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. Built around the confrontation between the cloned Mewtwo and Mew, the film became a cultural marker for a generation raised on the franchise, drawing enormous box office numbers and cementing Pokémon's place in American pop culture at the height of its 1990s peak. It remains a touchstone for collectors of animation memorabilia from that era, valued as much for its nostalgia as for its role in launching a media empire.
This cell centers on Pikachu, the franchise's defining mascot and the character most sought after by collectors across every format of Pokémon material. A moment of crying places this frame within the film's more emotionally weighted stretch, where Pikachu's bond with Ash and the other Pokémon carries real weight beneath the adventure. For collectors, a cell capturing sorrow rather than spectacle offers a quieter, more intimate artifact, tied to the character's most human quality: the ability to feel and express loss.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm analog optical 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 running along the bottom edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single-track analog optical stripe.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly warm; dye image shows strong yellow and brown saturation consistent with a healthy color print.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across both frames, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive color image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the animated character visible is consistent with Pokémon: The First Movie.
Era check
A single variable-area analog optical track alongside 35mm four-perforation frames is consistent with a 1999–1999 theatrical release print of this title, before DTS or SDDS became universal on this property.
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
