Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional wave that accompanied Pokémon's explosive leap from handheld game to American theatrical phenomenon, with Warner Bros. and Nintendo partnering to bring the franchise's first feature film to wide release. The marketing push was relentless and effective, airing trailers across television and theaters to prime a young audience already fluent in the Pokémon universe. This 35mm trailer cell is a physical remnant of that campaign, a single frame excised from the reels that ran in projection booths nationwide to build anticipation ahead of the film's debut.
This cell centers on Pikachu, the franchise's defining mascot and the character most responsible for Pokémon's crossover appeal, making any frame bearing its likeness a natural focal point for collectors. Labeled as Pikachu Crying, the cell preserves a moment of sadness tied to the character within the trailer's emotional pitch, a reminder that the campaign leaned on feeling as much as spectacle to draw audiences in. As a trailer cell, it belonged to promotional material rather than the finished feature, a small artifact of how the film was sold before it was ever screened.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release-print strip from the 1999 Pokémon: The Movie trailer.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames side by side.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no tears or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track (two tracks) runs between the picture and the lower perforations; Dolby Digital blocks in the perforation gaps are not seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted clear base at the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Not visible in this capture
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the Pikachu artwork fits a Pokémon trailer.
Era check
A two-track variable-area optical soundtrack on a 35mm positive print fits a 1999 release trailer, though digital sound data is not seen here.
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 000070109
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
