Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived from Warner Bros. and Nintendo at the height of Pokémania, following hot on the heels of the franchise's first theatrical outing. Promotional trailers like this one were distributed to theaters and television to build anticipation for the film's summer release, a period when Pokémon merchandise and media saturated American pop culture. The movie itself, centered on the Legendary birds and the Orb needed to restore balance among them, became a defining artifact of that early collecting boom, and surviving trailer cells from this run are scarce compared to material from the feature itself.
This cell preserves a promotional moment built around Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, the two figures most associated with the franchise's identity and the ones collectors most consistently pursue across any format. The pairing with the Orb points to the film's central plot device, the object driving the story's quest and conflict, placed here in a trailer context meant to tease stakes without revealing resolution. As a trailer cell rather than a frame from the finished feature, it represents the marketing apparatus built around the film, a piece of the promotional chain that introduced audiences to the story before they ever sat down to watch it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
35mm layout: four perforations per frame along both edges, with three consecutive frames held in this strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track with two bilateral lines runs along one edge; Dolby Digital data blocks are not seen between the perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a faint cool blue-violet cast; the dye image looks fairly neutral, with slightly lighter, washed colour on the left frame.
Projection history
A tiny dark speck on the left frame and a few hairline marks near the track; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot and the Pikachu and Ash character designs fit a Pokémon film.
Era check
The optical track and perforated 35mm stock are consistent with a 2000-era theatrical trailer print, though the missing edge print leaves the exact year unconfirmed.
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 000071255
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
