Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's early push into American theaters, a teaser strip cut to stoke anticipation ahead of Pokémon: The First Movie later that year. Pokemania was cresting at the time, with the franchise moving from television into merchandising, trading cards, and now feature film distribution. A 35mm trailer reel from this moment captures the industry's first serious bet that pocket monsters could fill multiplexes, predating the saturation that followed and marking the transition point where the property became a genuine cinematic event rather than a cartoon curiosity.
This cell preserves a moment built around the Blastoise Clone, one of the artificially generated Pokemon central to the film's premise of cloned creatures confronting their originals. Blastoise, the fully evolved form of Squirtle, has long held appeal for collectors due to its design and its stature among the original lineup. A clone variant adds a layer of narrative weight, tied directly to the movie's exploration of identity and origin. As a trailer fragment, the cell belongs to the promotional material meant to draw audiences in before the story itself unfolded, a glimpse offered ahead of the main feature.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangular, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run between the picture and the lower perforations; Dolby Digital blocks sit in the gaps between the lower perforations, so it is an analogue-plus-digital print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint and a neutral dye image; saturated colours show no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, in an animated style consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print, as optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks fit 1999 35mm releases and the picture is animated.
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 000069895
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
