| Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light | |||||
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| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ 光のピラミッド | ||||
| Literal meaning | Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Pyramid of Light | ||||
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| Directed by | Hatsuki Tsuji | ||||
| Written by |
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| Based on | Yu-Gi-Oh! byKazuki Takahashi | ||||
| Produced by |
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| Starring | seebelow | ||||
| Music by |
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Production companies | |||||
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Release dates |
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Running time |
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| Language | English[1] | ||||
| Budget | $20 million[3] | ||||
| Box office | $29.2 million[4] | ||||
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, released in Japan asYu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Pyramid of Light (Japanese:遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ 光のピラミッド,Hepburn:Yū Gi Ō Dyueru Monsutāzu Hikari no Piramiddo;lit. 'Game King Duel Monsters: Light Pyramid'), or simplyYu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie, is a 2004animatedadventurefantasy film based on the manga seriesYu-Gi-Oh! byKazuki Takahashi.[5] It stars the cast of theYu-Gi-Oh! television series in a new adventure that takes place between thethird andfourth seasons of the show.
The film was first released in theaters in the United States byWarner Bros. Pictures on August 13, 2004,[6][5] and was released on DVD and VHS on November 16, 2004.[7] The film was released in theaters in Japan byToho on November 3, 2004, and aired onTV Tokyo on January 2, 2005. A remastered version of the film was released in theaters by4K Media Inc. in 2018 on March 11 and 12 in the US,[8][9] 25, April 28, and 29 in Canada[10] and June 13 in the United Kingdom,[11] and was released on Blu-ray byKonami Cross Media NY andCinedigm on October 8, 2019.[12]
5,000 years ago, the heroic Pharaoh Atem imprisonedAnubis, the Egyptian lord of the dead, after he tried to destroy the world by persuading the kings to play the mysterious Shadow Games.
In the present day, Anubis' tomb is uncovered by archaeologists, amazed by his strongest and most valuable treasure: the Pyramid of Light. At the same time, Yugi Muto assembles the Millennium Puzzle which contains Atem's soul, releasing dozens of monsters and turning Yugi into a mindless heroic Pharaoh Atem under his control, under the alias of Yami Yugi, and banishes the monsters back to the shadow realm and a devastating spiritual force unleashes from the relic and liberates the Egyptian sorcerer. Anubis, now free, intends to conclude his plan.
3 years later, the Battle City Finals have recently concluded,[c] and Yugi has achieved international fame by defeating his arch-rival Seto Kaiba and obtaining the 3 Egyptian God Cards:Slifer the Sky Dragon,Obelisk the Tormentor, andthe Winged Dragon of Ra. Kaiba, determined to defeat Yugi once and for all, turns to Maximillion Pegasus, the creator of the Duel Monsters card game, to obtain any new cards designed to defeat the almighty God Cards. Pegasus tells Kaiba that he has a card he is looking for, but will only give it to Kaiba if he can beat him in a duel. Kaiba defeats Pegasus and claims 2 cards, one of which was secretly planted by Anubis.
Meanwhile, Yugi and Téa Gardner go to the local museum where Anubis' corpse and the Pyramid of Light are on display. They meet up with Yugi's grandfather, Solomon, who reads a forebodingprophecy:
It is then that the vengefully dark spirit of Anubis attacks the group, with Yugi having a vision of Anubis himself manipulating Kaiba and Yami Yugi being hurt in a Shadow Game. He awakens to find Anubis' body and the Pyramid of Light missing. Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba arrives, and Yugi is taken to Kaiba's Duel Dome with his friends Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor in pursuit. Kaiba forces Yami Yugi into a duel, unaware that Anubis is manipulating him into using one of the 2 new cards,Pyramid of Light, which covers the field in a huge replica of the actual pyramid and destroys the God Cards. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan are sucked into the pyramid while Mokuba flees the crumbling building.
Yugi, Joey, and Tristan awaken within the Millennium Puzzle, finding Anubis' tomb within. Anubis reveals that his monsters will destroy the modern world. Yami Yugi and Kaiba continue their duel, each blow to their in-game Life Points draining away their physical energy. Compounding matters, Kaiba'sDeck Destruction Virus sends more than half of Yami's deck to the Graveyard, leaving him with barely any cards, and attacks from hisBlue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon andBlue-Eyes Shining Dragon (his 2nd new card), both with 4500 Attack Points, drop Yami's Life Points to 200. Pegasus figures out what is going on and arrives in a helicopter to rescue Téa, Solomon, and Mokuba. Téa sends her soul into the Millennium Puzzle to aid Yugi, Joey, and Tristan. Yugi finds the Dagger of Fate within Anubis' tomb and uses it to destroy the all-seeing eye, as predicted by the prophecy.
When Kaiba deviates from Anubis' plan and attempts to destroy thePyramid of Light, Anubis materializes, casts Kaiba aside, and takes command of the duel, leading Yami to discover that Anubis is the real mastermind behind the duel. Yami, reunited with Yugi, destroys thePyramid of Light card withBlue-Eyes Shining Dragon and then uses Kaiba's planned strategy to summon the God Cards and end the duel by destroying Anubis.
However, Anubis transforms into a monster and allows any monster to become real when summoned. This proves to be his undoing when Yugi and Yami summonBlue-Eyes Shining Dragon to defeat Anubis, ultimately destroying him for good. An injured Kaiba departs with Mokuba, with the promise to defeat Yugi the next time they meet. Yugi thanks the spirit of Yami, and his 3 best friends for their strong enduring friendship which he claims makes him a true winner.
| Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie Soundtrack | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | August 10, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | 2004 | |||
| Genre | Rock,pop,hip hop | |||
| Length | 44:46 | |||
| Label | 4Kids Entertainment,RCA | |||
| Producer | John Siegler, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, Eddie Montilla,Jean Rodríguez, Wayne Sharp, Shep Goodman, Kenny Gioia, Herminio Quiroz, Ron Riley, Russell Velázquez, Jen Scaturro, Julian Schwartz, Jake Siegler, Alex Walker | |||
| Yu-Gi-Oh! chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [13] |
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie Soundtrack feature various vocal artists (most notablyThe Black Eyed Peas, who contributed the song "For the People") from the English version. It was released on August 10, 2004, onRCA onAudio CD andCompact Cassette.[14] The score for the film was never released.[citation needed]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You're Not Me" | Norman J. Grossfeld, John Siegler | Marty Bags | 3:16 |
| 2. | "For the People" | Will Adams, Taz Arnold, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair,Jamie A. Dávila "Tame" Gómez, Shafiq Husayn | The Black Eyed Peas | 4:01 |
| 3. | "One Card Short" | Norman J. Grossfeld, John Siegler | James Chatton | 3:50 |
| 4. | "Step Up" | Eddie Montilla, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair | Jean Rodríguez | 3:53 |
| 5. | "Shadow Games" | Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, Wayne Sharpe | Trixie Reiss | 3:32 |
| 6. | "It's Over" | Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair | Fatty Koo | 3:49 |
| 7. | "Blind Ambition" | Russel Velazquez | The Deleted | 3:18 |
| 8. | "The Great Pretender" | Jon Frederik | The Jon Frederik Band | 3:14 |
| 9. | "How Much Longer" | Jen Scaturro | Jen Scaturro | 3:12 |
| 10. | "U Better Fear Me" | Russel Velazquez, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair | The Deleted | 4:17 |
| 11. | "Power Within" | Wayne Sharpe, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair | Dan Metreyeon | 3:09 |
| 12. | "Believe In" | Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, Jake Siegler, Alex (Llocks) Walker | Skwib | 3:07 |
| 13. | "Yu-Gi-Oh! Theme" | Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair | 2:07 |
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In July 2003, it was announced Warner Bros. had acquired non Asian territory distribution rights to the then-untitled feature-lengthYu-Gi-Oh! film, hoping to match prior success with the first threePokémon films.[15]
The English-language release retains most of the regional changes made to the TV series, like the use of different character names (for instance, the character known in Japan as "Anzu Mazaki" is named "Téa Gardner" in other markets). Unlike the regular series, the trading cards seen in the film look like theirreal-life counterparts; the English-language series would normally edit them to alter their appearance.
The Japanese release features 13 minutes of additional animation, using the characters' original names, the original soundtrack and sound effects heard in the Japanese series. Also, a different ending theme is used,Fire by groove metal band BLAZE.
Attendees of the film got one of four freeYu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game cards (Pyramid of Light, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Watapon, and Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon) when purchasing tickets for the film.
A tie-in novelization for the film was released in 2004, written byJunki Takegami. The novel is divided into a prologue, 5 chapters, and an epilogue. It is virtually identical in terms of plot, save for a few minor changes, such as explaining that Akhenaden created the Pyramid of Light for his son Seto as a failed recreation of the Millennium Puzzle, and extra exposition, such as giving out detailed deck-lists for each character. The novel was never released and translated to English, and is now rare since it has gone out of print.[16]
The film was released on DVD and VHS on November 16, 2004.[7]
The film debuted on theBlu-ray format in the United States for the first time on October 8, 2019.[17]
Yu-Gi-Oh! – The Movie: Pyramid of Light 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 behindCollateral,The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, andAlien vs. Predator, which opened up on the same day and took the #1 position. It is currently the #3 Japanese animated film in the US Box Office, afterPokémon: The First Movie andPokémon: The Movie 2000.[18] The film grossed $19,765,868 in the United States and Canada, with only $29,170,410 worldwide,[4] making it abox-office bomb compared to the success of the first threePokémon films dubbed by the same company.
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 6% of 65 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Don't watch the TV show or play the card game? Then this movie is not for you."[19]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 15 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[20]
OnRotten Tomatoes, it is the second lowest-rated animated film of the 2000s behindHappily N'Ever After.
In a retrospective review for theRadio Times Guide to Films, film critic Lucy Barrick awarded the film two stars out of five, describing the narrative as "largely incomprehensible" and the animation as "bog-standard".[21]
On February 1, 2018, it was announced byFathom Events and4K Media Inc. that the film would be getting a remastered re-release in 800 American theaters through March 11 to 12.[8]
In October 2018, a trailer for the Remasters preview for the currentYu-Gi-Oh anime,Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, was shown alongside the film, in which theYu-Gi-Oh film is on Blu-ray, which came out on October 8, 2018.[22]
Fathom Events announced on Thursday that it will screen Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie in United States theaters on March 11 and March 12.
Cineplex is listing the remastered version of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie screenings in Canadian theaters on April 25, April 28, and April 29.
In cinemas Wednesday 13th June
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