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Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999 through Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing partnership, riding the crest of Pokémania as the franchise expanded from handheld games and television into a full theatrical event. Adapted from the Japanese original with new footage for Western audiences, it introduced Mewtwo's origin story to millions of young viewers and became a box office phenomenon, cementing Pokémon as a dominant cultural force of the late 1990s. Its success proved that a game-based property could command a theatrical run and set the template for animated franchise films that followed.
This 35mm cell carries only the film's own name, making it a piece of the release print itself rather than a scene tied to a specific character or sequence. Collectors of this era prize such cells precisely because they represent the physical artifact of the theatrical run, a tangible fragment of the print that played in cinemas during the Pokémania peak. Without a character or moment specified, this piece stands as a marker of the film's identity and distribution history, valued for its connection to the movie's title and its place in the reel rather than any particular frame's content.
