Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light

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Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light

Promotional film poster for Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light.
Directed by Hatsuki Tsuji
Produced by Michael Pecerlello
Starring Dan Green
Eric Stuart
Scottie Ray
(all in English version) Shunsuke Kazama
Kenjiro Tsuda
Kouji Ishii
(Japanese version)
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time 101 mins (Japan)
86 mins (UK)
90 mins (US)
Country Flag of Japan/Flag of the United States
Language English/Japanese
Preceded by Yu-Gi-Oh!: Battle City(English version)
Followed by Yu-Gi-Oh!: Waking The Dragons (English version)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Pyramid of Light (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ 光のピラミッド Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu Hikari no Piramiddo?) is an anime film based on the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. This film has received dismal reviews[1], and, as of June 3rd, 2008, it is ranked 81st in IMDB's "Bottom 100" list[2]. In the United States, this film was rated PG by the MPAA for scary combat and monster images.

This film was released in America before Japan; an uncut version (with noticeably different dialogue) was released in Japan shortly after Americans witnessed the film's initial theatrical release. The characters are the same as the English version of the Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters television show; their names have been modified as appropriate (i.e., Anzu is Anzu in the Japanese version and Téa in all other versions).

The movie came out with a soundtrack featuring various vocal artists; however, the score for the movie was never released.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The events of Battle City have just concluded, and Yugi now owns all three Egyptian God Cards. Seto Kaiba longs to finally defeat him, and he suspects that since Maximillion Pegasus created the Egyptian God Cards, he would have also created a way to beat them. Kaiba heads off to Pegasus' retirement castle, and challenges him to a duel, wagering his Blue-Eyes White Dragons for Pegasus' card that can beat the Egyptian Gods. Kaiba wins, and searches Pegasus' deck, finding two cards, despite Pegasus' assertions that there should have only been one. Meanwhile, Yugi, Téa, and Grandpa, seeking refuge from a mob of duelists wanting to duel Yugi for the Egyptian Gods, stumble into Domino Museum. They discover a new attraction on display, the Pyramid of Light, which resembles the Millennium Puzzle. Once Grandpa reads an inscription on the side of a sarcophagus, also part of the exhibit, Yugi has a strange vision about Kaiba. They wake up to find the pyramid stolen, the sarcophagus empty, and Mokuba standing outside. Mokuba says that Kaiba wants Yugi to come to the KaibaCorp Duel Dome immediately. Yugi does so, transforming into the Pharaoh on the way, and finds Kaiba ready to duel. He seals all the exits, forcing Yugi to duel him.

During the duel, Yugi is starting to suspect that there are dark forces at work - especially when Kaiba activates a trap card called the Pyramid of Light, which not only bears a striking resemblance to the pyramid in the museum, but also removes the Egyptian Gods from play. Before long, Kaiba has his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon on the field, but to Yugi's surprise, he sacrifices it to summon an even stronger monster, the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. Kaiba wants to humiliate Yugi by wiping him out with his own Egyptian Gods; since Pyramid of Light removed the Gods from play, Kaiba plans to play Return from the Different Dimension to get them under his control. Kaiba commands his Shining Dragon to use its "Shining Nova" effect, which allows it to sacrifice itself to destroy the Pyramid of Light. Suddenly, a ghostly voice calls out and the effect is canceled. Then, a man rises up from behind Kaiba, throws him aside, and takes over the duel himself. He has the Pyramid of Light around his neck.

It's Anubis (アヌビス Anubisu), the Egyptian Lord of the Dead, whom the Pharaoh destroyed 5,000 years ago. In the English version of the movie, Anubis wants revenge on Yami Yugi (known in the English manga as Dark Yugi) and awakens after Yugi solves the Millennium Puzzle. Pharaoh Atem had defeated Anubis a long time ago, yet Anubis re-appears to face Yugi Muto. In the Japanese version of the movie, Anubis wants revenge by using the King of Light (Kaiba) to defeat the King of Darkness (Dark Yugi) in order to revive Anubis, the King of Destruction and use Kaiba to become the new king and rule the world. Anubis possesses the cards Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia, which he merges into Theinen the Great Sphinx.

Meanwhile, Téa, Joey, Tristan and Yugi are trapped inside the Millennium Puzzle. Putting his faith into the cards, Yugi draws the Double Spell card, which allows him to discard a card to activate Monster Reborn from the graveyard. He uses it to revive Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon and destroys the Pyramid of Light, after it was weakened by Yugi inside the Millennium Puzzle. Anubis is seemingly defeated, but a giant jackal arises from the remains of the Pyramid. Kaiba and Yugi join forces and use Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon to destroy Anubis.

[edit] Reception

On its opening weekend, Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie grossed $9,485,494 landing it in 4th place. In its second week of release it went down six places to 10th with $3,245,167. It closed its gross on November 3, 2004 and grossed $19,765,868 domestically and a worldwide gross of $29,170,410.

Because the film was really only made for fans of the anime (the two match up almost perfectly), it received very negative reviews when it was released in the United States. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 5% "Tomamometer" rating, revealing an extremely negative response from film critics, similar to Pokemon: The First Movie dubbed by the same companies.[1]

Nell Minow of Common Sense Media posted a review of the American English language version of the film on Go.com. She says that young children may like the film and that non-fans will not like it. Minow gave the show two stars out of five. [2]

[edit] Voice actors

[edit] Japanese version

[edit] English version

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Movie (2004)," Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ "Movie Review: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie," Common Sense Media on Go.com

[edit] External links