Pokémon: The Movie Trailer arrived in 1999 as part of Warner Bros.' theatrical rollout for the franchise's American film debut, a promotional strip meant to stoke anticipation ahead of Mewtwo Strikes Back. Pokémania was at its commercial peak, with the trailer serving as an early physical artifact of that crossover moment between Japanese animation and Western mass marketing. For collectors, these preview reels capture the franchise before it fully crystallized into the cultural institution it became, making them small time capsules of that transitional year.
This cell pairs Mewtwo and Mew, the two figures whose rivalry and shared origin anchor the film's central story. Mewtwo, the engineered clone, and Mew, the genetic source from which it was created, represent the thematic core of the movie's exploration of identity and purpose. Their appearance together in a trailer cell signals the promotional emphasis placed on this relationship as the hook for audiences. Trailer cells like this one were cut specifically for theatrical previews, distinct from the feature print, making them a narrower and more pointed slice of the film's marketing history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print of the Pokémon: The Movie trailer (1999).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations span each frame along both edges, and the strip holds two full frames plus slivers of picture at the ends.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rounded-rectangle holes, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no torn or damaged holes seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track with two tracks sits beside the picture, with a dashed line above it and a speckled Dolby Digital block pattern between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-tinted base with a neutral, unfaded dye image; the picture area is a saturated blue with clean whites.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the strip looks clean and flat.
Picture
Positive image; the two frames run consecutively as one shot, both showing the numbers 150 and 151, which fits a Pokémon trailer's count of the original 150 plus Mew.
Era check
Dolby Digital data blocks plus a two-track optical stereo track fit a late-1990s 35mm release print, 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 000071033
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
