Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, distributed by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and Pikachu Project 4Kids brought the franchise from television to the big screen. Built around the original 151 creatures craze, the film capitalized on peak Pokémon fever in the West, pairing a dubbed feature with new footage and an aggressive marketing push. Trailers like this one were part of that campaign, teasing audiences with glimpses of the clone antagonist Mewtwo before general release, a strategy that helped the film post a massive opening weekend and cement Pokémon's place in American pop culture.
This cell comes from a promotional trailer strip, the kind of material studios cut and distributed to theaters to build anticipation ahead of a film's run. Ash Ketchum, the franchise's lead trainer, appears opposite Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose confrontation with Ash forms the emotional core of the movie. Trailer cells like this one hold interest for collectors because they predate the feature's wide release, capturing an early marketing moment built specifically to introduce Mewtwo as a formidable new figure in the Pokémon mythos, framed through direct conflict with the series' central human character.
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
- Gauge
- Four perforations per frame along both edges, the 35mm layout; the strip holds about three full frames plus partial frames at each end.
- Perforations
- Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes and no visible tears or distortion.
- Soundtrack
- Two white variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture on the lower edge, with a speckled data band between the perforations that looks like Dolby Digital blocks.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- Light blue-cyan base tint at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no visible fading or red shift.
- Projection history
- None seen at this size; the only mark is a round reflection on one frame, which is the camera on the glossy base and is ignored.
- Picture
- Positive colour image with frames running consecutively as one shot of an animated boy with a backpack beside a pale, cat-like creature, matching the Pokémon film on record.
- Era check
- Consistent with a 1999 35mm release print, since an analogue optical track with Dolby Digital data between the perforations fits late-1990s theatrical stock.
