Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing machine, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American playgrounds and television schedules. The trailer campaign preceding the feature was a cultural event in its own right, airing ahead of other family films and saturating Saturday morning blocks, introducing audiences to Mewtwo while reassuring them that familiar favorites would still anchor the story. For a generation of collectors, these teaser reels mark the exact moment the franchise crossed from card game and television show into full theatrical spectacle.
This cell centers on Charizard and Blastoise, two of the original lineup's most sought-after Pokémon, both staples of the starter trio mythology that drove early collecting culture. Their pairing in a cloning context points to the film's central conceit, where Mewtwo's experiments produce duplicates of established characters, raising questions of identity and nature that the trailer used to hook longtime fans. As a promotional fragment rather than a scene from the finished picture, this piece preserves a moment built purely to tease, a glimpse offered before audiences ever saw the movie itself.
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, and the strip holds three frames, each framed in a standard flat/scope-style picture area.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
Variable-area optical tracks (two) run between picture and lower perforations, with a dashed blue-and-white line above them; Dolby Digital blocks sit between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean on the panel.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames repeat one near-identical shot consecutively, and the animated cel style fits an animated feature trailer like the film on record.
Era check
Optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks between perforations, on colour print stock, are consistent with a late-1990s release print such as 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 000069756
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
