Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and 4Kids Entertainment's bid to capture the full force of Pokémania at its American peak, pairing Mewtwo's origin story with a Pikachu short to fill theaters of children and collectors alike. The trailer campaign preceding it became its own cultural artifact, circulated through promotional reels and tie-in merchandise that stoked anticipation months before release. These marketing pieces, often preserved only in fragments like this, document a moment when a card game and cartoon converted into a full theatrical event, reshaping how studios marketed properties aimed at younger audiences while courting a broader crossover public.
This cell preserves a moment built around Charizard and Blastoise clones, figures tied directly to Mewtwo's genetic experiments at the heart of the film's plot. Both creatures rank among the franchise's most sought after, prized for their popularity in the trading card game and their visual presence as evolved, formidable Pokémon. A trailer cell like this one serves a promotional function distinct from the feature print, meant to entice rather than narrate, offering collectors a physical link to the film's earliest public face. For enthusiasts, it represents the clone storyline itself, the mechanism driving the movie's central conflict.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999), with limited evidence from one frame.
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds a single frame.
Perforations
Four perforations per frame on each edge, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with rounded corners and no visible tears or missing holes.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with a dashed line above it; no Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations are visible, and no DTS timecode or SDDS tracks are seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear to slightly cool base with a light blue tint at both edges; the dye image looks saturated and neutral, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No lines, cue marks or splices seen at this size; faint surface marks cannot be ruled out on a single frame.
Picture
Positive colour image; only one frame is shown, so consecutive-shot continuity cannot be checked. The animated look is plausible for an animated feature trailer, but the frame alone cannot confirm the title.
Era check
The two-track optical track and the cool-tinted print base are consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print, though a single frame cannot confirm the exact 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 000070158
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
