Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as the promotional vanguard for Pokémon: The First Movie, released stateside by Warner Bros. after Nintendo and the Pokémon Company's franchise had already overtaken American youth culture through the Game Boy titles and the television series. The trailer reels circulated to theaters ahead of the feature, introducing audiences to Mewtwo, the series' first major original villain, and setting expectations for a darker, more ambitious entry than the cartoon had yet attempted. These strips are scarce survivors of a distribution format rarely preserved intact.
This cell carries the moment named Mewtwo Commands The Clones, placing the genetically engineered Pokémon in its central role as leader over Gyarados, Scyther, Nidoqueen, and Ninetales, the cloned creatures assembled under its will. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought figures among collectors, prized as the embodiment of the film's conflict between natural and artificial life. A trailer cell like this one functions as advance imagery, built to announce stakes and spectacle before the story itself unfolds in theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three full frames, showing a Mewtwo and Pokémon composition repeated almost identically across them.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes; no torn, stretched or damaged perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, with a small brown speckled pattern in the gaps between lower perforations; no Dolby Digital blocks confirmed.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint; the dye image looks saturated with deep blues and greens, and no fading or red shift is seen.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; a faint ring on the right frame is a camera reflection and is ignored.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames show near-identical content, consistent with one held shot, and the animated characters match a Pokémon title.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print: variable-area optical track plus a Dolby Digital-style pattern between perforations, with the animated picture matching the Pokémon film on record.
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 000069901
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
