Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived during the height of Pokémania, when Warner Bros. and Nintendo's partnership was turning the franchise into a global theatrical event. Following on the heels of the first Pokémon film, this sequel brought Ash Ketchum and company to American screens with a story built around legendary birds and elemental balance, backed by an enormous marketing push including toys, soundtracks, and trailer reels distributed to theaters nationwide. For collectors, these promotional 35mm fragments capture the industry machinery behind the craze, preserved pieces of a moment when animated Pokémon adventures filled multiplexes.
This cell draws from that promotional reel, featuring Ash and Pikachu alongside Jessie and James, the recurring Team Rocket duo whose presence signals the franchise's familiar push and pull between hero and rival schemers. Ash remains the franchise's central figure, the trainer whose bond with Pikachu anchors the entire series and drives collector interest in any material bearing his image. A trailer cell like this one existed purely to entice audiences, a brief advertisement spliced together from footage meant to tease the feature without revealing its full plot, making surviving fragments a record of how the film was sold rather than simply how it was told.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames, with the outer two sharing the same picture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes, no torn or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs along one edge, with Dolby Digital data blocks sitting in the gaps between the perforations on the same side.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale cyan-blue edge tint; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Faint specks and a few small marks on the right-hand frames; no splices, cue marks or heavy scratches seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the two right frames repeat the same shot while the left frame shows a different shot, and the animation style fits the film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a clear base fits a 2000-era 35mm release or trailer print of the film on record.
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 000071256
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
