Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to translate a global phenomenon into a theatrical event, riding the wave of Pokémania that had swept toys, trading cards, and television into a single unstoppable franchise. Its trailer campaign was engineered to introduce mainstream audiences to Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon whose origin story carried more weight and menace than the series had previously attempted. The promotional push signaled that this was no ordinary television spinoff but a feature film with ambitions toward myth-making.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer, a Mewtwo close-up, meaning the promotional reel isolates the character on his own rather than in a crowd or battle sequence. Trailer cells like this one are prized because they represent the film's first public face, the frames chosen to sell Mewtwo's presence before audiences ever saw the finished picture. Mewtwo himself remains one of the franchise's most sought-after figures, his introduction here marking an early, formative appearance in the character's cinematic history.
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Pokémon: The First Movie Trailer (1999)
- Gauge
- 35mm, 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 running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single-track waveform
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- Base appears with a slight cool-neutral tint; dye image reads in blue-purple tones consistent with an intact colour dye set
- Projection history
- A faint horizontal line is visible across the lower portion of the strip, consistent with a projected print
- Picture
- Positive colour image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the animated style is consistent with the Pokémon: The First Movie Trailer (1999) on record
- Era check
- A single variable-area optical track alongside a colour positive 35mm frame is consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print of this title
