Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had swept toy aisles, trading card binders, and Saturday morning schedules alike. The theatrical trailer that preceded it was a critical marketing instrument, built to translate a television phenomenon into a feature film event worth a ticket price. For many young audiences, this preview was their first glimpse of Mewtwo, the film's central antagonist, and the broader stakes the movie promised: a darker, more mythic register than the series had attempted before.
This cell draws from that trailer and centers on the clones of Venusaur and Pidgeot, alongside their original counterparts and Ivysaur. Collectors prize these cloned forms because they represent the film's core conceit, Mewtwo's manufactured army assembled to challenge the natural order. Pairing a clone with its source creature within a single trailer cell captures the premise in miniature, offering a tangible artifact of how the movie's marketing introduced its doubling, identity, and conflict themes before audiences ever saw the full narrative unfold.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout: four perforations per frame along both edges, with three frames shown across the strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched; the lower edge sits in the Dolby Digital data area.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run 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 light blue border tint; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the only marks are a reflection halo on one frame, ignored as camera glare.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot with small movement between them, matching the animated Pokémon look of the film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks plus an optical analogue track fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, consistent with 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 000069848
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
