Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as the promotional vanguard for Pokémon: The First Movie, released domestically by Warner Bros. in partnership with Nintendo and the Pokémon Company. It landed at the height of Pokémania, when the franchise was expanding from games and television into a full theatrical presence, and trailers like this one served to introduce American audiences to the stakes of Mewtwo's origin story and the mythic status of Mew. For collectors, these early promotional reels capture the moment the franchise proved it could command the big screen.
This cell preserves Mew in a moment of readiness, a beat the trailer uses to signal the power and mystery surrounding the film's central legendary creature. Mew's role as the genetic source for Mewtwo made it the emotional and narrative key to the movie, and any frame showing the character poised for action speaks to that importance. Trailer cells like this one circulate among collectors precisely because they document the franchise's first theatrical pitch, offering a physical artifact from the campaign that introduced Mew's significance to a wide audience.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The Movie (1999) trailer.
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which fits 35mm; the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shaped and cleanly punched with no visible tears.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower perforations; no DTS or SDDS visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to faintly cool base with light blue-tinted borders on the edges; the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no fading or red shift seen.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen in this capture.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the picture matches an animated Pokémon trailer for the film on record.
Era check
A two-track optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a 35mm positive print is consistent with a 1999 theatrical release print of this 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 000069993
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
