Pokémon: The Movie Trailer (1999) arrived as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's push to bring the franchise's first theatrical feature to American audiences, riding the crest of Pokémania as the card game, television series, and merchandise saturated the culture. The trailer served as an advance herald for Pokémon: The First Movie, introducing moviegoers to the franchise's leap from Saturday mornings to the big screen. Its 35mm existence places it squarely in the promotional ecosystem of theatrical exhibition, the kind of reel threaded ahead of features to build anticipation for a release that would become a defining cultural moment of its decade.
This cell preserves a title card moment built around Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose creation and inner conflict form the emotional spine of the film it promotes. As a trailer element, a title card exists to announce identity and stakes before the story proper unfolds, making this fragment a marker of how Mewtwo was positioned to audiences from the very first promotional materials. Collectors prize Mewtwo material for the character's enduring stature as the franchise's most philosophically weighted figure, and this piece captures that introduction at its earliest promotional stage.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for 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.
Soundtrack
A dual-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and the gaps between the lower-edge perforations hold grainy square blocks consistent with Dolby Digital data.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a slight cool blue-cyan edge tint; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible on these three frames.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive frames from one shot, showing a blue frame with a glowing 'MEWTWO' title, which fits a Pokémon movie trailer.
Era check
Consistent: optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks suit a late-1990s 35mm release print, and the Mewtwo title fits the 1999 Pokémon 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 000070005
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
