Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television into theaters for the first time in the United States. Its marketing campaign, including the trailer this cell comes from, was a cultural event in its own right, promising audiences their first look at Mewtwo, the series' most formidable creation, on the big screen. The film's success cemented Pokémon as a cinematic property and introduced a generation to its darker, more philosophical corners.
This cell preserves a moment from that early promotional reel, a title card built around Mewtwo. Such cards exist to announce a name before the story unfolds, letting a single figure carry the weight of anticipation. Mewtwo's presence here speaks to its stature as the film's central antagonist and most psychologically complex character, a lab-born Pokémon wrestling with questions of identity and purpose. For collectors, a trailer cell bearing Mewtwo marks the character's earliest theatrical billing, a fragment of the campaign that introduced Pokémon's weightiest figure to movie audiences for the first time.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four full frames side by side.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes, cleanly punched with no tears or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical soundtrack runs beside the picture, with a speckled band between the track and the lower perforations; no Dolby Digital blocks between perforations are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light cyan-blue tint on the outer base margins, with a saturated blue dye image that looks even and not visibly faded or red-shifted.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames run consecutively as one shot, and the MEWTWO title text matches the film on record.
Era check
A two-track optical track with a Dolby-style speckled band is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release trailer print, matching the 1999 film on record.
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
