved by early fans, while Scyther, Charizard, Nidoqueen, Rapidash, and Gyarados broaden the scene into the film's larger ensemble of Pokémon. A trailer cell like this exists to introduce and entice, compressing character and scale into a single promotional frame. Collectors prize such pieces for capturing the moment the franchise's cast was first assembled for the big screen.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, with the first and last partly cut by the strip ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes; no torn, missing or distorted perforations seen.
Soundtrack
Two white variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with a speckled Dolby Digital data block sitting in the gaps between the perforations on the sound edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear, slightly cyan-blue tinted base with a neutral, full-colour dye image; no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices visible, and the one round spot on a single frame is a camera reflection, ignored.
Picture
Positive colour image, four consecutive frames of one static shot, and the cartoon-style characters are consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Dual optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks on a blue-tinted base suit a late-1990s 35mm release print, which fits a 1999 trailer.
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
