The Powerpuff Girls Movie arrived in 2002 from Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network Studios, extending Craig McCracken's hit television series into feature length. The film served as an origin story, explaining how Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup came to be, and it introduced new audiences to Townsville through the standard theatrical trailer campaign of the era. For collectors of animation promotional material, trailer cells from this period capture a transitional moment when Cartoon Network properties were being positioned for wider theatrical audiences, making this a notable artifact of early 2000s animated marketing.
This cell centers on Professor Utonium, the scientist and father figure whose accidental creation of Chemical X sets the entire Powerpuff Girls mythology in motion. As a close-up, this frame isolates him as an individual presence within the trailer's sequence, apart from the girls he raises. Collectors value Utonium material because he anchors the emotional core of the franchise even while remaining secondary to its heroines, and trailer cells featuring him alone are less common than group compositions, giving this piece particular appeal to those assembling a complete trailer run.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release-print trailer strip of The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Gauge
35mm: four perforations per frame along both edges, and the strip holds three frames, each split by a dark frame line.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched with no tears or missing perforations.
Soundtrack
A dashed Dolby Digital-style data line and a variable-area optical track run beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Pale blue-teal tint on the clear base at both edges; the dye image looks neutral to slightly yellow-green with no obvious fading.
Projection history
None seen at this size; the frames look clean with no visible scratches, cue marks or splices.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot, and the flat graphic cartoon artwork fits an animated trailer for the film on record.
Era check
Consistent with a 2002 release print: Dolby Digital data between the perforations beside an optical track suits early-2000s theatrical prints, and the blue-tinted base fits modern print stock.
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 000071077
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
