National Film Vault
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FILM NOTES
Warner Bros. distributed Pokémon: The First Movie in North America in November 1999, adapting the theatrical feature produced by OLM and 4Kids Entertainment from the original Japanese release earlier that year. The film arrived at the peak of the global Pokémon phenomenon and remains a landmark of late-1990s animation, drawing record opening-weekend audiences and cementing the franchise's reach beyond games and television.
This cell, titled Corey's Pokemon, captures four frames from what appears to be the climactic battle sequence set at Mewtwo's island fortress. Hitmonlee, Venusaur, Sandslash, and Scyther are gathered together across all four near-identical frames, suggesting a held moment of stillness within the chaos of that sequence. The repetition across frames reflects standard animation production rhythm.