The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002) brought Craig McCracken's Cartoon Network series to theaters, with Warner Bros. handling distribution for a studio that had built the show into one of the network's defining properties of the late 1990s. The film served as an origin story, explaining how Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup came to be, and arrived as a modest theatrical bet on television animation translating to the big screen. It holds a place in that early-2000s stretch when Cartoon Network stars were testing wider audiences beyond Saturday mornings.
This piece comes from the trailer material promoting that release, a strip meant to circulate the three leads together as a unit ahead of the picture's debut. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are the franchise's entire foundation, and material showing all three in one strip is the most natural kind of promotional souvenir a collector seeks, since it represents the team rather than a single character. Trailer cells like this one functioned as advertising artifacts first, made to circulate in theaters and build anticipation before the film opened.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer for The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three full frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, rectangular with rounded corners, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with no tears or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, and Dolby Digital data blocks sit in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
A short code along the upper edge reads roughly 'MC-20' with a block mark, partly unclear at this size.
Base & colour
Light cyan-blue tinted base edges, with a neutral, saturated dye image and no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no lines, scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive frames from one shot, with a Powerpuff Girls character design that matches the film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a tinted-edge base fits an early-2000s 35mm release print, matching a 2002 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 000071064
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
