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 Nintendo's bid to translate a global gaming and television phenomenon onto the big screen. Produced by 4Kids and OLM, it introduced Mewtwo, a laboratory-born clone engineered from the mythical Mew, and staked the franchise's cinematic future on a story about identity, creation, and purpose. The film became a box office success in the United States, cementing Pokémon's crossover appeal beyond its core young audience and setting the template for the animated features that followed.
This cell centers on Mewtwo and Mew together, pairing the franchise's original psychic creation with the artificial being made in its image. Collectors prize this dynamic because it distills the film's central conflict, nature against fabrication, into a single frame. A 35MM cell of these two figures marks a pivotal narrative junction, the meeting point of myth and experiment. For archivists and enthusiasts alike, it represents a physical fragment of the moment the franchise announced its cinematic ambitions.
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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