Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the marketing push surrounding the franchise's leap from television and trading cards to the big screen. Warner Bros. handled distribution of the film proper, Pokémon: The First Movie, and the promotional trailer reels circulated through theaters ahead of release, introducing audiences to the Mewtwo narrative and its cast of cloned creatures. This period marked peak Pokémania in the West, with merchandise, film, and television converging into a single cultural event, making any surviving trailer material a window into that launch moment.
This cell preserves a frame from that promotional reel, built around the clone versions of Charizard and Blastoise, two of the franchise's most recognizable original fifteen monsters. Their clone forms tie directly to the film's central plot device, the genetic replication experiments at the heart of Mewtwo's origin story. Collectors prize Charizard and Blastoise above most other Pokémon for their popularity and tenure as mascots of the brand, and a trailer cell featuring their cloned counterparts captures an early, promotional presentation of that storyline before general audiences had seen the finished feature.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Kodak 2383 release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges, with four frames visible in the strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both the top and bottom edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Reads as printed, reversed: "2383 187 341 1 30 KODAK 28 1999 L" with a small square marker at one end.
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted clear base at the edges, with a neutral dye image and saturated colours, no fading or red shift seen.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; frames three and four show slight faint ghosting that may be reflection on the base.
Picture
Positive colour image, four consecutive frames of one shot with very little change between them; the Kodak 1999 edge code fits the 1999 film on record.
Era check
Kodak 2383 release-print stock coded 1999, with optical and Dolby Digital tracks, is consistent with a 1999 theatrical trailer 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 000070176
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
