Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of Warner Bros.' theatrical rollout for Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's bid to translate a television and gaming phenomenon into feature-length format. The surrounding Pokémon boom was at its commercial peak in North America, and preview material tied to the film carried genuine cultural weight, serving as many young audiences' first glimpse of the story's central antagonist. These promotional reels, often overlooked next to the finished film, document the marketing machinery that introduced a generation to Mewtwo before the movie itself reached theaters.
This cell isolates Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose existential conflict anchors the film's plot, making it a natural focal point for collectors drawn to the character's origins. A descent suggests arrival or entrance, a moment of appearance rather than resolution, fitting the function of a trailer designed to tease presence without context. Trailer cells like this one occupy a distinct category from film-print stills, preserving advertising history rather than narrative sequence. For collectors, it represents an early public introduction to Mewtwo, captured at the threshold of the character's theatrical debut.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which reads as 35mm, and the strip holds three frames, one of them a plain pale blank frame.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing perforations seen in this capture.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with dual bilateral waveforms, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base has a pale blue tint across the borders, and the dye image in the frames shows saturated blues with no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the frames and track look clean in this capture.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames sit side by side as one continuous sequence ending in a blank frame and a bright flash, and the strip contains no title or text to confirm the film on record.
Era check
The optical track with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, which is consistent with 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 000070003
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
