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 Saturday morning schedules. The film adapted Mewtwo Strikes Back for Western audiences and became a genuine box office event, proving that the franchise could move beyond cards and handheld cartridges into mainstream cinema. Trailer material from this release is especially prized by collectors, since it captures the marketing push that introduced millions of casual viewers to the saga's darker, more philosophical antagonist for the first time.
This cell centers on the clash between Ash Ketchum and Mewtwo, the confrontation at the heart of the film's promotional identity. Ash represents the franchise's everyman hero, while Mewtwo stands as its most complex creation, a lab-born Pokémon wrestling with questions of purpose and power. A trailer cell exists to tease that tension, distilling the feature's central conflict into a single promotional fragment meant to draw audiences into theaters. For collectors, a piece naming both figures together marks the moment the series staked its claim on the big screen.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds one complete frame with small slivers of the neighbouring frames above and below.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on each edge, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle punches that look clean and uniform; the edge between the perforations on the lower side carries a speckled pattern.
Soundtrack
Two white-on-dark variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with a dashed line above them and a speckled band between the perforations, which may be a digital data pattern.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue-cyan tint along both outer edges; the dye image shows saturated, neutral-to-cool colour with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the capture shows a single clean frame.
Picture
Positive image, one frame only so consecutive running cannot be judged; the animated imagery is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: dual variable-area optical tracks and a speckled digital data band between perforations match a 35mm theatrical print of that period.
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 000069866
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
