Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo prepared American audiences for Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's leap from television phenomenon to theatrical event. Riding the peak of Pokémania, the trailer reel served as an advance strip distributed to promote the feature before its wide release, a marketing artifact from a moment when the series' popularity was reshaping children's entertainment and box office expectations alike. These promotional cuts are scarce survivors compared to the feature prints themselves, making trailer material a distinct category for collectors tracing the franchise's earliest theatrical footprint.
This cell centers on Ash Ketchum, the series' constant protagonist and the character through whom audiences experience the Pokémon world. Ash Knocked Down names a moment of defeat or setback within the preview footage, a beat trailers often use to signal stakes and tension ahead of a film's drama. For collectors, Ash material anchors any Pokémon trailer run, since he represents the franchise's human throughline. A cell like this captures an early promotional glimpse of conflict, reminding viewers that even the hero faces difficulty before the story's resolution.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four-perforation frame pitch is evident on both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, so about twelve visible along each edge; evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle, cleanly punched with no torn or stretched holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture as two parallel waveform tracks with a dashed line above them; no Dolby Digital blocks between perforations, no DTS line.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base along both edges; the picture dye looks neutral to slightly warm, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
A few small brown specks sit in the picture area, repeating in the same place on each frame; no scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot with only slight change between them, and the animated style fits the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
The two-track optical soundtrack, standard 35mm layout and animated positive image are consistent with a 1999 release trailer print, though no edge print confirms the stock.
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 000070107
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
