Pokemon: The First Movie arrived in the fall of 1999, riding the crest of Pokemania as Warner Bros. brought the franchise's first theatrical feature to American audiences following its earlier Japanese release. The film's marketing push, including trailers like this one, played a significant role in cementing Pokemon as a cultural juggernaut in the West, introducing millions of young viewers to the mythology surrounding Mewtwo's origins and the psychic legend at the heart of the story.
This cell preserves a piece of that promotional campaign, a trailer frame built around Mew, the rare and ancient Psychic-type said to be the genetic wellspring of all Pokemon. Mew occupies a singular place in the franchise's lore and among collectors, prized for its scarcity in the games and its mystique in the animated universe. A trailer cell like this one functioned as an advance promise to audiences, a fragment meant to stir anticipation before the feature itself unspooled, offering an early glimpse of the character central to the film's central conflict.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Pokémon: The First Movie Trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds two frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a mono or stereo optical print; Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks are also visible in the gaps between perforations on that same edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote any text or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; the dye image reads as a colour positive with no obvious red shift or significant fading visible.
Projection history
Light horizontal abrasion lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the two frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the animated character and title text visible are consistent with a promotional trailer for the film on record.
Era check
The combination of a colour positive print, variable-area optical track, and Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks is consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print era, when that hybrid soundtrack format was standard.
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
