Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's push to translate the television and gaming phenomenon into a theatrical event, backed by a trailer campaign that primed American audiences for the saga of Mewtwo. The teaser reels circulated ahead of release, building anticipation around the franchise's first cinematic villain and the darker, more ambitious tone the film promised compared to the show. These promotional strips are now sought after as artifacts of that crossover moment, when Pokémon mania was at its commercial peak.
This cell preserves a moment from that early trailer material, where Mewtwo asserts command over its cloned forces, with Gyarados, Scyther, and Nidoqueen standing among the ranks under its direction. Mewtwo remains the franchise's signature tragic antagonist, a lab-born psychic engineered for dominance, and collectors prize any cell bearing its image for that complexity. A trailer cell like this one functioned as a promotional fragment, cut and distributed to tease narrative stakes before the feature existed in public memory, making it a marker of the film's earliest marketing life.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three frames, the last one cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, 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 clear base at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the frames look clean.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames show the same shot with slight movement between them, and the artwork looks like Pokémon animation, matching the film on record.
Era check
Dolby Digital blocks combined with an optical track on a 35mm print are consistent with a late-1990s 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 000069897
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
