Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after a production pipeline running from Nintendo's game franchise through 4Kids' English adaptation. It landed at the height of Pokémania, when the property dominated toy aisles, television, and playgrounds alike, and the film's box office success proved the brand could carry a theatrical run rather than remain confined to handheld screens and Saturday mornings.
This cell preserves a moment from the trailer built around Mew, the rare and elusive Pokémon whose mythology anchors the film's plot involving cloning and origin. Mew's scarcity within the games made it a coveted figure among players long before the movie, and its inclusion in promotional material signals the story's stakes. A trailer cell like this one functioned as advance advertising, cut and distributed to entice audiences ahead of release, making surviving fragments a tangible link to the marketing campaign that introduced Mew to a wider theatrical audience.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokemon: The First Movie Trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds one frame.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly formed with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible between the picture and the lower perforation row, showing two waveform lines consistent with a dual bilateral or stereo variable-area track; a thin digital timecode line (consistent with DTS) appears immediately beside the optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight cool-neutral tint; the dye image reads as a deep, saturated colour positive with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; a single frame is shown and the character and title text visible are consistent with the film on record.
Era check
The combination of a variable-area optical stereo track alongside a DTS timecode stripe is consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print, as dual-format optical/DTS prints were standard for 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
