Pokemon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the franchise's television momentum into theaters, riding the peak of Pokemania in the West. Produced by OLM and distributed through Warner Bros., it introduced American audiences to Mewtwo's origin story ahead of the broader cast, using trailers and promotional reels to build anticipation months before release. The film's box office success proved that the Pokemon brand could extend beyond cards and episodes into a theatrical event, cementing its place in late-90s pop culture history.
This cell comes from the promotional reel circulated before the film's release, a trailer segment meant to tease rather than fully reveal. Ash Ketchum, the franchise's enduring protagonist, stands opposite Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokemon whose conflict drives the movie's central drama. Collectors seek this pairing because it captures the film's defining confrontation, the clash between a trainer's resolve and a created being's power. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the marketing history of the picture, a fragment meant to draw audiences into theaters rather than a scene from the finished narrative itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip from Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames, with a sliver of a fourth at the left edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle punches that look cleanly cut and uniform along the full strip.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with a dashed line above them, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base along the edges with a neutral clear margin; the dye image looks saturated with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices appear in the three frames or along the edges.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive near-identical frames from one shot, and the animated style is consistent with the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a late-1990s release print: analogue optical tracks plus Dolby Digital blocks between perforations suit a 1999 theatrical trailer, and the animated picture fits the 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 000070096
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
