Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the franchise's television and card game momentum onto the big screen, backed by a promotional push that saturated American television with teaser trailers months ahead of release. Those trailers became cultural artifacts in their own right, introducing audiences to a darker, more mythic register than the Saturday morning series had attempted, built around a lab-born Pokémon wrestling with questions of identity and purpose.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel, a title card built around Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose creation and rebellion anchor the film's plot. As the movie's central figure, Mewtwo draws steady collector interest, representing the franchise's rare venture into weightier storytelling. A trailer title card like this one served to announce the character's presence before audiences had seen the film proper, a marketing frame meant to establish Mewtwo as the story's gravitational center.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame down both edges, and the strip holds three frames, the third partly obscured by a reflection.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle shape, cleanly punched with no visible tears or missing perforations.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run between the picture and the lower perforations, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Reads as printed (emulsion-up): "2383 187 341 1 30 KODAK 28 1999 L" - Kodak 2383 print stock code with a 1999 date code.
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base with a neutral dye image; the picture shows no obvious fading or colour shift in the frames visible.
Projection history
A faint hairline mark crosses one lower perforation, and tiny specks are scattered across the strip; no cue marks or splices seen.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot of a blue title card reading "MEWTWO", matching the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent: Kodak 2383 print stock with a 1999 date code, plus optical and Dolby Digital soundtracks, fits a 1999 35mm release trailer print.
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 000070010
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
