[yasr_overall_rating]
Yugi and Kaiba have a special duel that transcends dimensions.
I couldn’t be sure if Yu-Gi-Oh was first a video game that they turned into a movie or if it’s just a movie about crystal dragons, Egyptian powers, and high tech power wars. Yugi (voice of Shunsuke Kazama) and Kaiba (voice of Kenjiro Tsuda) are locked in an epic battle to be the best at…playing a game of cards??
The story starts out by introducing a small group of senior high school friends which somehow include 3 westerners, one with a New York accent, another with a British accent and a third from the Midwest? Yugi and Tea (voice of Amy Birnbaum) are the only Japanese characters. But the story is awkward from the beginning as there are also characters and story development happening in other dimensions of ancient Egypt (I think) and other out-of-this-world places.
The movie obviously indicates a backstory from previous films, but if you haven’t watched these, then it will be hard to really get what the back story is. It is also significant to note that I watched the anime film in the dubbed English version. The film is originally created in the Japanese; it is quite likely that some of the awkwardness of the storytelling just comes from language translation issues…or perhaps what is considered culturally entertaining.
The dialogue from the battle scenes almost sounds like someone is reading the gaming instructions about this or that card, what each card unlocks, and how many points this or that is. To me, it was not a captivating story and everything about the storytelling along with the animation was only so-so. However, my 8-year-old son watched the film three times and completely got it. A real card came with the Blu-ray; he figured it all out and was my biggest help in understanding the film.
I think the dark magic and the Egyptian eye and other cultural symbols of mythology is a little unnecessary for kids, but in general, the movie is enjoyable for 8-10-year-olds and mostly harmless. I think parents will have to decide for themselves if the dueling attitudes and glowing red eyes and resurrected Pharaohs is appropriate for their children.
Now available on Blu-ray & DVD
I am quite disappointed from what you’ve typed firstly here is why, first of all “Yu-Gi-Oh” isn’t a video game it’s a TV-Series brought by “4K Kids” then “Konami” took the hands with the series as well, yes it made a video game of Yu-Gi-Oh but particularly it is a TV-Series and a card game. You will get it when you’ve watched the first season of the first series.