Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to translate a television and card game phenomenon into a theatrical event, riding the crest of Pokémania at its peak in the West. Promotional trailers circulated ahead of release, building anticipation with glimpses of the film's central conflict between Mewtwo and the forces arrayed against it, including a cloned menagerie of familiar Pokémon. These teaser materials are their own small category of collectible, distinct from the finished feature, offering audiences an early and sometimes altered window into the story before final cuts were locked.
This cell draws from that promotional window, centering on Ash Ketchum and his effort to rescue his Pokémon amid the presence of a Venusaur clone, one of Mewtwo's artificial creations central to the film's plot. Ash remains the franchise's anchor figure, and material pairing him directly with the cloning storyline holds particular interest for collectors tracing the film's thematic core. A trailer cell like this preserves a moment crafted specifically for advance promotion, a fragment of the campaign that introduced moviegoers to the stakes before the full narrative unfolded.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm optical-sound release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames, two similar and one differing.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no tears or missing holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, with the analogue waveform visible; no Dolby Digital blocks, DTS line or SDDS tracks are visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base at the edges, with a neutral black picture area and saturated blue and green dyes that read as unfaded.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the reflection spots are camera artefacts and are ignored.
Picture
Positive colour image in animated style; the first two frames look like consecutive frames of one shot, the third differs, and nothing contradicts the film on record.
Era check
The analogue optical track and animated colour image are consistent with a 1999 35mm release print or trailer, though Dolby Digital data is absent in this capture.
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 000069952
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
