SCENEAsh, Pikachu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur - Transition Cell
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000002768
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept through American pop culture. The trailer campaign that preceded the film's release was a cultural event in its own right, airing during Saturday morning cartoons and prime time alike, promising audiences their first theatrical glimpse of Ash Ketchum and his companions on the big screen. For a franchise built on television's modest frame, the leap to 35mm was itself a milestone, and trailer cells from this run are prized as artifacts of that threshold moment.
This cell marks a transition, a connective passage in the trailer's editing where the story moves between its featured figures: Ash, the series' young trainer and the audience's entry point into the Pokémon world, alongside Pikachu, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur, three of the franchise's most recognized and merchandised creatures. Transition cells carry particular appeal for collectors because they represent the trailer's internal rhythm, the connective tissue linking one promotional beat to the next, rather than an isolated highlight. Having all four figures named together situates this frame within the trailer's ensemble introduction of its core cast.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame on both edges, and the strip holds three full frames of picture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or stretched holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture as two wavy bands, with a dashed timecode-style line above them; no Dolby data blocks are seen between the perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base with a speckled finish at the edges; the dye image looks neutral to slightly cool, with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated characters are consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print: optical soundtrack, standard four-perforation pitch and a colour positive animated image fit 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 in partnership with National Film Vault, 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.
CROWN SERIAL 000069769
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
