The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002) brought Craig McCracken's Cartoon Network hit to theaters through Warner Bros., expanding the origin story of three chemically-created kindergarteners into a feature-length adventure. Built on the show's blend of candy-colored style and surprising violence, the film arrived at the franchise's commercial peak, aiming to widen its audience beyond Saturday morning cartoons. Though its box office fell short of expectations, the movie has since become a nostalgic touchstone, remembered fondly as a natural extension of the series' wit and visual charm, and preserved here through promotional trailer material struck on 35mm, the format still used for theatrical marketing prints of the era.
This cell draws from that trailer, the piece of film built to sell audiences on the characters before the movie opened. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup together are the franchise's core draw, the trio whose individual personalities, commander, charmer, fighter, made the show a merchandising and animation landmark. A trailer cell capturing all three together holds particular value for collectors, since it represents the moment the girls were introduced to moviegoers as a unified team, a promotional snapshot of the franchise's theatrical debut rather than a frame from the finished feature itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release-print trailer strip for The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, with three frames visible on the strip.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched; lower-edge perforations sit between Dolby data blocks.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs as two tracks beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
A small run of reversed, partly legible characters sits along the upper edge, too indistinct to quote; no other manufacturer text or key numbers are readable.
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base with a neutral, unfaded dye image; reds, yellows and the black frame lines look full.
Projection history
None seen at this size; no scratches, cue marks or splices are visible across the three frames.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the cartoon characters and artwork are consistent with the Powerpuff Girls film on record.
Era check
Optical track plus Dolby Digital blocks on a blue-tinted 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 000071065
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
