CrownGrading Pro
Crown Portal
Submit cards Submissions Start your submissions Submission walkthrough Grading process Pre-Grade estimator Film authentication Programs Crown Ascension Crown Royal Tier Resources About Crown CrownStandard Knowledge Center CrownVault Contact Crown Portal
Ready to grade your cards? Submit Cards →
Crown Grading

Crown Grading

OFFICIAL MOTION PICTURE FILM AUTHENTICATION
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell 000069089 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokémon: The First Movie Trailer
SCENEGyarados
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE ID000069089

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry Pokémania from television screens into theaters, pairing the animated feature with the Pikachu's Vacation short for American audiences. It was a cultural event as much as a release, riding the crest of a franchise phenomenon and introducing moviegoers to Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose story of identity and purpose gave the film its emotional core. The trailer campaign that preceded it was essential to building anticipation, offering fans their first glimpses of the feature's scale and stakes before the film itself opened.

This cell comes from that trailer, carrying the name Gyarados alongside Mewtwo, placing the serpentine Pokémon within the promotional material meant to stir early excitement. Gyarados has long held appeal among collectors for its dramatic design and its reputation within the Pokémon mythos as a creature of raw power. Its pairing with Mewtwo in this trailer moment underscores the film's promise of clashing forces, a preview assembled to tease conflict and spectacle. Trailer cells like this hold particular interest for collectors tracing a film's marketing history, preserving a fragment of the campaign that first announced the movie's arrival.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm positive release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).

Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which reads as 35mm; four frames are visible on the strip, with the outer two cut off at the left and right.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or distorted holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track, two wavy parallel lines, runs beside the picture on one side; no Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations, no DTS timecode, and no SDDS tracks visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Neutral to slightly cool clear base on the edges; the dye image is saturated in blues and purples with no obvious fade or red shift.
Projection history
Not visible in this capture beyond slight surface speckle; no distinct scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image, four frames running consecutively as one shot of anime-style animation; the animated look is plausible for the Pokémon film on record, but no title card is visible.
Era check
A two-track optical soundtrack on a positive colour 35mm print is consistent with a late-1990s release or trailer print, though the strip shows no digital sound data between the perforations.
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 Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size