Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in the fall of 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros., riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept through American pop culture. Built around the Nintendo and Game Freak property, the film brought Mewtwo's origin story to American theaters following its earlier Japanese release, and the marketing campaign leading up to launch, including trailers like this one, became collectible artifacts of the franchise's peak theatrical moment. For a certain generation, this promotional push marked their introduction to the saga on the big screen.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer promising Mewtwo's command over its cloned Pokémon, a scene central to the film's conflict and Mewtwo's standing as one of the franchise's most formidable creations. As a manufactured psychic type born of scientific ambition rather than nature, Mewtwo occupies a singular place among collectors, embodying both menace and tragedy. A trailer cell like this one captures promotional material rather than the finished feature, offering a glimpse of how the studio chose to tease the character's authority before audiences ever saw the film itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or stretched holes seen.
Soundtrack
A twin-track variable-area optical soundtrack runs beside the picture. Dolby Digital blocks, DTS timecode and SDDS tracks are not visible in this capture.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted clear base at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no fading or colour shift seen.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen. The one dark ring on the third frame is a phone reflection and is ignored.
Picture
Positive colour image. The three frames run consecutively as one shot, and the animated pastel Pokémon artwork fits the film on record.
Era check
The twin-track variable-area optical track on a colour positive print fits a 1999 35mm release trailer, though no edge print is visible to confirm the stock.
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 000069850
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
