Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's cross-media push, riding the first great wave of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television and trading cards into American theaters. The trailer campaign that preceded it was essential to that crossover, introducing moviegoers unfamiliar with the series to Mewtwo, the franchise's lab-born antagonist, and setting up the stakes of a story built around cloning, identity, and conflict between original Pokémon and their genetically engineered doubles. For a generation of kids, this trailer was often the first glimpse of the film itself.
This cell comes from that promotional reel, built around Mewtwo's stadium and the stand-off staged there between Pokémon. Mewtwo remains one of the most sought-after figures from this era, a psychic-type creation whose menace and tragic backstory set the tone for the movie's darker themes. A stand-off implies tension and opposition rather than resolution, fitting for a trailer meant to tease conflict without giving away the outcome. As a trailer cell rather than a release print frame, it preserves a piece of the marketing campaign that built anticipation for one of animation's biggest theatrical crossovers.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release trailer print of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames, with a fourth just cut off at the right.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes, and no torn, missing or stretched perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture as two parallel white waveforms; no Dolby Digital blocks, DTS timecode or SDDS tracks are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Neutral to slightly cool pale-blue base at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and unfaded, with warm yellows and clean blacks.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; a few tiny dust specks sit near the top perforations.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot of a court-like floor with many small cartoon creatures, which fits an animated Pokémon trailer.
Era check
A two-track optical soundtrack on a positive colour print is consistent with a 1999 35mm theatrical trailer, though the strip carries no digital sound data.
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 000069798
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
