Released in 1999 by Warner Bros. in partnership with Nintendo and Pokémon USA, Pokémon: The First Movie brought the phenomenon to American theaters at the height of its cultural dominance. Built around the genetically engineered Mewtwo, the film and its promotional campaign pushed the franchise beyond Saturday morning television into a full theatrical event, cementing Pokémon as a multimedia force for the decade to come.
This cell preserves a strip from the trailer announcing Mewtwo's arrival, a teaser moment meant to introduce audiences to the film's central antagonist before the feature itself premiered. Mewtwo, the series' most formidable creation, remains a favorite among collectors for its standing as the first Pokémon movie villain and its enduring popularity across generations of the franchise. As a trailer cell, this piece belongs to the promotional apparatus that built anticipation ahead of release, a category prized for marking the moment the character first reached the public eye.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which reads as 35mm; the strip holds four frames, with a fifth cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched; the top and bottom rows line up with each other.
Soundtrack
Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the perforations along the bottom edge. A wavy variable-area optical track runs beside the picture on the same side, apparently as two tracks.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to light blue base tint at the edges, and the dye image looks saturated blue with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
Thin vertical lines run through the frames, plus a few small specks on the picture; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive image. The four frames run consecutively as one continuous shot, and the animated style is consistent with an anime feature; no title card or text appears in these frames.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks with an analogue optical track fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, so this is consistent with a 1999 theatrical trailer print.
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
