Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 through Warner Bros., adapting the franchise's television mythos into a theatrical feature for a fan base that had exploded across toys, trading cards, and games. The movie's central conflict, built around the genetically engineered Mewtwo and questions of identity and purpose, gave the Pokémon brand an unexpected weight for a project many dismissed as a marketing exercise. Its box office success proved the character universe could sustain feature-length storytelling, and the trailer campaign that preceded it became part of the cultural rollout, introducing audiences to stakes beyond the usual episodic adventures.
This cell preserves a strip from that trailer, the promotional format designed to set tone and build anticipation ahead of release. Mewtwo anchors the frame, the series' most psychologically complex creation and a perennial favorite among collectors for the moral ambiguity woven into its design. The scene named here, a stand-off, points to the confrontational posture that defined Mewtwo's arc, a creature asserting dominance and challenging the natural order of Pokémon. For collectors, this moment captures the character at the center of the franchise's first cinematic reckoning with power and purpose.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The First Movie (1999) trailer.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames side by side.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes, cleanly punched with no tearing or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base along the edges, with a neutral-to-slightly-warm dye image showing no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the frames look clean on the backlit panel.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the animated Pokémon artwork fits the film on record.
Era check
The twin optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print of 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 000069883
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
