Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, released by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and the Pokémon Company's franchise exploded into a cultural phenomenon. Built from a Japanese animated feature and padded with the short "Pikachu's Vacation," it marked the series' leap from television and trading cards to the big screen, cementing Pokémania at its commercial peak. The promotional trailer that preceded it played a key role in building anticipation, teasing audiences with glimpses of the film's central mythos before general release.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer, built around Mew, the rare and elusive Pokémon whose origin and conflict with its clone Mewtwo drive the film's plot. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the promotional material crafted to stir early excitement, distinct from release prints of the finished picture. Mew's presence here holds particular appeal for collectors, since the character represents the mythological heart of the franchise's first cinematic outing, a figure whose rarity in the games mirrors its scarcity in surviving promotional film material from this era.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame on both edges, 35mm layout; the strip holds four frames, with a fifth partly cropped at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the picture-side and sound-side edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle and cleanly punched with no tearing seen.
Soundtrack
Variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, showing as white wavy lines, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the sound-side perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base at the edges with a neutral clear margin; the dye image shows no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames run consecutively as one shot with only a small figure and a coloured disc changing, and the dark theatrical-style content is plausible for the Pokémon trailer on record.
Era check
The optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, so it is consistent with a 1999 trailer for the 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
