Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, a Warner Bros. release that brought Pikachu and company from Japanese television and trading cards onto the big screen at the height of Pokémania. Preceded by extensive trailer campaigns, it introduced Mewtwo to Western audiences and became a cultural event for a generation of young collectors, cementing the franchise's foothold in the United States and setting box office records for an animated import. The promotional reels circulated widely in advance of release, making trailer material from this period a scarce and sought-after category for film collectors.
This 35mm cell comes from trailer footage bearing the description Ash Rescuing His Pokémon, built around Ash Ketchum, the franchise's central trainer and the character audiences follow throughout the series. A rescue moment speaks to the emotional core of the story, the bond between trainer and Pokémon that drove the film's appeal. As a trailer cell, it represents the marketing apparatus built to sell that story to audiences before the feature ever screened, a piece of the campaign rather than the finished film itself, prized by collectors for its ties to a defining moment in animated movie history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip from the 1999 Pokémon: The Movie trailer.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with rounded-rectangle holes; none look torn or missing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track (two tracks) 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 with a faint cool blue-cyan tint at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, in an anime style consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks beside an optical track on a positive print fit a late-1990s release print, so this is consistent with 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 000069960
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
