Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and the Pokémon Company brought the Japanese feature to Western audiences at the height of Pokémania. Built around the origin of Mewtwo, a bioengineered Pokémon grappling with questions of identity and purpose, the film anchored a franchise that had exploded across trading cards, television, and merchandise. Its theatrical trailer played heavily in advance of release, giving audiences their first extended look at the clash between Mewtwo and Mew, the two psychic Pokémon whose rivalry drives the story's central conflict.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer, pairing Mew's evasive movement with a close framing of Mewtwo. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, prized for its origin as a clone and its brooding presence as the film's central figure. Mew, as the genetic source from which Mewtwo was created, carries equal significance, representing the natural counterpart to its artificial double. A trailer cell like this one captures promotional material rather than finished film footage, making it a record of how Pokémon's debut feature was first presented to the public.
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; the strip holds four frames, two partly cropped at the left and right ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs inside the lower perforations, with grey speckled Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a cyan-blue edge tint; the dye image looks neutral to cool with no obvious fade or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the strip looks clean on the light panel.
Picture
Positive image; the frames form two pairs of near-identical consecutive frames from one continuous sequence, consistent with the animated Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks plus a variable-area optical track fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching a 1999 trailer.
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
