Pokémon: The Movie 2000 marked Warner Bros.' second theatrical release built from the juggernaut Pokémon franchise, arriving in American cinemas in the summer of 2000 at the height of the franchise's first great wave of popularity. Distributed on 35mm for wide theatrical play, it extended the brand beyond television into the multiplex, pairing new animated feature content with the promotional apparatus, trailers included, that studios used to build anticipation ahead of release. For a generation introduced to the franchise through Saturday morning television, this film and its marketing push represent a defining moment of theatrical crossover.
This cell preserves a strip from the trailer for that release, the piece of film used to stir audience interest before the feature itself ever screened. Its subject is Ash Ketchum, the series' central trainer and the character through whom audiences experience the Pokémon world. Trailer material is prized by collectors for its promotional function and scarcity relative to feature prints, offering a tangible fragment of the campaign that introduced the film to the public. Holding a piece naming Ash places the collector at the center of that marketing moment, tied directly to the franchise's most recognizable face.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The Movie 2000 trailer.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched with no tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track with two wavy white-on-dark lines runs beside the picture, with a dashed line outboard of it; no Dolby data blocks between the perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to pale blue-tinted base with a neutral dye image; colours look saturated, with no red shift or fading.
Projection history
A faint hairline mark crosses the right-hand frame; otherwise no scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the animated look fits the film on record.
Era check
The optical track, 35mm layout and saturated stock are consistent with a 2000-era release print, though the strip carries no edge print to confirm 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 000071230
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
