Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American schoolyards and toy aisles. The theatrical trailer that preceded it was a crucial marketing document, built to convert television fandom into opening-weekend ticket sales for a franchise still proving it could carry a feature film. For many young audiences, this promotional reel was their first glimpse of Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon positioned as the film's central antagonist and emotional core.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer, a format meant to tease rather than reveal, built from fragments chosen to generate anticipation. Mewtwo Attacking places the focus squarely on the character's aggression, the quality that made it such a departure from the franchise's friendlier mascots. Collectors prize Mewtwo material for its scarcity relative to Pikachu-centric merchandise and for its tie to a character whose brooding, destructive introduction reshaped expectations for what a Pokémon story could be. As a trailer fragment, it also carries the historical weight of early promotional film stock from the franchise's theatrical debut.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which is the 35mm layout; the strip holds one complete frame with only slivers of its neighbours visible.
Perforations
Four perforations span the frame on the upper edge and the lower edge shows the same pitch; they are evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle, and cleanly punched.
Soundtrack
Two parallel variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with a dashed line above them, and speckled Dolby Digital data blocks sit between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-cyan tint on the outer base margins; the dye image is saturated blue with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Faint vertical hairline scratches cross the frame; no splices, cue marks or other damage seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; only one full frame is visible, so consecutive-shot continuity cannot be checked, and the animated artwork is plausible for the film on record.
Era check
The analogue optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks are consistent with 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 in partnership with National Film Vault, 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.
CROWN SERIAL 000069752
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
