Released in 2000 by Warner Bros. in partnership with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived at the height of Pokémania, when the franchise dominated American playgrounds, television schedules, and trading card aisles. As the second theatrical feature in the series, it expanded the mythology beyond Pikachu and friends, introducing audiences to the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres alongside a new guardian figure central to the film's plot. The movie's marketing push, including trailers like this one, was instrumental in sustaining the franchise's momentum into a second wave of theatrical and merchandising success.
This cell preserves a strip from that promotional trailer, built around Lugia, the legendary Pokémon whose presence anchors the film's central conflict. As one of the series' most sought-after legendary creatures, Lugia carries particular weight with collectors who prize its rarity and mystique within the Pokémon canon. A trailer cell like this one served to tease audiences ahead of release, offering an early glimpse meant to stir anticipation. For collectors, it represents a tangible fragment of that original promotional campaign, tied directly to the character whose introduction helped define the film's identity.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer of Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, the 35mm layout; the strip holds three complete frames with a fourth partly out of shot.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform across the strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, drawn as several stacked wavy bands with a dashed timecode-style line above; no Dolby Digital blocks are legible between the lower perforations at this size.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base along the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; the frames look clean apart from the camera-reflection rings on the base, which are not film wear.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames show the same shot almost unchanged, consistent with one continuous sequence, and the animated style fits the film on record.
Era check
The optical soundtrack, 35mm layout and positive colour stock are consistent with a release-print trailer from 2000.
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 000071272
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
