Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the Pokémon television phenomenon onto the big screen, pairing the Mewtwo Strikes Back feature with the Pikachu's Vacation short. Backed by an enormous marketing push, it became a box office success and marked the franchise's full arrival in American theatrical culture, cementing Pikachu and friends as fixtures of late-90s childhood. The trailer itself served as an early promise of that spectacle, built to stir anticipation months ahead of release.
This cell draws together Ash Ketchum alongside Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Scyther, the core assembly that anchored the franchise's early identity. Ash as trainer and the starter companions beside him represent the show's foundational cast, the lineup that introduced a generation to the Pokémon world. A trailer frame like this one functions as advance billing, a condensed glimpse meant to signal scale and familiar faces before the full film unspools, making it a natural point of interest for collectors tracing the franchise's theatrical debut.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release print of the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, with the picture area running along the strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the upper and lower edges, rounded-rectangle shaped, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs along the lower edge, shown as white waveform bands, with a speckled pattern band beside it; no Dolby Digital blocks between perforations are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base shows a light blue-teal tint along both edges, and the dye image looks neutral and saturated with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; a few small dust specks sit on the panel background outside the strip.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames repeat one shot with very little change between them, and the cartoon characters match an animated Pokémon title.
Era check
Consistent with a 1999 35mm release print: the optical analogue track and positive dye image suit that era, though the speckled band beside the track is unexplained here.
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
