The Powerpuff Girls Movie Trailer arrived in 2002 courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, extending Craig McCracken's Cartoon Network series into feature territory with an origin story for Townsville's pint-sized defenders. Directed by McCracken himself, the film gave longtime fans a theatrical expansion of a property built on short-form television episodes, and the marketing push around its release included trailer prints struck for theatrical distribution, now scarce artifacts from early-2000s animated film promotion.
This cell comes from that trailer reel, a promotional strip meant to introduce or remind audiences of the three leads before the main feature unspooled. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are the franchise's core trio, each carrying distinct appeal among collectors who favor one personality over the others, making a cell featuring all three especially sought after. As a trailer piece rather than a frame from the finished film, it represents the promotional apparatus of early-2000s animation, a physical remnant of how Cartoon Network's biggest theatrical crossover was sold to audiences in cinemas.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm release print trailer of The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Gauge
35mm layout with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three full frames, with a slice of a fourth not visible.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, with rounded-rectangle holes that look cleanly punched and uniform in size.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture as two parallel waveform lines, with a dashed line above them and a pattern of data blocks sitting in the gaps between the lower perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Light blue-tinted base along both edges, with a neutral black frame border and a dye image that shows no obvious fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size; the frames look clean, with only a few tiny specks on the third frame.
Picture
Positive image, three consecutive near-identical frames from one held shot, and the animated characters are consistent with The Powerpuff Girls Movie trailer on record.
Era check
The optical track plus Dolby Digital-style data blocks between the perforations on a 35mm print is consistent with a 2002 theatrical release print.
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 000071085
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
