Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo prepared American audiences for Pokémon: The First Movie, riding the franchise's explosive television and trading card success into theaters. The promotional reel served as an early marker of the Pokémon phenomenon's crossover into feature film, a cultural moment that introduced a generation to Mewtwo and reaffirmed Ash Ketchum's place as the face of the series on the big screen. Trailer cells from this release are scarce artifacts of that transitional period, predating the film's full theatrical run.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel centered on Ash Ketchum, the series' central trainer and its most enduring protagonist, being knocked down. As a beat drawn from a trailer rather than the finished film, it captures the marketing language used to signal stakes and drama to prospective audiences ahead of release. For collectors, Ash remains the character most synonymous with Pokémon itself, and a cell marking his vulnerability speaks to the tension the studio wanted moviegoers to anticipate.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer strip of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle shape, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical soundtrack runs between the picture and the lower perforations; Dolby Digital blocks sit in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base at the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; a few small brown specks sit inside the picture area of each frame.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated art style is consistent with the film on record.
Era check
Analogue optical tracks plus Dolby Digital data between the perforations on a release-style stock fit a late-1990s 35mm print of Pokémon: The Movie 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 000070106
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
