Pokémon: The Movie 2000 arrived at the height of Pokémania, released by Warner Bros. in North America after Nintendo and the anime's Japanese distributor Toho built an enormous audience through the television series and the first feature film. This second theatrical outing, subtitled The Power of One, was promoted heavily through trailers in advance of its release, part of a marketing push that treated the franchise as a true cultural event. For collectors of film promotional material, trailer reels from this period capture a rare moment when a video game and cartoon property crossed fully into mainstream cinema advertising.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer reel, with Pikachu as its sole subject. As the franchise's mascot, Pikachu was the natural face for any promotional material, the character most responsible for drawing audiences beyond the core fanbase. A trailer cell like this one represents the film's advertising life rather than a narrative scene, a fragment meant to entice rather than tell story. For collectors, it stands as physical evidence of how thoroughly Pikachu carried the marketing of this release.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie 2000 trailer.
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, consistent with 35mm; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes and no visible tears or missing holes.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track of two parallel tracks runs between the picture and the lower perforations, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue tint on the outer edge margins; the dye image looks neutral to slightly warm, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the round dark ring on the middle frame is a camera reflection and is ignored.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated look fits the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a release print from around 2000, since an analogue optical track combined with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations matches late-1990s and early-2000s 35mm release prints.
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 000071280
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
