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OFFICIAL MOTION PICTURE FILM AUTHENTICATION
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell 000068734 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokémon: The First Movie Trailer
SCENEMew
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE ID000068734

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television into theaters for the first time. Built around the mythic rivalry of Mewtwo and Mew, the film became a cultural event, drawing massive opening weekend crowds and cementing Pokémon's place in American pop culture. The trailer that preceded it played an outsized role in that buildup, teasing the film's mythology to audiences who had only known the pocket monsters from handheld games and Saturday morning cartoons.

This cell preserves a strip from that promotional trailer, centered on Mew, the rare and legendary Pokémon whose very existence drives the movie's plot. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the marketing reel rather than the feature print itself, a physical artifact of how the film was introduced to the public before release. Mew's scarcity within the Pokémon mythos, paired with the character's starring role in this origin story, makes any surviving frame a natural point of interest for collectors tracing the franchise's theatrical debut.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm optical-sound release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).

Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, the 35mm layout; the strip holds four full frames, with a partial frame cut off at the left edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle punches, evenly spaced and cleanly formed along the whole strip, with no torn or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, between the picture and the lower perforations. Dolby Digital blocks, DTS timecode and SDDS tracks are not visible in this capture.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base shows a pale blue-teal tint at the edges. The dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; a faint hairline mark sits beside the strip on the panel, not on the film.
Picture
Positive image. The four frames run consecutively as one static shot with the same composition. The animated character in a glowing sphere is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Optical tracks on a clear base with saturated dye are consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print or trailer, which fits a 1999 Pokémon trailer.
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 Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size