Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 from Warner Bros., riding the peak of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television and trading cards into American theaters. Distributed with a Pikachu short attached, it introduced Mewtwo as a central figure in the series' mythology and became a cultural landmark for a generation raised on the games and cartoon. Its box office success proved that the Pokémon brand could command theatrical attention, and trailers for the film circulated widely, building anticipation months ahead of release.
This cell comes from promotional material bearing the phrase Mewtwo Attacks, a line built to announce the film's antagonist and set the tone of conflict driving its plot. Mewtwo, the lab-created Pokémon central to the story, remains one of the franchise's most collected characters for its design and its outsized role in the mythology. A trailer cell like this one captures a piece of film made purely to sell anticipation, a single strip meant to tease rather than narrate, preserved now as a relic of that marketing moment.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds four frames, the first and last partly cropped at the edges of the capture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle shapes, no torn, missing or distorted holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs inboard of the lower perforations, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue cast from the backlight; the dye image shows saturated blues and no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Faint thin vertical lines and a few small specks on the frames, consistent with a projected print; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive image, four consecutive frames of one continuous shot, and nothing in the frames contradicts the animated trailer on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, which suits a 1999 trailer for this film.
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
