Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had already conquered television, trading cards, and handheld gaming. The promotional trailer circulating ahead of release was a key artifact of that rollout, stoking anticipation for Pokémon's leap to the big screen and introducing audiences to the Mewtwo storyline. For collectors, trailer material from this period captures the franchise at its most explosive point of growth, when a Saturday morning phenomenon was staking its claim on theatrical culture.
This cell centers on Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, the inseparable pairing at the heart of the Pokémon mythos, with the pair described in a shared moment of falling. Ash remains the franchise's everyman hero, while Pikachu stands as its defining mascot, and any depiction of the two together carries outsized collector interest. A falling moment suggests peril or descent, a beat of jeopardy that trailers often use to heighten stakes and draw audiences toward the theater. As a trailer cell, it belonged to the machinery of anticipation itself, built to tease rather than resolve.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, with the strip holding three full frames and two partial frames at the ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes; the sound-side holes alternate with the data blocks.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the sound-side perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base with a neutral-to-warm dye image; the reds and yellows look saturated rather than faded.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the dark vertical bands between frames are the frame lines, not damage.
Picture
Positive image; the frames run consecutively as one continuous shot, and the cartoon style and characters match a Pokémon trailer.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: analogue optical tracks plus Dolby Digital data blocks suit a 1999 theatrical 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
