Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in American theaters in November 1999, brought to screen by Warner Bros. in partnership with Nintendo and the Pokémon Company, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had already swept through trading cards, handheld games, and Saturday morning television. The promotional trailer reel circulated ahead of release, building anticipation for a franchise still proving it could translate from pocket screens to the multiplex. For collectors, these early trailer frames mark a transitional moment, when Pokémon mania was expanding into feature film territory for the first time.
This cell centers on Mew, the rare and elusive Psychic-type long treated as the franchise's most mythic creature, central to the film's plot and its marketing hook. A dodge captured in a trailer frame speaks to Mew's defining trait: evasiveness, both narratively and as a collectible figure within the Pokémon mythos. Trailer cells carry their own appeal distinct from finished film reels, preserving a promotional moment meant to entice rather than narrate, offering collectors a fragment of the buildup surrounding one of animation's most anticipated crossover releases.
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, with three full frames visible and a sliver of a fourth at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes, cleanly punched with no tears or torn edges visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS timecode line or SDDS tracks seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a light blue tint at the edges; the dye image looks neutral to cool with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the character design matches the Pokémon film on record.
Era check
Consistent: a 35mm release print of this period carries an optical track alongside Dolby Digital data blocks, as seen here, matching a 1999 theatrical 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 000070125
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
