Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and 4Kids built the franchise into a cultural wave through its television series and trading card craze. The trailer that preceded it was engineered to pull in both longtime fans and newcomers curious about the hype, promising big screen spectacle alongside the emotional stakes of Mewtwo's story. For a franchise built on collectibility, these promotional materials carry their own significance, marking the moment Pokémon crossed from small screen phenomenon into feature film territory.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer centered on Pikachu, the character most responsible for the franchise's reach and the figure most sought after by collectors across every format tied to Pokémon history. The cell's title names its mood directly: Pikachu crying. That emotional beat speaks to the film's larger ambitions, using its most beloved character to signal that this was more than simple adventure, it carried real sentiment. A single frame like this functions as a marketing artifact, a fragment meant to stir anticipation and feeling before audiences ever saw the film itself.
Consistent with a 35mm positive release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
- Gauge
- 35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, with a picture area filling the frame between them; about three full frames and two partial frames are visible on this strip.
- Perforations
- Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle punches that look clean with no visible tears or damaged holes.
- Soundtrack
- Two variable-area optical tracks run along the lower edge, with a speckled band between the tracks and the perforations; no Dolby Digital blocks or DTS timecode line are visible.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- The clear base reads light blue at the edges, and the dye image looks neutral with saturated yellows and reds, showing no obvious fading.
- Projection history
- None seen at this size apart from a slight curl of the strip; no scratches, splices or cue marks are evident.
- Picture
- Positive colour image, with the frames running consecutively as one near-static shot of a tearful Pikachu, matching the Pokémon film on record.
- Era check
- A 35mm positive with a two-track variable-area optical track is consistent with a 1999 theatrical trailer print, though the capture shows no digital sound formats.
