Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to extend the franchise's explosive popularity from television into theaters. Built around original animation rather than a dubbed import, the picture introduced Mewtwo, a lab-born Pokémon whose existential conflict gave the film unexpected weight beneath its merchandising ambitions. Promotional trailer reels like this one circulated to build anticipation, carrying frames that would never appear in the same form once the final cut was assembled, making them a distinct artifact from the feature itself.
This cell preserves a trailer moment pairing Ash Ketchum with Mewtwo, the franchise's young hero set directly against its most formidable creation. Ash represents the series' everyman ambition, while Mewtwo stands for its darker, more philosophical ambitions, a pairing collectors prize precisely because it signals conflict at the heart of the story. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the marketing apparatus that introduced audiences to the film before release, a separate lineage from release prints and one that documents how the studio chose to sell this particular confrontation.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm layout with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-corner rectangular holes that look cleanly punched and undamaged.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical soundtrack runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base with a neutral clear margin; the dye image shows saturated blues and whites with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean and flat.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the animated style is plausible for the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent: Dolby Digital blocks between perforations plus an optical track fit a late-1990s theatrical release print, and the stock matches the 1999 date.
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 000070098
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
