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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000003037 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEPokémon: The Movie Trailer
SCENEMewtwo‘s Invitation
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR1999
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000003037

FILM NOTES

Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing machine behind Pokémon: The First Movie, released theatrically by Warner Bros. in North America under license from Nintendo and Shogakukan. The franchise was at its commercial peak, and trailers like this one served as collectible ephemera in their own right, distributed to theaters and promotional outlets on 35mm alongside the feature content. For collectors, these preview reels capture a specific marketing moment: the push to position Mewtwo as a central, tragic figure in the series' first cinematic leap, bridging the television phenomenon and the big screen.

This cell, Mewtwo's Invitation, points to the narrative device that drives the film's plot: a summons sent out to trainers, framed here through Queen Rin and Queen Ilene. These two figures belong to the legend-telling prologue of the movie, the mythic frame story that sets up Mewtwo's origins before the main action begins. Their presence in a trailer cell suggests the promotional reel drew on this early sequence to establish stakes and mystery ahead of release, making the piece a small artifact of how the film's marketing chose to introduce its central conflict.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999), animated, with optical and digital sound.

Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame along both edges, and the strip holds three complete frames plus a sliver of a fourth at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or visibly damaged perforations in this capture.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, with a dashed line above it, and a speckled data pattern lies between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base along both edges, with a neutral-to-cool dye image showing saturated greens, blues and purples and no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; the frames look clean, with no visible lines, scratches, cue marks or splices.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot of an animated scene, which is plausible for an animated Pokémon trailer, though the capture cannot confirm the title.
Era check
Optical tracks plus the speckled data pattern between perforations suggest a late-1990s release print, which fits a 1999 trailer, though the pattern's exact type cannot be confirmed here.
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 000070038
Original Film Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size