Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the height of Pokémania as the franchise's first theatrical feature in American release. Built around Mewtwo's origin and the clash of cloned Pokémon against their originals, the film marked a cultural peak for the property, pulling enormous box office from a generation of young fans and cementing the brand's crossover from television and trading cards to cinema. Trailers for the release circulated widely in theaters and on television, giving audiences their earliest glimpse of the cloning storyline before the full film arrived.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel centered on the cloned Venusaur, one of the duplicated creatures at the heart of the film's central conflict. Venusaur, the final evolution of the Bulbasaur line, has always held a strong following among early collectors of Pokémon media, and its appearance here ties directly to the clone narrative that drove the movie's promotional campaign. As a trailer cell, this piece represents the industry's effort to tease that premise to audiences ahead of release, making it a marker of the franchise's theatrical debut.
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, the first only partly in view at the left.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track of two white wavy lines runs below the picture, and a grainy speckled pattern sits in the gaps between the lower perforations, consistent with Dolby Digital data blocks.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base reads clear to pale blue and the dye image is colour-saturated and neutral, with no fading or red shift seen.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the four frames repeat one near-identical shot as consecutive frames, and nothing in the picture contradicts the animated Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching the 1999 date 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
