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 theatrical trailer played heavily ahead of family films that year, introducing Mew and Mewtwo's mythology to a mainstream audience well beyond the handheld game's original fans. For many kids this trailer was their first glimpse of the franchise's leap to the big screen, making it a small but genuine artifact of a cultural moment when a Game Boy title became a global phenomenon.
This cell gathers a wide roster around Mew, the rare and legendary Pokémon whose mystique anchored the film's marketing from the start. Alongside it stand Gyarados, Rapidash, Ninetales, Hitmonlee, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Nidorina, Pikachu, Vaporeon, and Nidoqueen, a lineup spanning starters, evolutions, and fan favorites that trailers often use to signal scale and variety to newcomers. A trailer cell like this exists to compress anticipation into a single frame, promising audiences a crowded, eventful world before the feature even begins. For collectors, the presence of so many recognizable species alongside Mew itself makes this a dense and desirable piece of early Pokémon film history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip from Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames side by side.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform in shape.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and a Dolby Digital data pattern sits in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to light blue-tinted base at the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the only mark is a camera reflection on one frame, which is ignored.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames repeat one shot with no change between them, and the animated characters fit a Pokémon film, matching the film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital data between the perforations fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching the 1999 date of the film on record.
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 000069822
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
