Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American pop culture. The film adapted the franchise's foundational mythology, pitting the cloned psychic Mewtwo against the original cast of pocket monsters in a story about identity and belonging. Its theatrical trailer campaign was a cultural event in its own right, screened ahead of countless features and traded on playgrounds as eagerly as the cards and games it promoted.
This cell comes from that trailer reel, built around the clash between Mewtwo and the Pokémon who oppose him. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most collected figures, prized as its first and most formidable artificial creation, a character whose confrontation with nature-born Pokémon anchors the entire film's conflict. A trailer cell like this one circulated ahead of release, existing to build anticipation rather than tell the story outright. For collectors, it represents the promotional machinery that introduced Mewtwo to the world before the feature itself ever reached theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds four frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, and a speckled Dolby Digital data block sits in the gap between each pair of perforations on the sound-side edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a blue-teal tint at both outer margins; the dye image shows saturated colour with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size apart from a single dark oval on one frame, which is camera reflection and not a mark on the film.
Picture
Positive colour image; the four frames run consecutively as one near-static shot and match an animated film frame, consistent with the film on record.
Era check
Analogue optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks between perforations fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching the 1999 date on record.
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
