Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in US theaters in November 1999 through Warner Bros., following the franchise's explosive leap from handheld games to television to the big screen. Nintendo and Pikachu's creators had already turned the property into a cultural phenomenon, and this film served as the proof that the craze could fill multiplayer arenas and box offices alike. The trailer reels that preceded it, cut from actual 35mm release prints, circulated through theater chains as promotional tools, built to stir anticipation months before Mewtwo ever appeared on screen. These reels are now scarce artifacts of that marketing push, prized less for runtime than for scarcity.
This cell preserves a moment named for its participants and action: Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, falling. As the franchise's central duo, their bond is the emotional throughline of the entire series, and any cell pairing them together carries outsized collector interest. A falling moment suggests peril or urgency, themes the film leaned on heavily in its climax. Pulled from a promotional trailer rather than the feature print, this piece represents the industry's effort to sell that emotional stakes to an audience before the story even began.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds four frames, the first and last partly cut off at the edges of the capture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the picture side and the sound side, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no tears seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs in two parallel tracks beside the picture; a speckled grey pattern sits in the gaps between the sound-side perforations, with no clearly legible data blocks.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint; the dye image looks neutral to warm, with deep reds and blacks and no obvious fading.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the four frames.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the animated Ash and Pikachu characters match the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: a two-track variable-area optical track with a speckled data pattern between perforations is typical of Dolby Digital-era 35mm prints.
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
