Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional push surrounding Pokémon: The First Movie, released domestically by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and Pikachu Project 4Kids brought the franchise to American theaters. The film capped off the Pokémon craze's first great wave, pairing television momentum with a theatrical event built around Mewtwo, a creature born of genetic manipulation. Trailer reels like this one were struck and distributed to theaters as part of marketing campaigns, often surviving in far smaller numbers than the feature prints themselves, which gives them a particular appeal to collectors tracing the franchise's earliest commercial footprint.
This cell draws together Ash Ketchum, Pikachu, Misty, Brock, and Nurse Joy as they move toward Mewtwo's fortress, a moment that signals the gathering of the show's core cast on the threshold of the film's central conflict. For collectors, this grouping matters: it represents the franchise's original ensemble, assembled at the edge of its first cinematic confrontation. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the promotional material meant to build anticipation ahead of release, a class of film artifact distinct from the movie print itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no tears or missing holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track (two parallel 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 pale blue tint along the edges; the dye image looks neutral to cool purple-blue with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean across all three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and nothing in them contradicts an animated trailer for the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a 1999 release print: the optical track combined with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations matches late-1990s theatrical 35mm prints.
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 000069970
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
