Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in November 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of a cultural phenomenon that had swept toys, trading cards, and Saturday morning television into a single unstoppable franchise. Its theatrical trailer was engineered for maximum anticipation, teasing audiences with glimpses of a story built around genetic experimentation and the question of what it means to be alive. For many young moviegoers, this preview was their first encounter with the film's darker, more philosophical tone, a departure from the lighter adventures of the television series.
This cell preserves a piece of that early promotional reel devoted to Mewtwo, the film's central figure and one of the most sought-after characters in the entire Pokémon canon. Mewtwo represents the franchise's rare foray into genuine gravitas, a being created rather than born, wrestling with questions of purpose and origin. Trailer cells like this one hold particular value for collectors because they capture a character before the story fully unfolds, a glimpse offered to audiences as pure enticement, marketing material transformed into a piece of film history.
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Pokémon: The First Movie Trailer (1999).
- Gauge
- 35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame 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 along the bottom edge, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area pattern, with a blue DTS timecode stripe immediately adjacent to it.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture.
- Base & colour
- Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; the dye image reads as saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
- Projection history
- No visible scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are seen.
- Picture
- Positive colour image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the animated character visible is consistent with the Pokémon franchise as recorded.
- Era check
- The combination of a dual bilateral variable-area optical track and a DTS timecode stripe is consistent with a mid-to-late 1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1999 record date.
