Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional machine Warner Bros. and Nintendo built around the franchise's first theatrical leap, Pokémon: The First Movie. The trailer predates the feature's wide release and was distributed to theaters on 35mm as a standalone marketing reel, a format collectors prize for its scarcity and its role in the broader cultural rollout of Pokémon in America. It captures the moment the series pivoted from television phenomenon to box office event, making these reels a snapshot of that transition.
This cell centers on Mewtwo, the film's genetically engineered antagonist and one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, prized for its central role in the story's conflict and its singular design among early Pokémon. The moment named here, preparing to attack, speaks to the tension the trailer was built to sell, a preview beat meant to establish Mewtwo's power before audiences ever reached the theater. As a trailer cell rather than a frame from the finished film, it represents the advance promise of the story, a fragment of anticipation preserved on film.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched with no visible tears or torn edges.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track (two tracks) runs 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 blue-tinted clear base at the edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no red shift or fading seen.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated style is plausible for the film on record.
Era check
The optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, 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 000070014
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
