Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing machine, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had already conquered Game Boys, trading cards, and Saturday morning television. The trailer that preceded it was a crucial marketing tool in its own right, built to convert a generation of card collectors and cartoon watchers into opening weekend ticket buyers. It promised audiences their first big screen encounter with the franchise's creatures rendered in theatrical scale, and it succeeded, helping push the film to a box office haul few animated imports had managed before.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer centered on Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon who served as the film's antagonist and its most ambitious character design. Mewtwo was the franchise's first attempt at tragedy and menace, a figure built around questions of identity and purpose rather than simple combat. Trailer cells carry particular interest for collectors since they document the promotional campaign rather than the finished feature itself, offering a separate strand of production history. A piece naming Mewtwo specifically ties directly to the character who anchored the entire film's promise.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, each framed by a dark interframe bar.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; they look evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle shapes and no visible tears or missing holes.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks (speckled grey squares) in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base shows a light blue-teal tint at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and not visibly faded.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the four frames repeat one near-identical shot of a blue-toned character, consistent with the animated film on record.
Era check
A variable-area optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on 35mm is consistent with a 1999 release print of this film.
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
