Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and Pikachu's "pocket monster" craze had already swept toys, trading cards, and television into a single cultural wave. The promotional trailer that preceded it played a key role in building anticipation, giving audiences their first theatrical glimpse of Mewtwo's origin story and the mythical Mew woven throughout the film's plot. As an early marketing artifact, this trailer footage captures Pokémon's leap from Saturday morning syndication to the multiplex, a milestone moment in the franchise's expansion into American mainstream entertainment.
This cell preserves a piece of that trailer, showing Mew dodging an attack. Mew is the rarest and most mythologized creature in the original Pokémon roster, long positioned as the ancestral source from which Mewtwo was cloned. A dodging moment speaks to Mew's established character traits of agility and elusiveness, qualities that made it a sought-after, nearly unobtainable figure within the games and card sets of the era. For collectors, a trailer cell featuring Mew in motion against an unnamed threat ties directly to the character's mystique and to the promotional campaign that introduced millions of moviegoers to the stakes of the film's central conflict.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, two whole and two cut at the ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
Two white-on-black variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, and the grey speckled blocks between the lower perforations look like Dolby Digital data.
Edge print
Blue ink along the top edge, read upside down: "2383 207 084 0 10 K·ODAK 17 1999". The "2383" is a Kodak print-stock number.
Base & colour
Clear to light cyan-blue base with neutral edge areas; the dye image shows purple and blue tones with no obvious fading or warm shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; a few small dark specks sit in the picture area.
Picture
Positive colour image; the four frames run consecutively as one shot, and a pale animated creature on purple-blue rock matches the animated film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a 1999 release print: 2383 print stock, a dated Kodak edge code, an optical track and Dolby Digital data blocks.
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
