Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's growing American media push, riding the wave of Pokémania that had swept toy aisles, television, and trading card shelves that year. The film served as a major theatrical gamble for the franchise, translating a video game and TV phenomenon into a big-screen event aimed squarely at the generation discovering Pokémon for the first time. Its trailer campaign was part of that introduction, building anticipation ahead of release and giving audiences their first glimpses of the film's central conflict and characters before the movie itself opened in theaters nationwide.
This cell preserves a frame from that early promotional reel, pairing Mew and Mewtwo, the two figures whose connection drives the film's entire premise. Mew, the rare and ancestral Pokémon, and Mewtwo, its engineered counterpart, represent the origin story at the heart of the narrative, making this pairing especially desirable to collectors tracing the franchise's mythology back to its source. A trailer cell like this one captures a promotional moment rather than a scene from the finished feature, a piece of the marketing history that introduced these two characters to a waiting public.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames, the third cut off by the right-hand edge of the capture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with clean rounded-rectangle punches and no torn or damaged holes seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS timecode or SDDS tracks visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear, slightly cool blue-tinted base with a neutral track area; the purple dye image looks even and not noticeably faded or shifted.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the purple cat-like character with a long curling tail is consistent with the film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations plus an optical analog track fit 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 000069794
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
