Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 through Warner Bros. and Nintendo's promotional machine, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American playgrounds and television schedules. The trailer that preceded it was a cultural event in its own right, screened ahead of family features and run heavily on television to introduce Mewtwo's origin story to an audience already fluent in the games and the animated series. For many collectors, this trailer represents the franchise's theatrical arrival, the moment Pokémon stepped beyond the small screen and into multiplex marketing.
This cell preserves a glimpse of Blastoise as a clone, placing it within the film's central conceit of genetically duplicated Pokémon assembled by Mewtwo. Blastoise, one of the original starter evolutions and a longtime favorite among early Pokémon collectors, carries particular weight here because the clone storyline recontextualizes familiar creatures as uncanny copies. A trailer cell like this one captures a promotional fragment rather than a narrative beat, a single frame excerpted from the reel used to build anticipation before the feature's release, now preserved as a tangible artifact of that campaign.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Kodak 2383 release print of the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds four frames, each showing one picture area.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with clean rounded-rectangle punches and no torn or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
Two parallel variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, and the gaps between the lower-edge perforations carry a speckled grey Dolby Digital data pattern.
Edge print
Blue edge print along the top edge, reading backwards: "2383 207 084 0 10 K'ODAK 17 1999", with a small block mark at the right end.
Base & colour
Clear base shows a pale cyan-blue tint at the edges; the dye image looks neutral with strong saturated colour and no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Not visible in this capture
Picture
Positive image; four consecutive frames from one shot with only slight movement between them; the picture is animated, which fits the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital data between the perforations plus optical tracks and Kodak 2383 print stock coded 1999 are consistent with a 1999 release print of this 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 CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
