Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo prepared American audiences for the franchise's theatrical debut, part of the promotional push that carried Pokémon from television phenomenon to box office event. The marketing campaign surrounding the first film was enormous for its time, and trailer prints circulated to theaters as part of that rollout, making surviving 35mm material from this promotional reel a scarce link to the moment Pokémon crossed into cinema.
This cell preserves a title card bearing Mew, the rare and mythical Pokémon whose mystery drove much of the first movie's plot and mythology. A title card functions as a signal moment within a trailer, the frame where name and image meet to announce what audiences are being sold. Mew's presence here speaks to the character's centrality in the franchise's early iconography, a figure collectors prize for its scarcity within the Pokémon canon and its symbolic role in this debut cinematic outing.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no visible tears or damage.
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.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue-cyan tint at the edges; the dye image looks saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; the strip looks clean, with no visible scratches, cue marks or splices.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot of Mew with a purple 'MEW' title, which fits a Pokémon trailer.
Era check
Consistent: an optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks on a clear base matches a late-1990s 35mm release print, such as 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 000069988
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
