Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's promotional vehicle for the franchise's leap from television to theatrical release, built to prime American audiences for Pokémon: The First Movie. Released amid the height of Pokémania, when the property dominated playgrounds, trading cards, and Saturday morning schedules, the trailer served as a cultural marker of the franchise's transition into a full-fledged box office phenomenon, and surviving 35mm material from this promotional run is scarce compared to the feature itself.
This cell preserves the card bearing the name Pokémon, the kind of frame that opens or closes a trailer reel, announcing the property before any footage runs. For collectors, title card material holds particular value as a document of branding and release history rather than narrative action, a physical artifact from the exact reel distributed to theaters in 1999. It stands as a piece of the marketing apparatus that introduced Pokémon to the big screen, tied directly to the moment the franchise expanded beyond its televised origins.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which fits 35mm; the strip holds three complete frames, all showing the same title card.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes, cleanly punched with no tears or distortion visible along either edge.
Soundtrack
Two white variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture; Dolby Digital data blocks are visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations, but no DTS timecode or SDDS tracks are seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue, slightly mottled edge margins on a neutral clear base; the dye image shows saturated blues and yellows with no fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean and unprojected.
Picture
Positive image; three consecutive frames show the same Pokémon: The First Movie title card, matching the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a positive 35mm stock fits a 1999 theatrical 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 000070138
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
