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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000003364 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokémon 3: The Movie Trailer/Pikachu & Pichu Short Trailer
SCENEPikachu & Pichu - Title Card
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR2001
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000003364

FILM NOTES

Released theatrically in 2001 by Warner Bros. in North America, Pokémon 3: The Movie arrived alongside Pikachu & Pichu, a bundled short that had already played in Japanese theaters. This pairing was standard practice for the franchise's early film run, pairing the feature's darker Unown-driven plot with a lighter companion piece built around Pikachu and friends. The era marked the height of Pokémon's crossover into American pop culture, with trailers and shorts circulating on 35mm prints through promotional and theatrical channels, making surviving film elements from this period genuinely scarce.

This cell preserves a card bearing the Pikachu & Pichu name, the kind of element that opens a trailer or short by announcing what audience is about to see. Houndour's presence here ties the piece to the Pokémon world's broader cast, a dark-type creature recognizable to collectors who track early character appearances across promotional material. Title cards like this one hold value precisely because they mark a beginning, the threshold moment before a story runs, and they document how these pairings were sold to audiences at the time.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon 3 / Pikachu & Pichu short trailer (2001).

Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three frames, which sit sideways across the strip's length.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform in this capture.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track of two bands runs along the lower edge beside the picture; no Dolby Digital blocks, DTS timecode or SDDS tracks are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light cyan-blue edge tint; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; only small dust specks and the surface reflection of the light panel.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot, and the 'Pikachu & Pichu' title lettering matches the film on record.
Era check
A two-band optical track on a positive colour print is consistent with a 2001 theatrical release print of the Pikachu & Pichu short 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 000071139
Original Film Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size