Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo's new theatrical ambitions, riding the crest of a cultural wave that had already conquered handheld screens, trading cards, and Saturday morning television. The teaser materials that preceded the film's wide release were engineered to stoke anticipation among a fanbase still discovering the franchise's reach into cinema. Promotional 35mm trailer reels from this period are scarce survivors, most having been discarded once theatrical runs ended, which makes any surfacing fragment a genuine artifact of early Pokémon marketing history.
This cell centers on Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon whose origin and inner conflict anchor the film's narrative stakes. As the movie's central antagonist turned tragic figure, Mewtwo remains one of the franchise's most collected characters, prized for the gravity it brought to a series otherwise built on lighter adventure. A trailer cell built around a close-up signals the marketing team's intent to showcase Mewtwo as the film's dramatic centerpiece, using a single sustained image to introduce audiences to a character designed to feel unlike anything in the Pokémon world before it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip of Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, as 35mm shows; the strip holds three full frames, with a fourth cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or damaged holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs between the picture and the lower perforations, with dense Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale cyan-blue tint along the edges; the dye image looks neutral, with no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, splices or cue marks are visible on the three frames or the track.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-identical shot, and the animated style is plausible for the film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, matching a 1999 theatrical trailer; no stock or base feature contradicts that.
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 000070153
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
