Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and 4Kids' bid to bring the Japanese phenomenon to American theaters, pairing the Mewtwo Strikes Back feature with the Pikachu's Vacation short. It became a genuine box office event, introducing a generation to Pokémon on the big screen and cementing the franchise's crossover from television and trading cards into cinema. For collectors of 90s animation and licensed media, it stands as a landmark release, a snapshot of peak Pokémania captured on film stock rather than home video.
This cell centers on Mew, the rare and mythical Pokémon whose scarcity within the games and lore made it a coveted figure long before the movie gave it a role onscreen. Mew's presence here is tied to conflict, placing this psychic original at the heart of the film's climactic tension. Collectors prize Mew material for its scarcity in merchandising generally, and a movie-era frame showing the character in action ties directly to the narrative stakes that made this release memorable.
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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