Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as the promotional vanguard for Warner Bros.' theatrical release of Pokémon: The First Movie, the franchise's leap from television phenomenon to the big screen. Riding the crest of Pokémon's explosive popularity in the West, the trailer introduced American audiences to the saga of Mewtwo and Mew, setting up the mythic conflict at the story's core. As an early piece of marketing film, it holds a particular place in the franchise's history, capturing the moment Pokémon mania translated into cinema.
This cell preserves a pairing central to that mythology: Mewtwo, the engineered clone, set against Mew, the ancestral original from which it was created. Their shared appearance speaks to the film's foundational theme of origin versus creation, nature versus artifice. As a trailer frame, this piece of 35mm functions as advance promise rather than narrative moment, a glimpse meant to stir anticipation. For collectors, Mewtwo and Mew together represent the defining dyad of the franchise's first cinematic chapter.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for Pokémon: The Movie (1999), with the title itself unconfirmed.
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which fits 35mm; the strip holds two frames, shown sideways on the panel.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched; the lower edge also shows Dolby data blocks between holes.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations; no DTS timecode or SDDS tracks seen.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
The base looks clear with a faint cyan-blue tint at the edges; the dye image reads as neutral black with strong blues and no obvious fading.
Projection history
No scratches, splices or cue marks seen at this size.
Picture
A positive image, two consecutive frames of the same shot, each carrying the numbers 150 and 151; the film's title is not shown, so a title match cannot be confirmed here.
Era check
The optical track plus Dolby Digital data blocks fits a late-1990s 35mm release print, which is consistent with 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 000071031
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
