Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in November 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo's fledgling movie division, riding the crest of Pokémania at its American peak. Adapted from the Japanese original with new footage, it introduced Mewtwo to Western audiences and became a cultural touchstone for a generation raised on the trading card game and television series. Its box office success proved that anime-adjacent properties could dominate mainstream theaters, cementing Pokémon's place in 1990s pop culture history.
This cell preserves Blastoise, though not the original trainer's companion audiences knew from the games and series, but its cloned counterpart, born of Mewtwo's laboratory and central to the film's meditation on artificial life and identity. Collectors prize Blastoise for its rarity as a starter evolution and its outsized presence in franchise iconography. A clone appearance carries added weight, tied directly to the film's darker subplot about genetic replication and what makes a creature real. This fragment of 35mm stock is a physical remnant of that theatrical run.
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 four frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible below the picture area on one edge, alongside what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip in the inter-perforation zone, consistent with a dual-format optical release print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer codes.
Base & colour
The base shows a slight blue-green tint typical of safety polyester stock; the dye image appears neutral with no visible red shift or fading.
Projection history
No splices, cue marks or significant scratches are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; the four frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the animated character style is consistent with the Pokémon franchise film on record.
Era check
The combination of a polyester base, variable-area optical track with apparent Dolby Digital data blocks, and positive colour print is consistent with a 1999–1999 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
