Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo rode the first wave of Pokémania into American theaters, teasing Pokémon: The First Movie ahead of its wide release. The promotional reel circulated in 35mm to theater chains nationwide, a format now scarce as exhibitors moved to digital prints and discarded or recycled most trailer stock. For collectors, these early theatrical trailer cells mark the franchise's crossover moment from television and trading cards into mainstream cinema, making them a foundational artifact of the Pokémon media rollout.
This cell gathers Team Rocket's Meowth, Jessie, and James alongside Gyarados, a pairing that signals one of the trio's trademark scheming or escape sequences built into the trailer's pacing. Meowth draws particular collector interest as the talking Pokémon mascot of the villainous trio, a character whose presence in promotional material carries outsized recognition. Gyarados appearing with them suggests a larger set piece, hinting at the scale Warner Bros. wanted audiences to anticipate. A trailer cell like this preserves a promise made to 1999 moviegoers rather than a scene from the finished feature itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three frames, the left one partly cropped at the edge of the capture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with rounded-rectangle holes of uniform shape along the full strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs as two parallel tracks beside the picture, and the gaps between the lower-edge perforations hold speckled Dolby Digital data blocks.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue-cyan tint along the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
A few tiny dark flecks appear in the right frame and faint fine lines show in the left frame; no splices or cue marks seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to run consecutively across cuts, and the animated characters are consistent with Pokémon, the film on record.
Era check
The combined analogue optical track and Dolby Digital data blocks fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching a 1999 Pokémon 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 000069938
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
