Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie brought Warner Bros. and Nintendo's phenomenon to American theaters in November 1999, following the anime's explosive television debut and the trading card frenzy sweeping the country. The film served as a bridge between the franchise's Japanese origins and its full absorption into Western pop culture, pairing the box office pull of a beloved cast with a darker, more ambitious story than the series had yet attempted. Its trailers were engineered to draw in both children raised on Saturday morning cartoons and older viewers curious about the hype, making this stretch of promotional film a genuine artifact of a cultural tipping point.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer centered on Mewtwo, the film's engineered antagonist and one of the most enduring figures in Pokémon lore. As a psychic creation born of scientific ambition, Mewtwo carried the movie's philosophical weight and its marketing hook, making early trailer appearances especially sought after by collectors tracing the character's introduction to American audiences. A trailer cell like this one captures the promotional apparatus itself, the frames built to entice, predating the feature's wide release and standing as a discrete piece of the film's advertising 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 four frames.
- Perforations
- Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean throughout the visible strip.
- Soundtrack
- A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block column visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
- Edge print
- Edge print reads, mirrored as seen: '2383 189 022 0 SQ 18 KODAK 1999' — indicating Kodak 2383 print stock.
- Base & colour
- Base shows a cool blue-green tint consistent with Kodak 2383 stock; the dye image appears neutral with no visible red shift or fading.
- Projection history
- No visible scratches, splice marks, or cue marks seen in this capture.
- Picture
- Positive colour image; all four frames appear to be from a single continuous shot, consistent with animated content from the film on record.
- Era check
- Kodak 2383 print stock with a combined analogue optical and Dolby Digital soundtrack is consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1990s, matching the 1999–1999 release window of the film on record.
