Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing push that brought Pokémon from television phenomenon to theatrical event, with Warner Bros. handling the North American release of the Japanese-produced feature. The franchise was at its commercial peak, and the promise of a cinema outing built around a battle between two of its rarest creatures gave fans a reason to anticipate the film beyond the weekly series. Trailer material from this period circulates far less than frames from the finished movie, making it a distinct branch of collecting interest tied specifically to the promotional campaign rather than the feature itself.
This cell carries the "Mewtwo Attacks!/Mew Attacks!" billing, naming the confrontation that anchored the film's premise and its advertising. Mew appears here, the elusive original from which Mewtwo was cloned, a figure prized by collectors for its rarity within the Pokémon mythos and its symbolic role as the gentler counterpart to its engineered double. A trailer cell like this one functions as a fragment of the campaign itself, preserving the moment the studio chose to sell the story's central clash to audiences before the film ever opened.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print strip of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999), going by format and soundtrack only.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames, two of them nearly identical blue frames and one dark frame at the right.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
A dual-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The clear base looks neutral to slightly blue-cyan at the edges, and the dye image shows saturated blues and purple with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
A few faint vertical lines show on the two blue frames, with no cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image. The first two frames run consecutively as one shot and the third is a different shot, so the strip spans a cut. Not enough of the images is readable to confirm the film on record.
Era check
The dual optical track with Dolby Digital blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, which suits a 1999 trailer, though nothing visible ties the strip to this title.
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 000070050
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
