Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television into theaters for the first time. Built around the anime's television continuity and paired with a bonus short, it introduced Mewtwo to a generation while cementing Pikachu as the face of the phenomenon. Its box office success proved that a Japanese animated property could dominate American multiplexes, making this release a genuine cultural marker of late nineties fandom and merchandising history.
This cell centers on Pikachu, the series' mascot and its most collected figure across any format of film memorabilia. A moment named for sorrow places the character in one of the story's emotional turns, a beat the film uses to ground its larger conflict in something intimate and personal. Collectors seek this kind of moment because it captures Pikachu outside the usual cheerful marketing imagery, tied instead to the narrative weight the movie carries. As a single 35mm frame, it preserves a specific instant of hand processed film history from a landmark theatrical release.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The First Movie.
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds one frame.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible below the frame, appearing as two bilateral wavy lines consistent with a stereo variable-area optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly cool; dye image shows strong yellow and dark blacks with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; a single frame is shown and the character depicted matches the known animated style of the film on record.
Era check
A stereo variable-area optical track on 35mm positive print stock with neutral base is fully consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print of this title.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading, 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.
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
