Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999 from Warner Bros., riding the crest of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television and trading cards into a full theatrical event. Its trailer campaign was a cultural marker in its own right, circulated heavily to a generation encountering Pikachu and company on the big screen for the first time. The film's box office success cemented Pokémon's place in late-1990s pop culture and made its promotional material, including trailer footage, a lasting artifact of that moment.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer, isolating Pikachu, the franchise's defining character and the figure most responsible for its global reach. The cell's name points to a moment of sadness, a tone that stands apart from Pikachu's usual cheerful presence in merchandising and television appearances. For collectors, a trailer cell holds a particular appeal: it comes from the film's advertising reel rather than the feature itself, a piece of how audiences were first invited into the story, with Pikachu alone carrying that emotional introduction.
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
- Gauge
- 35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds about three and a half frames, with partial frames at the left and right ends.
- Perforations
- Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes; none torn, missing or visibly misshapen in this capture.
- Soundtrack
- A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with two tracks side by side; Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- Clear base with a blue-tinted border at the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fade or red shift.
- Projection history
- None seen at this size beyond faint vertical streaks in the dark picture area; no cue marks, splices or heavy scratches visible.
- Picture
- Positive image; the consecutive frames repeat the same shot of a crying Pikachu, and that matches an anime trailer for the Pokémon film on record.
- Era check
- Consistent with a late-1990s release print: an analogue optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is typical of 1999 theatrical prints.
