Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of the promotional rollout preceding Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's first theatrical outing in the United States. Produced during the height of Pokémania, these trailer reels circulated to theaters to build anticipation for a film that would become a cultural touchstone of late-90s youth entertainment. Warner Bros. handled distribution stateside, and the marketing push around this release helped cement Pokémon's place in American pop culture well beyond its origins as a video game and television property. Collectors of early Pokémon ephemera prize material from this window, as it captures the franchise at its original commercial peak.
This cell centers on Mewtwo and Mew, the two legendary Pokémon whose rivalry anchors the film's central conflict and gives the movie its dramatic weight. Mewtwo, a genetically engineered clone born from Mew's DNA, represents one of the franchise's most enduring characters, prized by collectors for the philosophical questions it raises about identity and creation. Mew, rare and elusive within the games themselves, carries a mystique that made its pairing with Mewtwo a natural draw for promotional material. As a trailer cell, this frame comes from footage designed purely to entice audiences, offering an early glimpse of the pairing that defined the film's marketing.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, the 35mm layout; the strip holds roughly one full frame with slivers of its neighbours at top and bottom.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge; the visible holes are evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle in shape and cleanly punched, with no torn or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A dual variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the perforations on the soundtrack edge; no DTS timecode line or SDDS tracks are visible.
Edge print
Only the numerals 150 and 151 are printed in the margin, repeated on both sides of the frame; no manufacturer name, SAFETY FILM text or other codes are visible.
Base & colour
Clear base with a pale blue-cyan tint along the edges and a neutral dark image area; no red shift or dye fading is evident.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, splices or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive image; only one frame is fully visible, so consecutive-frame continuity cannot be judged, and it shows nothing that contradicts the film on record.
Era check
The dual optical track with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is consistent with a late-1990s 35mm release print such as a 1999 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 000071030
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
