Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing engine built by Warner Bros. and Nintendo to launch Pokémon: The First Movie in American theaters, riding the peak of Pokémania as the franchise crossed from television and trading cards into a genuine box office event. These trailer reels, cut for 35mm theatrical presentation, were designed to build anticipation for the film's central figure, the genetically engineered Mewtwo, and to signal that this was a darker, more ambitious entry than the series' television roots suggested.
This cell preserves a moment of Mewtwo preparing to attack, a beat that trailers relied on to establish stakes and power before audiences had even seen the full feature. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought after characters among collectors, prized as the movie's tragic antagonist and a signature piece of 1999 merchandising history. A trailer cell like this one captures the promotional apparatus itself, the frame built specifically to tease rather than narrate, making it a document of how the film was sold as much as a piece of the film proper.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with rounded-rectangle holes and no visible tears.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS or SDDS visible.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue-cyan cast at the edges; the dye image is saturated and neutral, with no fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size beyond a faint smudge on the third frame; no scratches, cue marks or splices visible.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive frames of the same shot; the glowing blue oval with a creature figure fits a Pokémon trailer.
Era check
Consistent: a Dolby Digital block pattern plus optical tracks on 35mm suits a late-1990s release print, matching 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 000070015
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
