Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's advance promise of Mewtwo Strikes Back, the first theatrical Pokémon feature to reach American audiences at the height of the franchise's explosive stateside debut. Pokemania was in full swing that year, with trading cards, the television series, and merchandising saturating the culture, and this preview reel served as an early signal to exhibitors and fans that the phenomenon was moving to the big screen. Trailer prints like this one are scarce survivors, often cut apart or discarded once their promotional run ended, making any surviving 35mm fragment a direct artifact of that marketing campaign.
This particular cell, cataloged as Venusaur Clone, places it within the trailer's showcase of the genetically engineered Pokémon central to Mewtwo Strikes Back, where cloned creatures stood alongside their originals as a visual hook for the film's premise. Rayquaza's presence here ties the frame to a figure prized among collectors as one of the series' legendary Pokémon, a creature whose appearance in early promotional material predates much of its later mainstream recognition. For archivists, a trailer cell like this captures the commercial machinery introducing the film to its first audience, a single surviving frame from the campaign that launched Pokémon onto American theater screens.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three full frames, consistent with 35mm.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes and no visible tears or torn edges.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with a dashed line above it; no Dolby Digital blocks are visible between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a faint blue-cyan tint at the edges; the dye image looks neutral and well saturated, with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; the strip looks clean, with no obvious scratches, splices or cue marks.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and nothing in the picture contradicts an animated trailer for the film on record.
Era check
A variable-area optical track on a positive colour print is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print, though the lower edge lacks visible Dolby Digital data.
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 000069947
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
