Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the franchise's television momentum into theaters, backed by a promotional trailer campaign that saturated Saturday morning programming blocks nationwide. The film's success proved Pokémon could command big-screen audiences beyond its core card-and-cartridge fanbase, and the marketing push around it, including this trailer footage, became a cultural touchstone for a generation introduced to the series at its commercial peak. Mewtwo, the film's central antagonist and arguably its most enduring creation, anchors this piece of promotional history alongside his cloned adversaries.
This cell preserves a moment from that early trailer, built around Mewtwo and the clone Pokémon he commands: Gyarados, Scyther, and Nidoqueen. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, prized for his origin as a genetically engineered being and his role as the moral center of the film's conflict. Pairing him here with his clones reflects the premise collectors associate with this story, the artificial doubles pitted against their originals. As trailer material rather than a frame from the finished feature, this cell belongs to the advertising history of the film, documenting how audiences were first introduced to its stakes before the movie itself reached theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames of picture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched with no visible tears or missing holes.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track sits beside the picture, with a dashed line above it; Dolby Digital data blocks show in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light cyan-blue tint at the edges; dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fade or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames repeat one continuous shot with near-identical content, and the animated characters are consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Dual optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching 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 000069876
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
