Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in November 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's first theatrical bid to translate the television phenomenon to the big screen, produced by OLM and 4Kids Entertainment for a generation of American kids already fluent in the pocket-monster craze. Built around Mewtwo's origin and its clash with Mew, the film became a cultural landmark less for its plot than for its role as the moment Pokémon crossed from card table and cartridge into mainstream cinema, cementing the franchise's commercial reach at the height of its 1990s dominance.
This cell pairs Psyduck, the perpetually confused water-type known for its headache-driven psychic bursts, with its cloned counterpart, one of the many duplicated Pokémon populating the film's climactic gathering on New Island. Psyduck holds a soft spot among collectors as one of the series' most recognizable comic figures, and its doubling here ties directly to the film's central theme of originals versus clones. A 35mm frame preserving both figures together offers a tangible link to that thematic core, a physical artifact from the reel that carried Pokémon's first cinematic statement to audiences worldwide.
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 one frame.
Perforations
Four per frame visible on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data block pattern visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge; a DTS timecode stripe also appears present as a thin line beside the optical track.
Edge print
Numbers '2383' and '323' are legible along the lower edge margin.
Base & colour
Base appears with a warm amber-brown tint in the lit areas; dye image reads as a positive colour print with saturated yellows and dark blacks.
Projection history
Visible surface scratching and abrasion marks are present across the frame area, consistent with a print that has been run through a projector.
Picture
Positive colour image; a single frame is present and the animated character design is consistent with the Pokémon franchise and the film on record.
Era check
The combination of variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode stripe, and warm-base colour positive stock is consistent with a late-1990s theatrical release print of the period when Pokémon: The First Movie was distributed.
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
