Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's promotional run-up to Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's debut theatrical feature and a defining moment in the Pokémon craze's crossover into American mainstream culture. Built to stoke anticipation among a generation raised on the television series and trading cards, the trailer circulated in theaters and on home video, introducing audiences to Mewtwo as a cinematic antagonist rather than a game sprite. Its 35mm existence places it among the physical artifacts of a media blitz that helped cement Pokémon as a global entertainment force at the close of the twentieth century.
This cell preserves a moment from that trailer centered on Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose introduction marked a tonal shift toward darker, more ambitious storytelling within the franchise. Mewtwo's descent carries the weight of arrival, a figure positioned as the film's central force, and collectors prize such imagery for its role in establishing the character's mythos before the feature itself premiered. As a trailer cell, this frame belonged to the machinery of anticipation, built to tease narrative and spectacle without revealing the whole, making it a fragment of the campaign that introduced Mewtwo to a waiting public.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, with three full frames visible on this strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes and no tears or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run 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
Light cyan-blue tint to the clear base at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and shows no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot, and the animated look is consistent with the film on record, which is an animated feature.
Era check
Consistent: a 35mm print carrying both optical and Dolby Digital tracks matches a late-1990s theatrical trailer print, and the animated image fits an anime-style film like the one on record.
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 000070000
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
