Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
2004 Japanese-American animated adventure fantasy film by Hatsuki Tsuji
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Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, released in Japan as Yu-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 simply Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie, is a 2004 animated adventure fantasy film based on the manga series Yu-Gi-Oh! by Kazuki Takahashi.[5] It stars the cast of the Yu-Gi-Oh! television series in a new adventure that takes place between the third and fourth seasons of the show.
| Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light | |||||
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Theatrical release poster | |||||
| 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! by Kazuki Takahashi | ||||
| Produced by |
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| Starring | see below | ||||
| Music by |
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Release dates |
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| Language | English[1] | ||||
| Budget | $20 million[3] | ||||
| Box office | $29.2 million[4] | ||||
The film was first released in theaters in the United States by Warner 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 by Toho on November 3, 2004, and aired on TV Tokyo on January 2, 2005 in Japan and on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the United States on July 30, 2005. A remastered version of the film was released in theaters by 4K 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 by Konami Cross Media NY and Cinedigm on October 8, 2019.[12]
Plot
5,000 years ago, the heroic Pharaoh Atem imprisoned Anubis, 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 the heroic Pharaoh Atem (referred to by fans as Yami Yugi) who banishes the monsters back to the shadow realm. A devastating spiritual force is unleashed from the relic, liberating 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, and the 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 foreboding prophecy:
- The eye that sees what's yet to come
- Its vision shall be fulfilled
- Unless blinded by events predetermined
- Thus light and shadows both be killed
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's Deck Destruction Virus sends more than half of Yami's deck to the Graveyard, leaving him with barely any cards, and attacks from his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Blue-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 the Pyramid 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 the Pyramid of Light card with Blue-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 summon Blue-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.
Voice cast
| Character | Japanese | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yugi Mutou / Yami Yugi | Shunsuke Kazama | Dan Green |
| Seto Kaiba | Kenjiro Tsuda | Eric Stuart |
| Anubis | Kōji Ishii | Scott Rayow |
| Joey Wheeler | Hiroki Takahashi | Wayne Grayson |
| Tristan Taylor | Hidehiro Kikuchi | Greg Abbey |
| Téa Gardner | Maki Saitou | Amy Birnbaum |
| Mokuba Kaiba | Junko Takeuchi | Tara Jayne |
| Solomon Mutou | Tadashi Miyazawa | Maddie Blaustein |
| Maximillion Pegasus | Jiro J. Takasugi | Darren Dunstan |
Soundtrack
| 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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Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie Soundtrack feature various vocal artists (most notably The Black Eyed Peas, who contributed the song "For the People") from the English version. It was released on August 10, 2004, on RCA on Audio CD and Compact 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 |
Production
In July 2003, it was announced Warner Bros. had acquired non Asian territory distribution rights to the then-untitled feature-length Yu-Gi-Oh! film, hoping to match prior success with the first three Pokémon 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 their real-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.
Promotion
Attendees of the film got one of four free Yu-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.
Novelization
A tie-in novelization for the film was released in 2004, written by Junki 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]
Release
Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS on November 16, 2004.[7]
The film debuted on the Blu-ray format in the United States for the first time on October 8, 2019.[17]
Box office
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 behind Collateral, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and Alien 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, after Pokémon: The First Movie and Pokémon: 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 a box-office bomb compared to the success of the first three Pokémon films dubbed by the same company.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 6% of 66 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 a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 15 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[20]
On Rotten Tomatoes, it is the second lowest-rated animated film of the 2000s behind Happily N'Ever After.
In a retrospective review for the Radio 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]
Fathom Events re-releases
On February 1, 2018, it was announced by Fathom Events and 4K 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 current Yu-Gi-Oh anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, was shown alongside the film, in which the Yu-Gi-Oh film is on Blu-ray, which came out on October 8, 2018.[22]
Notes
- The Japanese script was adapted by Junki Takegami and Masahiro Hikokubo.
- The music was composed by Shinkichi Mitsumune for the Japanese version.
- As depicted in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
