Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional push surrounding Pokémon: The First Movie, released by Warner Bros. in North America under license from Nintendo and Pikachu Project 1998. The film's theatrical rollout marked a defining moment for the franchise's crossover into mainstream American pop culture, as Pokémania reached its commercial peak. Trailers from this campaign circulated widely in theaters and on promotional reels, introducing audiences to the stakes of Mewtwo's story through brief, charged glimpses of the feature to come.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel centered on Ash Ketchum, the series' enduring protagonist and the character most tied to its emotional core. A trailer exists to compress tension and consequence into single images, and a cell marked Ash Knocked Down speaks directly to the peril woven into the film's narrative, a rare suggestion of real jeopardy for a hero usually defined by resilience. For collectors, Ash remains the anchor figure of the franchise, and a fragment isolating him in a moment of struggle carries particular weight within the promotional lineage of this release.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (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, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and undamaged.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, and the gaps between the lower perforations hold Dolby Digital data blocks; no DTS or SDDS visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue tint on the edge margins; the dye image looks neutral to slightly warm, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
A few small brown specks sit on the picture area in all three frames, with no lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot, and the animated style fits the film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks plus an optical track fit a late-1990s release print, so the strip is consistent with a 1999 trailer.
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 000070103
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
