Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 via Warner Bros. and Nintendo's partnership with 4Kids Entertainment, riding the first great wave of Pokémania in the West. The trailer that preceded it in theaters served as an early signal to audiences that the franchise could carry a feature-length story with genuine dramatic weight, centered on a creature built in a lab rather than caught in the wild. For many collectors, this promotional campaign marks the moment Pokémon crossed from television phenomenon into cinematic event.
This cell preserves a close-up of Mewtwo, the film's central figure and one of the most sought-after characters in the franchise's history. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the marketing reel used to draw audiences into theaters, a format distinct from the finished film print and valued for capturing a character at the height of pre-release anticipation. A close-up framing implies emphasis, a deliberate choice by the trailer's editors to foreground Mewtwo as the emotional and narrative core of the story being sold to the public.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes that look evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit between the perforations on the sound edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue-cyan tint on the edge margins; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or red 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 run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated style is consistent with the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: a Dolby Digital block pattern plus analogue optical tracks suits a 1999 trailer on 35mm.
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 000069814
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
