Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's advance promise of Pokémon: The First Movie, released theatrically that November. It landed amid the height of Pokémania in North America, when the franchise was expanding from handheld games and television into feature film territory for the first time. Promotional trailer reels from this period document the marketing machinery built to introduce American audiences to Mewtwo's story before the full picture arrived in theaters, making these early strips valuable records of the franchise's cinematic debut.
This cell draws its name from Mewtwo's Stadium, the constructed arena at the center of the film's climactic clone conflict. Its subject is Blastoise, rendered here as one of Mewtwo's cloned Pokémon, a figure central to the film's themes of duplication and identity. Collectors prize clone-era material for its connection to the movie's darker, more philosophical underpinnings, a tone unusual for the franchise at the time. As a trailer cell, this frame represents the studio's effort to signal scale and stakes to audiences ahead of release, a single still drawn from reels built to generate anticipation.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS timecode line is visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue edge tint and neutral-to-cool dye image; no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices in the three frames.
Picture
Positive image; three consecutive near-identical frames from one shot; the picture is a stylised stadium view and nothing in it conflicts with the film on record.
Era check
Optical tracks with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations suit a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching a 1999 trailer.
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 000069977
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
