Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo's newly minted licensing machine, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept from Japan into American culture. Adapted from the anime's Mewtwo Strikes Back storyline, the film became a box office phenomenon, introducing a generation to the franchise's cinematic ambitions. It mattered less as a critical darling and more as a cultural marker, the moment a card game and television series became a theatrical event, cementing Pokémon's place in the collector's imagination for decades to come.
This cell carries the phrase Training Is Over, a line that speaks directly to the film's thematic core: the shift from preparation to consequence, from games to genuine stakes. It marks a turning point in the narrative arc, the moment characters move past rehearsal into something irreversible. As a 35mm survivor from the original theatrical run, this cell represents a physical fragment of that cultural wave, appealing to collectors who value the movie's era-defining status and the weight this particular line carries within its story.
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.
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