Yu Gi Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light

Plot

Five thousand years ago, a heroic Pharaoh 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 with his most valuable treasure, the Pyramid of Light. A devastating spiritual force unleashes from the relic and liberates the Egyptian god. Anubis, now free, intends to conclude his plan.

Meanwhile, the Battle City Finals have recently concluded, and Yugi Muto has achieved international fame by defeating his arch-rival Seto Kaiba and obtaining the three legendary God Cards: Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor, and the Winged Dragon of Ra. Kaiba, determined to defeat Yugi, turns to Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters, in order to obtain any new cards designed to defeat the 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 two cards, one of which was secretly planted by Anubis.

Meanwhile, Yugi and Téa go to the local museum where Anubis' corpse and the Pyramid of Light are on display. They meet up with Yugi's grandpa Solomon, who reads a prophecy describing a clairvoyant eye which will prevent the world's destruction if blinded. Anubis' spirit attacks the group with Yugi having a vision of Anubis himself manipulating Kaiba and him in a Shadow Game. He awakens to find Anubis and the Pyramid of Light missing. Kaiba's brother Mokuba arrives, and Yugi is taken to Kaiba's duel dome with his friends Joey and Tristan in pursuit. Kaiba arrogantly and ignorantly forces Yami Yugi into a duel, unaware that Anubis is manipulating him into using one of the two 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. To make matters worse, Kaiba manages to eliminate half of Yami Yugi's deck through Deck Destruction Virus, leaving him with barely any cards, and attacks from his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon (his second new card), both with 4500 Attack Points, drops 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 in the tomb as predicted by the prophecy.

When Kaiba deviates from Anubis' plan and attempts to destroy the Pyramid of Light, Anubis materializes, casts him aside, and takes command of 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 revealed his true form, The End of Anubis. This proves to be his undoing when Yugi and Yami summon Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon to destroy Anubis, defeating him for good. In the end, Kaiba departs promising to defeat Yugi, and Yugi thanks Yami and his friends for their companionship.

Soundtrack

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie Soundtrack feature various vocal artists (most notably The Black Eyed Peas, who contributed the song "For the People"). It was released on August 10, 2004 on RCA on Audio CD and Compact Cassette. The score for the film was never released.

Promotion

Attendees of the premiere got 1 of 4 free Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game cards (Pyramid of Light, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Watapon, and Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon) when filmgoers purchased tickets for the film.

Box office

Yu-Gi-Oh! 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. The film grossed $19,765,868 in the United States and Canada, with only $29,170,410 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.

Critical reception

The film was met with an overwhelmingly poor reception from critics. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 68th in the "100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s", with a rating of 5%, based on 65 reviews. The consensus reads "Don't watch the TV show or play the card game? Then this movie is not for you." The film was also the lowest rated animated film on Metacritic (until it was surpassed by The Emoji Movie), with an average of 15 out of 100, based on 18 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is the second lowest rated animated film of the 2000s behind Happily N'Ever After.