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's Pikachu Project, adapting the anime phenomenon for American theaters at the height of Pokémon's cultural takeover. It paired the feature with the Pikachu's Vacation short and became a box office success despite mixed critical reception, cementing the franchise's leap from television and trading cards to the big screen. For collectors of nineties animation and gaming crossover media, this release marks a genuine cultural milestone, the moment a Japanese video game property became a mainstream American event.
This cell gathers Mewtwo alongside his assembled clones: Scyther, Gyarados, Nidoqueen, Ninetales, and Aerodactyl, the genetically duplicated Pokémon central to the film's conflict. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, prized for his origin as a lab-born challenge to natural order. A grouping like this suggests a key assembly moment, the clones standing as extensions of Mewtwo's ambition and isolation. Cells featuring this ensemble are valued for representing the movie's core thematic weight, the created versus the original, preserved in a single frame of animation history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999/1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds four complete frames plus a partial frame at the left edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge; spacing appears even across the strip; perforation edges appear cleanly punched with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the lower edge beside the picture area, appearing as a two-track variable-area format; a dense digital data block pattern consistent with Dolby Digital is visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the lower edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
Base appears with a cool-neutral tint; dye image shows strong saturated blues and purples consistent with a healthy colour print with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No splices or cue marks are visible; faint longitudinal lines are present across the frame area consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three fully visible frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot; the animated character style and colour palette are consistent with the Pokémon: The First Movie animated feature on record.
Era check
The combination of variable-area optical track with Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks is consistent with a 1999-1999 theatrical release print, as that dual-format soundtrack configuration was standard for major studio releases of that period.
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
