Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing machine behind Pokémon: The First Movie, released stateside by Warner Bros. in partnership with Nintendo and 4Kids Entertainment. It landed at the height of Pokémon's initial American breakthrough, when the franchise was moving from television into theaters and merchandising at an extraordinary pace. Trailer prints like this one circulated through exhibitor and promotional channels, built to stoke anticipation for the feature rather than to stand as the film itself, making surviving 35mm fragments scarce artifacts of that transitional moment.
This cell, Pikachu Falling, centers on the two figures most inseparable from the series' identity: Ash Ketchum, the trainer whose journey anchors the narrative, and Pikachu, the character who carried Pokémon's crossover appeal worldwide. A falling moment suggests stakes, peril, or vulnerability, the kind of beat trailers lean on to signal emotional weight without revealing plot. For collectors, a trailer cell naming this pairing captures the promotional apparatus that introduced millions to the duo on the big screen, a companion piece to the feature's own mythology.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames in a row.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no tears or torn edges visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS timecode line or SDDS tracks are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the frames and soundtrack area look clean.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot, and the animated Pokémon artwork fits the film on record.
Era check
The optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a clean 35mm positive is consistent with a late-1990s release print or trailer of the film on record.
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 000070064
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
