Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's joint push to bring the phenomenon from television screens into theaters, promoting Pokémon: The First Movie ahead of its American release. The campaign rode the crest of a cultural wave sweeping toys, trading cards, and Saturday morning programming into a single theatrical event. For a studio accustomed to animated features aimed at broader audiences, this trailer represented a calculated bet on a property whose fanbase was young, devoted, and enormous, making the promotional reel itself a small artifact of that transitional moment.
This cell preserves a moment named Ash and Pikachu Falling, pairing the franchise's central trainer with his signature companion in a dynamic the title itself establishes as a descent. Ash Ketchum and Pikachu are the defining duo of the series, and collectors prize frames built around their partnership above nearly any other pairing. As a trailer cell rather than a scene from the finished feature, it belongs to the promotional apparatus built to sell the movie before release, a category collectors seek for its scarcity and its connection to the franchise's earliest theatrical push.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three full frames plus a sliver of a fourth at the left edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or stretched holes visible.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with a dashed line above it and Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear, slightly cool base with a pale blue tint along the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated style is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: analogue optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks suits a 1999 trailer, and the colour positive stock looks period-appropriate.
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 000070057
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
