National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in North American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures as the theatrical centerpiece of Nintendo and Game Freak's global phenomenon. Produced by OLM, Inc. and directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, the film marked a significant moment in anime crossover into mainstream Western cinema, drawing enormous audiences and cementing Pokémon's cultural reach beyond television and games.

This cell, titled Mewtwo and His Clones, captures the assembled cloned Pokémon gathered under Mewtwo's command. Gyarados and Scyther appear alongside Mewtwo in the initial frames, with Nidoqueen, Ninetales, and Arcanine joining the group across subsequent frames. The dark staging gives the assembly a deliberate, foreboding weight that reflects the film's central conflict around identity and creation.