Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 as Warner Bros. and Nintendo's bid to carry the franchise's television momentum onto the big screen, riding a wave of merchandise, card trading, and Saturday morning devotion. The promotional trailer that preceded its release served as a teaser of the film's central conflict, introducing audiences to Mewtwo as a genetically engineered threat positioned against Ash Ketchum and his companions. For a generation raised on the games and show, this was their first glimpse of a darker, more cinematic Pokémon story.
This cell preserves a trailer moment built around Ash Ketchum confronting Mewtwo, the clash that anchored the film's marketing and its emotional stakes. Ash remains the franchise's enduring young hero, while Mewtwo stands as one of its most collected figures, a created being wrestling with purpose and power. A trailer cell like this one captures the film's early pitch to audiences, the promise of conflict between trainer and creation before the story's full weight unfolds. For collectors, it marks the moment the movie announced itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the 1999 Pokémon: The Movie trailer.
Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds four complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, drawn as two white waveform lines; the gaps between the lower perforations carry speckled Dolby Digital data blocks.
Edge print
Reads (mirrored) "2383 187 341 1 30 KODAK 28 1999 L", with a small square mark at the right end.
Base & colour
Clear pale blue-tinted base; the dye image looks neutral and saturated with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible on the four frames.
Picture
Positive image; the four frames run consecutively as one continuous shot, and the animated look fits a Pokémon title.
Era check
Consistent: Kodak 2383 print stock with a 1999 date code, an optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks fit a 1999 theatrical release print.
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 000070169
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
