Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in late 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's licensing machine, riding the crest of Pokémania as it swept American playgrounds and television schedules. The trailer campaign that preceded it was essential to the film's box office success, introducing moviegoers to Mewtwo, a darker and more psychologically complex figure than the franchise's usual roster of pocket monsters. For a generation raised on the games and television series, this promotional push marked the brand's first real theatrical event, a signal that Pokémon intended to be more than a Saturday morning phenomenon.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer built around Mewtwo alone, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose creation and isolation drive the film's central conflict. Mewtwo's appeal to collectors rests on this very singularity: unlike the friendly, approachable creatures marketed to children, Mewtwo was positioned from the outset as brooding and formidable, a figure of ambiguous morality rather than easy charm. A close-up framing within a trailer reel carries particular weight for archivists, since trailer cells were produced in limited runs for promotional purposes and rarely survive outside studio or exhibitor hands.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds a single frame, with the picture area spanning the four-perforation pitch.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame along both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing holes visible.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with a dashed cue-style line above it; the Dolby Digital blocks between the lower perforations show as speckled squares.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Cool, slightly blue-tinted base with a clean positive dye image; no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, splices or cue marks are visible on the frame.
Picture
Positive image, a single frame so no consecutive run to judge; animated artwork in a style consistent with the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: optical analogue track plus Dolby Digital data blocks between perforations fit a 1999 theatrical 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 000069865
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
