Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo built anticipation for the first theatrical Pokémon feature, a cultural flashpoint that rode the franchise's explosive American debut. The trailer itself became a collector's object in its own right, a promotional artifact circulated in theaters and on early VHS tapes ahead of the film's wide release, capturing the moment Pokémon crossed from handheld games and television into mainstream movie houses.
This cell preserves a moment named Mewtwo Commands The Clones, placing the genetically engineered Mewtwo at the center of authority over its assembled clone creatures, among them Gyarados, Scyther, Nidoqueen, and Ninetales. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after figures, prized for its origin as a man-made Pokémon and its central role in the film's conflict. A trailer cell like this one functions as a fragment of promotional history, a single frame pulled from the reel used to sell audiences on the film before its premiere, now preserved as a piece of that early marketing campaign.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four-perforation frames along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames with a fourth cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shaped and cleanly punched, with no tears or missing holes seen.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture on the lower edge, plus what look like Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base reads neutral to slightly cool with a pale blue-green tint at the edges; the dye image shows saturated blues and greens with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; a faint circular reflection on the third frame is a camera artefact and is ignored.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames are near-identical consecutive frames of one shot, and the animated Pokémon artwork fits the film on record.
Era check
Consistent: an optical track with Dolby Digital blocks on 35mm stock fits a late-1990s release print or trailer, which is the period of 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 000069904
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
