| Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster |
|
| Directed by | Hatsuki Tsuji |
| Produced by | Michael Pecerlello |
| Starring | English: Dan Green Eric Stuart Scottie Ray Wayne Grayson Greg Abbey Amy Birnbaum Tara Jayne Maddie Blaustein Darren Dunstan Japanese: Shunsuke Kazama Kenjiro Tsuda Kouji Ishii Hiroki Takahashi Hidehiro Kikuchi Maki Saito Junko Takeuchi Tadashi Miyazawa Jiro J. Takasugi |
| Distributed by | 4Kids Entertainment Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 13, 2004 August 13, 2004 September 16, 2004 December 24, 2004 |
| Running time | 90 minutes (English) 101 minutes (Japanese) |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $29,170,410 (USA) |
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 a 2004 anime film produced by Nihon Ad Systems based on the second anime series of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
This film was released in the United States before Japan, as it was commissioned by 4Kids Entertainment, and was released in theatres in August 2004. The characters are the same as the English version of the Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters television show and their names retain their regional changes (i.e., Téa is Anzu in the Japanese version and Téa in all other versions). Unlike the TV series, the cards retain their appearance to their real world counterparts in the English version. The movie was released in Japan in December 2004, which utilized the names, original sound effects and original soundtrack from the Japanese anime and featured ten minutes of additional animation.
The movie came out with a soundtrack featuring various vocal artists (most notably The Black Eyed Peas, who contributed the song "For The People"); however, the score for the movie was never released.
Contents |
The events of Battle City (Season 3) and the Paradise arcs have just concluded, and Yugi now owns all three Egyptian God Cards. Seto Kaiba longs to finally defeat Yugi, 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' retreat castle to find the card. Meanwhile a shadowy being breaks into Pegasus' safe and adds a card to the deck hidden inside. Kaiba arrives and challenges Pegasus to a duel, wagering his Blue-Eyes White Dragons for Pegasus' card that can beat the Egyptian Gods. Kaiba wins, and Pegasus' allows him to search his Deck for the card. To Pegasus' surprise Kaiba finds two cards, capable of defeating the God Cards. Kaiba leaves ignoring Pegasus' claims that there should only have been one card.
Meanwhile, Joey and Tristan hold off a mob of duelists wanting to duel Yugi for the Egyptian Gods (until Joey ends up dueling with and defeating all of them), with Yugi and Téa seeking refuge in Domino Museum, where they meet up with Yugi's Grandpa. 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, Yugi wanting Téa to read him an ancient story of the pharaoh's past, 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; Joey and Tristan, who have been chasing Yugi to see what he's up to, are also trapped.
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; it also sucks Yugi, Joey and Tristan's souls into the Millennium Puzzle, and later Téa as well. During the duel, as Yugi and Kaiba lose Life Points, they begin to lose their own life force as well. 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 special effect, which allows it to sacrifice itself to destroy the Pyramid of Light. Suddenly, a ghostly voice calls out and the effect is canceled. Anubis, the Egyptian Lord of the Dead whom the Pharaoh destroyed 5,000 years ago, is resurrected by Yugi's ebbing life force and rises up from behind Kaiba, throwing him aside and taking over the duel himself, all in the hopes of having his revenge against the Pharaoh.
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 is weakened by Yugi inside the Millennium Puzzle, which also releases him, Joey, Tristan and Téa. Anubis then summons Theinen the Great Sphinx with the Pyramid of Light around his neck. Yugi then uses the Reverse of Reverse trap card to use the Return from the Different Dimension placed face-down by Kaiba to return the Egyptian God Cards and use them to defeat Anubis's monster. Anubis is seemingly defeated, but a giant jackal arises from the remains of the Pyramid and attempts to kill Yugi and his friends. Kaiba and Yugi join forces and summon the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, which destroys Anubis once and for all.
The film opened at 2,411 screens across the U.S and made a theater screen average of $3,934. By the end of the weekend, it made $9,485,494 and place #4 on the Box Office Top 10 behind Collateral, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and AVP: Alien Vs. Predator, which took the #1 position. It is currently the #3 Japanese animated film in the US Box Office, after Pokémon: The First Movie and Pokémon 2000.[1]
The film had gained overwhelmingly negative response. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 68th in the '100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s', with a rating of 5%, based on 60 reviews, with the site's top critics giving it a rating of 0%. The film only grossed $19 million in the United States and in Canada, with only $29 million worldwide, making it a severe disappointment compared to the first three Pokémon films dubbed by the same company, which were highly successful, with a total worldwide gross of $363 million. The film is also currently the lowest rated animated film on Metacritic, with an average of 15 out of 100, based on 18 reviews.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes it is the second lowest behind Happily N'Ever After.
Attendees of the movie during its premiere (U.S. or Japan) got 1 of 4 free Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game cards Pyramid of Light, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Sorcerer of Dark Magic and Watapon were given out as part of a promotional deal when moviegoers purchased tickets for this movie.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||