Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrives in 1999, the year Pokémon crossed from Japanese phenomenon to American cultural fixture, with Warner Bros. and Nintendo partnering to bring the franchise's first theatrical feature, Pokémon: The First Movie, to wide release. The promotional campaign surrounding that debut remains a touchstone for collectors of early Pokémon media, marking the moment the property proved it could carry itself beyond television and trading cards into cinemas. Trailer reels from this period are scarce in physical form, surviving mostly as studio promotional artifacts rather than preserved feature prints.
This cell, drawn from that trailer material, centers on Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, the franchise's defining pair and the emotional core of the entire series. The scene named, Ash and Pikachu Falling, suggests a moment of peril or descent shared between trainer and partner, the kind of high stakes beat trailers rely on to signal drama and draw audiences into the feature. As a trailer cell rather than a frame from the finished film, it represents the promotional apparatus built around Pokémon's cinematic launch, a piece of the machinery that introduced these two characters to theatergoers.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames with a fourth cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle punches that look cleanly cut, with no visible tears or damaged edges.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture; Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-cyan tinted base along the edges; the dye image looks saturated and balanced, with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the frames look clean with no visible projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one continuous shot, and the animated look fits the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: the analogue optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks, on a tinted base, match theatrical 35mm of 1999.
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 000070059
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
