Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the franchise's first great wave of American crossover success, released by Warner Bros. in tandem with Nintendo and Pikachu Project 4°C's animation partners. The Pokémon phenomenon had exploded from handheld game to trading cards to television, and this theatrical trailer served as an early herald of the first feature film, introducing wider audiences to the stakes and spectacle that awaited beyond the small screen. For many collectors, this era represents the franchise at its cultural peak, when a 35mm strip advertising a children's film carried genuine mainstream weight.
This cell pairs Ash Ketchum, the series' central trainer and audience surrogate, with Pikachu, the franchise's defining mascot, in a moment built around a fall. A trailer cell like this one exists to compress anticipation into a single frame, hinting at emotional stakes meant to pull viewers toward theaters. The pairing of these two figures in a falling moment speaks to the bond at the heart of the series, trainer and Pokémon bound together through peril. Collectors prize such pieces for capturing promotional history rather than finished film, a glimpse of how the movie was first sold to the world.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames (the first two near-identical, the third a different shot).
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 runs beside the picture as two white waveform tracks, with a dashed cue line above them; no Dolby Digital blocks between perforations are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue-cyan tint at the outer edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no red shift or fading visible.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the grain-like texture on the outer edges looks like the stock itself.
Picture
Positive image, three frames from a single cut with the first two near-identical and the third a different shot; consistent with the animated style of the film on record.
Era check
A variable-area optical track on a 35mm positive is consistent with a 1999 release print or trailer, though digital data areas cannot be judged from this strip.
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 000070069
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
