Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to extend the franchise's television and card-game dominance onto the big screen. Built around the original 150 Pokémon and the mythic creation of Mewtwo, it became a cultural event for the generation raised on the anime, drawing enormous opening grosses and cementing Pokémon as a theatrical property, not just a Saturday morning phenomenon. Promotional trailer material from this period circulated widely, giving audiences their first glimpse of the film's central conflict before release.
This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel, pairing Ash Ketchum with Mewtwo, the clone Pokémon whose creation and anguish anchor the film's story. Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters, prized for its origin as a scientific experiment turned reluctant antagonist, a rare psychological weight within a children's property. A trailer cell like this one functioned as an advance promise to audiences, isolating the clash between Ash's resolve and Mewtwo's power as the hook meant to draw viewers into theaters, making it an early artifact of the film's marketing rather than the finished feature itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which reads as 35mm; the strip holds three full frames of picture.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or damaged edges visible.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations; the gaps between perforations hold speckled blocks consistent with Dolby Digital data.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue tint at the outer edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size; the frames look clean.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated style fits an anime feature trailer like the one on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a colour positive print fits a late-1990s theatrical release print, consistent with 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 000070097
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
