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 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, following the anime's explosive US television debut earlier that year. Adapted from the Japanese original released months prior, it capitalized on peak Pokémon mania, pairing the Mewtwo Strikes Back storyline with the short Pikachu's Vacation. It became a box office phenomenon, introducing millions of American children to the franchise's mythology and cementing Pikachu and friends as cultural fixtures rather than a passing fad.
This 35mm cell carries only the film's own name, marking it as a piece from the movie's general release print rather than a scene-specific frame. As such, it stands as a foundational artifact of the title itself, tied to no single character or sequence but to the whole of the picture's theatrical run. For collectors, this is valuable precisely because it represents the film as a complete object, a physical fragment of the actual print that unspooled in cinemas during that first wave of Pokémon's American breakout.
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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