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 1999, released by Warner Bros. in the United States after its original Japanese debut a year earlier under Toho. It landed at the peak of Pokémania, translating the wildly popular Nintendo game and television franchise into a theatrical event aimed squarely at the generation that had grown up trading cards and battling on Game Boy screens. The film's box office success proved that the Pokémon brand could sustain feature-length storytelling, cementing its place in late-90s pop culture and setting a template for animated franchise films tied to global merchandising empires.
This cell preserves a frame of Charizard, one of the most recognizable and sought-after Pokémon among collectors, prized for its dragon-like design and reputation as a powerhouse fire-type. Its presence on 35mm film ties a piece of physical cinema history to a character whose popularity has only grown through decades of games, cards, and media. For collectors, holding a frame naming Charizard connects a beloved creature to the exact medium through which audiences first saw it move on the big screen, a tangible artifact of the character's earliest theatrical appearance.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The First Movie.
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds two frames.
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 picture area, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area strip; a thin line consistent with a DTS timecode track is also visible immediately beside it, and a blue stripe consistent with a Dolby SR encoding stripe runs along that edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at readable resolution.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; dye image shows rich, saturated colour with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible scratches, splice marks, or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the animated character style is consistent with the Pokémon franchise film on record.
Era check
The combination of dual bilateral variable-area optical track, apparent DTS timecode line, and Dolby stripe is consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1990s, matching the 1999/1999 release period of the film on record.
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
