Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's promotional vanguard for Pokémon: The First Movie, riding the franchise's explosive arrival in American pop culture. The trailer circulated in theaters ahead of the feature's release, stoking anticipation for a phenomenon that had already taken hold through the television series and trading cards. As an early piece of Pokémon cinema marketing, it holds a distinct place for collectors tracing the brand's theatrical debut, predating the feature itself and capturing the moment the franchise crossed from screen and card shop into movie houses nationwide.
This cell carries the name Mewtwo's Stadium, placing it with Mewtwo, the engineered Pokémon at the center of the film's conflict and one of the franchise's most sought-after characters for its mythic origin and outsized presence in the story. A stadium setting ties the moment to the film's climactic battleground, the arena built for the created Pokémon's confrontation with its rivals. As a trailer cell, it belongs to the promotional material meant to draw audiences in before the movie's wide release, a fragment of the campaign that introduced Mewtwo's world to theatergoers.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds roughly one full frame plus part of a second at the bottom edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-corner rectangles that look cleanly punched with no torn or stretched holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a slight cool blue cast across the panel; the dye image shows warm yellows and reds with no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the picture area looks clean.
Picture
Positive image; frames do not run consecutively as one shot in this capture, and the animated artwork is plausible for a Pokémon trailer but cannot be confirmed from one frame.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print, 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 000070154
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
