Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing machine at the peak of Pokémania, when the franchise dominated playgrounds, television slates, and trading card aisles alike. The trailer that preceded it served as an early signal flare to audiences, promising a theatrical adventure built around Mewtwo's origin story while reassuring fans that the original roster, Charizard and Blastoise chief among them, would remain central to the spectacle. For many collectors this trailer represents the franchise's theatrical coming of age, the moment a television phenomenon staked its claim on the big screen.
This cell preserves a promotional pairing built around doubling: Charizard and Blastoise set against their cloned counterparts, a plot device at the heart of the film's premise. Charizard and Blastoise were among the most recognizable and sought after Pokémon from the original generation, prized by collectors for their popularity in both the games and the card sets that fueled the craze. A trailer cell like this one functioned as advance marketing, a single frame pulled to entice audiences into theaters, and its subject matter speaks directly to the film's central conceit of artificial copies confronting their originals.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip from the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout, four perforations per frame on both edges, and the strip holds three full frames side by side.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no tears or missing holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs as two parallel waveform lines beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a faint blue tint on the outer margins; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no fading or red shift seen.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames repeat nearly identical artwork as one continuous shot, and the animated style is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent: a dual optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations fits a late-1990s 35mm release print of an animated 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 000069759
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
