Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in the fall of 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing machine at the height of Pokémania, when the franchise dominated playgrounds, television, and trading card aisles across the country. The trailer campaign that preceded it was built to stoke anticipation among a fanbase that had never seen the pocket monsters rendered at feature length, promising a clash between the manufactured Mewtwo and the mythical original, Mew. For many kids and collectors alike, this was the first glimpse that Pokémon could exist on the big screen.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel bearing Mew's name, the rarest and most mythologized creature in the original roster. As a trailer or title card frame, its purpose was to announce, to tease, to plant Mew's presence in the viewer's mind ahead of the main event. Mew's scarcity and lore within the Pokémon mythos make any appearance a point of fascination, and a trailer cell naming Mew directly speaks to the character's central role in the film's promotional identity.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
Two wavy white variable-area optical tracks run between the picture and the lower perforations, and the gaps between the lower perforations hold speckled Dolby Digital data blocks.
Edge print
Blue edge print reads backwards along the upper edge as '2383 207', which is the stock code plus a number; no 'SAFETY FILM' text is legible.
Base & colour
The base is clear with a pale blue-white cast against the panel, and the purple dye image looks saturated and unfaded.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the four frames.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames run consecutively as one shot, and the 'MEW' title card is consistent with the Pokémon trailer on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks plus an optical track on 2383 print stock fit a late-1990s release print, which suits 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
