Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's partnership with 4Kids Entertainment and Toho, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American pop culture. The trailer campaign preceding the feature was itself a cultural event, airing during peak Saturday morning programming and building anticipation for a franchise crossover from handheld game to blockbuster theatrical release. For a generation of collectors, these early promotional materials mark the moment Pokémon left the small screen and claimed cinema space, making trailer ephemera a distinct and sought after category within the broader film memorabilia world.
This piece comes from that trailer reel, and its subject is Mew, the rare and legendary Pokémon whose mystique anchored the film's plot and marketing alike. Mew's teleportation ability was central to its identity, a psychic power that made it elusive even within its own story, and this quality made it a natural choice for a trailer moment meant to tease wonder without full explanation. Trailer cells like this one captured not narrative detail but promise, a single excerpted beat meant to pull early audiences toward the full film experience. Collectors prize Mew material specifically for its rarity in both fiction and print.
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
- Gauge
- 35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds about three and a half frames, two of them complete.
- Perforations
- Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, rounded-rectangle shape, with no visible tears or missing holes.
- Soundtrack
- A variable-area optical track of two wavy bands runs beside the picture; Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- Clear base with a light blue-cyan tint at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
- Projection history
- No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
- Picture
- Positive image; frames run consecutively as one animated shot, and the animation style is plausible for an animated feature trailer such as the film on record.
- Era check
- Optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks suggests a late-1990s 35mm release print, which is consistent with a 1999 trailer.
