Crown Grading
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FILM NOTES
Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros., Nintendo, and 4Kids Entertainment, riding the crest of the franchise's explosive American debut. The trailer that preceded it in theaters served as one of the earliest widescale introductions of Pokémon to mainstream moviegoing audiences, a crossover moment where a Japanese media phenomenon fully arrived in the West. For many collectors, this promotional material marks the franchise's theatrical coming-of-age, a document of the hype machine that turned a handheld game into a global event.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer, centered on Mew, the legendary Pokémon whose mysterious origins anchor the film's entire plot. Mew's scarcity in the games and its central role in the story of Mewtwo's creation make it one of the most sought-after characters in Pokémon ephemera. A trailer cell like this one captures the promotional apparatus itself, the reel used to stir anticipation before audiences ever saw the finished feature. Owning it means holding a fragment of that advertising moment, tied directly to the character who gave the film its mythology.
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
- Gauge
- Four perforations per frame on both edges, which is the 35mm layout; the strip holds three full frames plus a partial frame at the left edge.
- Perforations
- Four per frame along both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
- Soundtrack
- A variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, and the lower edge shows a speckled grey band that may be a digital data area.
- Edge print
- Not visible in this capture
- Base & colour
- The base reads as a light blue-teal tint at the edges; the dye image looks neutral with purples and blues intact and no visible fading.
- Projection history
- No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
- Picture
- Positive image, three consecutive frames repeating nearly the same composition as one shot; the frames are consistent with an animated trailer, but no title or text confirms the film on record.
- Era check
- The optical track and the grey speckled band beside the lower perforations are consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching a 1999 trailer.
