Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo prepared American audiences for Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's leap from television to theatrical release. The marketing push around this trailer was enormous, riding the crest of Pokémania as the card game, television series, and merchandise saturated the culture. Theatrical trailers of this kind were struck and distributed to exhibitors in 35mm, making surviving reel segments a tangible link to the promotional machinery that introduced Mewtwo and the first generation of Pokémon to moviegoers rather than just television viewers.
This cell carries the name Mewtwo Attacks, a phrase that announces the villain of the piece in motion. Mewtwo, the genetically engineered Pokémon at the center of the film's plot, remains one of the franchise's most sought-after characters among collectors for its design and narrative weight. As a trailer segment, this cell belongs to the promotional apparatus built to sell the film's conflict and stakes before release, a piece of advertising history rather than the feature itself, preserving a moment when Mewtwo's aggression was the hook meant to draw audiences into theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds four frames, the last one cut off at the right edge.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and undamaged.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks sit beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations. A dashed line runs above the optical tracks.
Edge print
Printed along the top edge, reading mirrored: "2283 187 341 1 30 KODAK 28 1999 L".
Base & colour
The base has a light blue-cyan tint along the edges. The dye image looks neutral to cool and shows no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
A thin curled hair-like line is visible in the third frame, and a few tiny dark specks sit in the picture area. No cue marks or splices seen.
Picture
Positive image. The four frames look like consecutive frames of one shot. Nothing in them contradicts the film on record, and the picture alone cannot confirm it.
Era check
Consistent with a 1999 release print: Kodak edge print dated 1999, with an optical track and Dolby Digital data blocks that match late-1990s theatrical prints.
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 000070167
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
