Warner Bros. handled distribution for Pokémon: The First Movie in North America, bringing Nintendo and Game Freak's property to American theaters in November 1999 at the height of Pokémania. The film arrived as a cultural event rather than a simple children's release, backed by a marketing campaign that saturated television, fast food tie-ins, and trading card promotions. Its trailer circulated widely in advance of the release, building anticipation for a story built around Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon whose existential struggle gave the franchise an unusually somber centerpiece. For a generation of young viewers, this was their introduction to Pokémon on the big screen.
This cell preserves a piece of that promotional reel, built around Mewtwo alone. As the film's central figure, Mewtwo carries outsized importance among collectors, standing apart from the roster of trainers and creatures as the story's tragic, powerful anchor. A trailer cell like this one functioned as an advance notice, a single frame pulled from the footage assembled to draw audiences into theaters before the full film had even opened. Owning a piece of that early promotional material connects a collector directly to the moment Mewtwo was first introduced to the public.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, with parts of two more cut off at the left and right ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with rounded-rectangle holes and no tears or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical soundtrack runs beside the picture, and a speckled Dolby Digital data block sits in the gaps between perforations on the sound-side edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to slightly pale blue base with a neutral dye image, saturated blues and deep blacks, and no visible red shift or fading.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the frames look clean, with only the lighting hot spot from the photo.
Picture
Positive image, four consecutive frames of one continuous shot with slight movement between them; the content is consistent with an animated trailer, matching the film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks plus an analogue optical track on a 35mm positive fit a late-1990s release print, consistent with a 1999 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
