Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional push surrounding Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's leap from television and handheld games to American theaters. Distributed by Warner Bros. in the United States following Toho's original Japanese release, the campaign was engineered to capture a cultural wave at its peak, with trailers circulating in theaters and on home video to prime audiences for Mewtwo's cinematic debut. This was a moment when Pokémon mania was translating into a genuine box office event, and the marketing materials themselves have become artifacts of that transition.
This cell preserves a moment tied to Mewtwo's Stadium, placing the genetically engineered Pokémon within the arena setting that anchors much of the film's conflict and spectacle. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters among collectors, prized for its central role in the original movie's narrative of identity and power. A trailer cell like this one represents the promotional apparatus built to introduce that story to wide audiences, a single frame excerpted from the reels used to generate anticipation before the feature's release, now standing as a fragment of that early marketing history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie (1999) trailer.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle punches with clean edges and no visible tears or missing holes.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations and a dashed line above the optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a slight cool blue-cyan tint along the edges; the dye image shows strong blues and warm yellows with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and nothing in them contradicts a Pokémon: The Movie trailer.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, which matches a 1999 trailer, and the base and dyes look like standard print stock.
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 000069974
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
