Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing push surrounding the franchise's first theatrical feature, Pokémon: The First Movie, released stateside by Warner Bros. with animation work from OLM and Team Rocket's parent studio Nintendo backing the property. The trailer cells circulating from this release capture the moment Pokémon crossed from television into cinema, a transition that cemented the brand's hold on American pop culture and made ancillary film ephemera, including 35mm promotional reels, collectible in their own right.
This cell preserves the ensemble at the center of that crossover: Ash Ketchum, Misty, and Brock, the original trio whose dynamic anchored the series, accompanied by Pikachu, Squirtle, and Staryu. The scene named, Ash and Friends Swim To The Surface, marks a moment of return and reunion within the trailer's assembled footage, the kind of beat studios favored for teaser cuts meant to hint at stakes without revealing plot. As a trailer cell rather than a finished-film frame, it belongs to the promotional lineage of the movie, valued by collectors for documenting the franchise's earliest cinematic marketing rather than the feature itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four-perforation frame pitch is visible on both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames plus a sliver of a fourth at the left edge.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with rounded-rectangle shapes and no torn or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track with two wave-form tracks runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS or SDDS seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to slightly cool base with a light-blue tint along both edge margins; the dye image looks neutral to blue-dominant, with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive frames from one shot, and the animated look is consistent with the animated feature on record.
Era check
The optical track combined with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print such as a 1999 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 000069958
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
