Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's advance promise of the first Pokémon feature to American audiences, riding the franchise's explosive stateside breakthrough. Promotional reels like this one circulated to theaters ahead of the full release, built to stoke anticipation among a fan base still new to the idea of Pokémon on the big screen. These trailer prints are scarce survivors from a marketing campaign designed for short-term use, making any surviving 35mm fragment a window into how the film was first sold to the public.
This cell, Mewtwo Commands The Clones!, centers the film's central antagonist, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose arc of power and identity drives the entire story. Mewtwo's command of cloned creatures, here represented by Gyarados, Scyther, Nidoqueen, and Ninetales, speaks to the film's core conflict between artificial dominance and natural will. Collectors prize Mewtwo material for his singular status as the movie's defining figure, and a trailer cell naming this commanding moment captures the promotional framing of that menace before audiences ever saw the finished film.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched with no tears or missing perforations.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base at the edges with a neutral clear centre; the dye image looks saturated, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the ring on the third frame is a camera reflection and is ignored.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the artwork is animated, which fits an animated feature's trailer.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: optical analogue track plus Dolby Digital data blocks matches 1999 theatrical prints, and the frame is animated like the 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 000069903
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
