Jul 14, 2017
I'm writing my review a little later than some, but hopefully its useful to potential viewers.
When Dark Side of Dimensions was announced in 2016, many people were very excited at the prospect of another Yu-Gi-Oh movie and some were little apprehensive as the franchise's movies tend to be a little underwhelming and even cringey. Dark Side of Dimensions is a step-up from that, but it's not perfect.
Story: The story is pretty basic and uniform for Yu-Gi-Oh. Good guys are having a good time, bad guys show up and it's up to the good guys to stop them, oh and Seto Kaiba has his own
...
motives as usual. It's not a bad story, but for how much this movie was hyped up, I was personally expecting something a little bigger and bolder. The plot is a little similar to Bonds Beyond Time in my opinion, but it's not awful. Western viewers will also be surprised that the English dub is entirely uncensored and there's actual guns. I honestly think the story could have done with more than just the good vs evil trope, but it definitely wasn't as bad as i thought it could have been.
Art: The animation is fantastic and a real step up from the original series. No more pointy chins! The art flows smoothly and definitely shows how much animation has come from the early 2000's. It's bright, has depth and looks amazing both on laptop and television screen.
Sound: Again, the sound is fantastic. It's clear, crisp and the voice acting for both sub and dub is great. The original voice actors are welcomed back and reprise their roles and it's wonderful to see how much the dub voice actors have improved in particular. As in Bonds Beyond Time, the late Maddie Blaustein's role of Sugoroku Mutou is given to Wayne Grayson who does a very good match of Maddie's voice. The dub has a few corny jokes as usual, but it's very faithful to the sub. The original soundtracks from both the sub and dub also play through the movie, but sadly the Western release is mostly stuck with the 4kids music.
Character: All the original characters return for this movie, bar a few. The movie tends to focus on Seto Kaiba more, where we see huge character development - something which is very overdue. Like the original release, the characters boast the same personalities we knew and loved and it's a nice slice of nostalgia. There's also new characters introduced and we get to see the backstorys of a number of characters. I do feel that some characters were left out of the story as usual (notably Otogi/Duke, Honda.Tristan, Anzu/Tea and Ryo Bakura) and that some characters needed more character development, but as per the series the movie focuses more on the main character. I also feel that the main villain of the movie was also quite generic and there wasn't a lot of character development.
Enjoyment: If you watched the original series or read the manga, you will enjoy this movie. I wouldn't say it's fantastic but it's definitely better than the other movies. it's great for nostalgia and you may even find yourself watching to fetch out your old Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Overall: Overall, I give Dark Side of Dimensions a 7/10. The animation, sound and characters are great but I felt that the generic plot let it down a little. However, it was still a huge improvement on the past movies (Yu-Gi-Oh 1999, Pyramid of Light and Bonds Beyond Time) and I do feel that it's a good adaption. With a little more story, less generic good vs evil and more character development this could have been a great movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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