Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the franchise's television and trading card momentum onto the big screen, backed by a saturation marketing campaign aimed squarely at a generation raised on the Game Boy and Saturday morning anime. The trailer itself became a cultural artifact in its own right, teasing the Mewtwo origin story and the clash between genetic experiment and the original Pokémon, Mew, well before the film's release. For collectors, trailer reels from this period mark the moment hype was manufactured at scale.
This cell, "Mew Attacks!", draws from that promotional reel and centers on the confrontation driving the film's plot: Mewtwo's engineered power set against Mew's untamed original form, with Ash Ketchum present as the human anchor of the story. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, a symbol of ambition and conflict, while Mew carries mythic status as the species' genetic source. A trailer cell like this preserves an early, promotional framing of that rivalry, distinct from the finished film itself.
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, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track sits beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks fill 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 faint light-blue edge tint; the dye image shows saturated purple and magenta with no obvious fading.
Projection history
A thin vertical line runs through the right part of the frames; no splices or cue marks seen at this size.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one shot, and nothing in the picture conflicts with the film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a clear-base 35mm positive fits a late-1990s release print, which suits 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 000070042
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
