Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived from Warner Bros. and Nintendo at the height of Pokémania, riding the momentum of the franchise's explosive American debut the year before. As the second theatrical feature, it carried heavy expectations, and its promotional trailer was part of a wide theatrical and television push meant to pull fans back into cinemas. This was an era when Pokémon merchandise, cards, and film reels were treated as collectible artifacts of a cultural peak, and 35mm trailer cells from this period survive as physical remnants of that marketing machine.
This cell preserves a moment pairing Zapdos, one of the three Legendary birds central to the film's plot, with Slowking, a rarer and more unusual choice for promotional art, a character sought after by collectors precisely because it appears far less often in official materials. The pairing named here, Slowking alongside Zapdos's lightning strike, points to a dramatic beat used to sell the film's legendary-creature conflict. As a trailer cell, it represents the advertising reel distributed to theaters, distinct from the finished feature, a promotional fragment rather than a frame from the movie proper.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip from Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames, the first partly cropped by the left edge of the panel.
Perforations
Four per frame along both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched; the bottom row is partly hidden by the soundtrack zone.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs along the bottom, with a dashed cue line above it; Dolby Digital blocks are visible in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue-cyan tint along both edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, splices or cue marks are visible on the image area.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames are not one continuous shot and the animated artwork is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a year-2000 release print: a stereo variable-area optical track beside Dolby Digital data blocks was standard on 35mm prints of that period.
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 000071249
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
