Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in theaters in November 1999, brought to the United States by Warner Bros. after Toho's original Japanese release earlier that year. It marked the franchise's leap from television and trading cards to the big screen at the height of Pokémania, pairing the feature "Mewtwo Strikes Back" with the short "Pikachu's Vacation." For a generation of young collectors it was an event film, and the 35MM prints struck for its run are now scarce artifacts of that theatrical moment, predating the franchise's shift to digital distribution.
This cell preserves a frame of Mew, the rare and legendary Pokémon whose genetic material forms the basis of the film's central conflict with Mewtwo. Mew's presence in the story is brief but foundational, tying the movie's plot to the deeper mythology of the Pokémon world. Collectors seek out Mew cells specifically because the character appears so sparingly on screen, making any surviving frame a tangible piece of one of the franchise's most mysterious figures.
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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