Pokemon: The First Movie arrived in November 1999, a joint effort from Warner Bros., Nintendo, and the Pokemon Company, riding the crest of the franchise's first great wave of American popularity. Its trailer campaign ran heavily through Saturday morning television and theatrical previews that spring and summer, introducing audiences to a darker, more mythic entry in a series otherwise known for lighthearted adventure. The film's box office success cemented Pokemon as a genuine cinematic property, not just a card and cartoon phenomenon, making its promotional material a snapshot of that crossover moment.
This cell preserves a piece of that early trailer footage centered on Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokemon whose introduction reframed the franchise's tone toward questions of identity and creation. Collectors seek Mewtwo material specifically because the character anchors the film's central conflict and remains one of the most requested figures from the era. As a trailer cell, it represents the marketing apparatus itself, the frames built to entice rather than narrate, offering a fragment of how audiences first encountered this character before the film's wider release.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital composite release print of Pokemon: The First Movie Trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible below the picture area on the lower edge, appearing as a bilateral variable-area waveform pattern consistent with an analog stereo optical track; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the lower edge, indicating a Dolby Digital SR·D composite track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
The base appears with a slight blue-teal tint consistent with a dyed safety base stock; the dye image shows strong, saturated blue and violet tones with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has been projected.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the vivid blue energy-burst imagery is consistent with promotional trailer material for the film on record.
Era check
The composite Dolby Digital plus analog variable-area optical track combination, dyed safety base, and color saturation are all consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print.
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
