CrownGrading Pro
Crown Portal
Submit cards Submissions Start your submissions Submission walkthrough Grading process Pre-Grade estimator Film authentication Programs Crown Ascension Crown Royal Tier Resources About Crown CrownStandard Knowledge Center CrownVault Contact Crown Portal
Ready to grade your cards? Submit Cards →
Crown Grading

Crown Grading

OFFICIAL MOTION PICTURE FILM AUTHENTICATION
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell 000064917 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokemon: The First Movie Trailer
SCENEMew
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE ID000064917

FILM NOTES

Pokemon: The First Movie arrived in theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak's franchise had already conquered handheld screens and Saturday morning television. Its trailer campaign was a cultural event in miniature, priming millions of young viewers and their parents for a big screen crossover during the height of Pokemania. The promotional reels circulating that year are now scarce artifacts of a marketing blitz that helped define late nineties American pop culture.

This cell isolates Mew, the elusive psychic Pokemon whose mythology anchors the film's entire plot as the genetic template for the villain Mewtwo. As a trailer strip, it belongs to the promotional apparatus built to tease audiences before the feature's release, a single frame excerpted from footage meant to build anticipation rather than tell the story outright. Mew's rarity within the games made the character a natural draw for early advertising, and that same rarity is why collectors seek out physical fragments bearing its image today.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm theatrical 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 running as a dual bilateral waveform strip below the picture area, consistent with an analog stereo optical track; a narrow blue line is also visible adjacent to it, consistent with a Dolby SR or similar analog encoding stripe.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers, manufacturer text, or SAFETY FILM legend.
Base & colour
The base appears with a slight cool-neutral tint; the dye image reads with strong violet and black saturation showing no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible splices, cue marks, or heavy scratching are apparent; faint longitudinal lines are present suggesting the print has been projected.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the vivid purple-toned animated imagery is consistent with promotional trailer material for the film on record.
Era check
The dual bilateral variable-area optical track with an apparent Dolby stripe, combined with a positive color print on what appears to be a cool-neutral safety base, is consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the late 1990s.
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 Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size