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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000000028 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokemon: The First Movie Trailer
SCENEPOKEMON: The First Movie
FILM FORMAT35MM
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000000028
Film Record Public record
Directed by
Kunihiko Yuyama
Studio
OLM, Inc. · 75 min
Honors
Animation Kobe Theatrical Film Award — 1 winKids' Choice Award — 1 nomination
All 1 wins · 1 nominations on record
  • Animation Kobe Theatrical Film Award: Animation Kobe Theatrical Film Award
Scholarship
Named in the title of 1 peer-reviewed work
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, released by Warner Bros. on behalf of Nintendo and 4Kids Entertainment, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had already swept through television, trading cards, and handheld games. It served as the franchise's cinematic debut in the West, introducing Mewtwo's origin story to audiences who had only known Pokémon through the small screen. The film's box office success proved that the property could sustain feature-length storytelling, cementing Pokémon as a dominant force in late-1990s youth entertainment and setting the template for animated adaptations tied to global merchandising empires.

This 35mm cell carries only the film's own name, offering no scene-specific detail beyond its place within that inaugural theatrical release. Cells identified simply by the picture's title often originate from title sequences, studio logos, or company credits rolls, the connective tissue that frames a film rather than its dramatic peaks. For collectors, such a piece holds value precisely because it represents the movie as a whole object, a single surviving frame from the actual print that unspooled in theaters during Pokémon's defining theatrical moment, tying directly to the franchise's first cinematic milestone.

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 000059338