Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing push surrounding the franchise's first theatrical feature, released domestically by Warner Bros. after Nintendo's Pokémon phenomenon had swept through television, trading cards, and handheld gaming. The trailer served as an early promotional vehicle, introducing American audiences to the film's central conflict and its most formidable creation, Mewtwo, ahead of the feature's own release. Trailer material from this period carries its own collecting niche, distinct from the film itself, as it captures the promotional apparatus built to launch Pokémon into cinemas at the height of its cultural saturation.
This cell preserves a moment of Mewtwo readying itself for confrontation, a defining posture for a character built as the series' most powerful and morally complex figure. Mewtwo's status as a genetically engineered Pokémon seeking purpose made it the emotional and narrative anchor of the first film, and collectors prize imagery tied to its presence above nearly any other figure in the franchise. A trailer cell like this one functioned as advance promise, a single frame drawn from the reel used to stir anticipation before the full feature reached theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, the 35mm layout; the strip holds three full frames, with the picture area sitting between the perforation rows.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or damaged perforations seen.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run between the picture and the lower perforations, with a dashed line above them and Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Neutral to slightly cool clear base with a blue-green tint along the edges; the dye image looks saturated, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean and sharp across all three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and a character figure in a blue oval fits an animated Pokémon trailer.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: optical stereo track plus Dolby Digital blocks suits a 1999 theatrical trailer, and the animated frame content fits the film 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 000070013
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
