Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 from Warner Bros. and Nintendo/4Kids, riding the peak of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television into theaters for the first time. Its trailer campaign primed audiences for the saga of Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon whose origin story gave the series an unexpected layer of philosophical weight. The film's box office success proved that the brand could command the big screen, cementing it as a defining pop culture event of the late 1990s.
This cell preserves a promotional moment built around Mewtwo and its cloned companions, Gyarados, Scyther, and Nidoqueen, assembled here as the engineered counterparts central to the film's conflict. Trailer cells like this one carry particular appeal for collectors since they represent the marketing push itself, the images chosen to sell the film before release rather than scenes from the final theatrical cut. Mewtwo's presence anchors the cell as the movie's signature creation, while the clones reinforce the theme of artificial life that defined this entry's departure from the lighter television format.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of the Pokémon: The First Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames across the panel.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no tears visible.
Soundtrack
Two white variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with a dotted line above them, and the gaps between the bottom perforations carry speckled Dolby Digital data blocks.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base along both edges, with a neutral black frame border and a saturated, unfaded dye image.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; only a faint glossy-base reflection on one frame.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames repeat the same shot consecutively, and the animated Pokémon artwork fits the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print, since the optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks match a 1999 theatrical trailer on colour positive 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 000069873
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
