Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of Warner Bros.' theatrical push to introduce American audiences to the Pokémon film franchise ahead of the first feature's domestic release. The trailer circulated during the height of Pokémania, when the property was expanding rapidly across television, trading cards, and merchandising. For many young viewers, this was their earliest glimpse of Pokémon on the big screen, making surviving trailer prints a notable artifact of that crossover moment between Japanese animation and American mainstream pop culture.
This cell preserves a strip of that promotional reel, a single moment from the marketing apparatus built to generate anticipation rather than tell the story itself. Pikachu, the franchise's defining mascot, is the only figure present here, fitting given the character's role as the face of the entire property. The described action, jumping, speaks to the energetic, kinetic image Pikachu was built to project in these early years. Trailer cells like this one hold appeal precisely because they capture promotional material rather than narrative footage, a distinct category collectors often pursue separately from film frames proper.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames with a sliver of a fourth at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no tears or missing holes seen in this capture.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base reads pale blue-cyan along both edges, and the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the frames and track look clean.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot with small movement between them, and the animated character art matches the film on record.
Era check
A two-track optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a 35mm print is consistent with a late-1990s release print or trailer of the film on record.
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 000069915
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
