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. Produced with 4Kids Entertainment handling the English dub, the film introduced American audiences to Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon wrestling with questions of identity and purpose. It was a box office success, cementing Pokémon as a legitimate theatrical property rather than a passing fad, and it remains a touchstone for the franchise's early era, when the anime's tone still carried some of the weight and ambition of its origin story.
This cell places Team Rocket, the trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth, inside Mewtwo's laboratory, a setting synonymous with the film's central themes of cloning and self-discovery. Their appearance here suggests the comic relief characters intersecting with the story's darker machinery, a pairing collectors often prize for the contrast it represents. Voiced by Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein, these three anchor much of the series' humor, and a cell locating them within Mewtwo's domain captures a rare overlap between the film's lighter recurring cast and its more serious narrative core.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds four frames.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no visible torn or deformed holes.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip in the inter-perforation area on the same edge, consistent with a dual-format optical release print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote characters.
Base & colour
The base shows a cool blue-neutral tint; the dye image appears rich and fully saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light horizontal emulsion lines are visible running across the frames, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all four frames appear to be from the same continuous shot, and the stylised mechanical-creature imagery is consistent with promotional and theatrical material associated with Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Era check
The combination of variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, and fully saturated colour positive stock is consistent with a late-1990s theatrical release print of the film on record.
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
