The Powerpuff Girls Movie arrived in 2002 from Warner Bros. Pictures and Cartoon Network Studios, adapting Craig McCracken's hit animated series into a theatrical origin story for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Directed by series creator McCracken, the film traced the girls' accidental creation and early struggles to be accepted by the citizens of Townsville before becoming its protectors. It arrived at a moment when Cartoon Network was pushing its properties into feature film territory, and the movie stands as a snapshot of early 2000s American animation crossing from television into cinema, carrying the show's stylized visual language and tone to a wider audience.
This cell preserves a logo card from the trailer reel, the kind of frame used to announce the film's identity before audiences ever see the girls in motion. Logo and title cards from trailer prints are sought by collectors because they mark the promotional apparatus surrounding a release rather than the narrative itself, offering a piece of how the film was introduced to theater audiences in 2002. As a 35mm trailer artifact, it represents the marketing lineage of the Powerpuff Girls brand at its theatrical peak, a tangible link to the campaign that carried the characters from Saturday mornings to the big screen.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release trailer print of The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Gauge
Four perforations per frame along both edges, which fits 35mm; the strip holds three frames, each showing the same title card.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform in size.
Soundtrack
A two-track variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
The light-blue upper edge shows reversed lettering that reads "SAFETY" backwards; no key numbers or other codes are legible.
Base & colour
The base carries a pale cyan-blue tint along both edges, and the dye image looks neutral and saturated, with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Not visible in this capture
Picture
Positive image; three consecutive frames repeat one title card, "The Powerpuff Girls Movie", matching the film on record.
Era check
A two-track optical track with Dolby Digital blocks on a blue-tinted base fits a 2002 35mm release print, so the stock is plausible for that date.
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 000071057
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
