It’s time to d-d-d-duel!

Three years after the animated “Yu-Gi-Oh!” television series became a sensation on Kids WB!, the comic book turned card game and video game franchise has become a big screen animated movie.

Like its once popular predecessor, “Pokemon,” “Yu-Gi-Oh!” is a star with a brief life expectancy and it’s already on its downward spiral. But the movie should be a treat for the fervent young fans that remain, and a true test of devotion for their accompanying parents.

Yugi Muto is a mild-mannered high school kid who beats everyone at his favorite card game, Yu-Gi-Oh! A player’s deck is only as powerful as the cards he puts in it, but players such as Yugi know how to combine cards for their greatest effect.

Yugi’s Grandpa Muto owns a game shop and helped him build his deck and – crucial plot point – gave him an ancient Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle. When Yugi solves the puzzle, he releases the 5,000-year-old spirit of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh, who seems to be part of Yugi, takes over and wins when he plays for Yugi.

But – and here’s the next crucial plot point – the Pharaoh also has incurred the wrath of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death. Anubis awakens and decides to destroy Yugi so he can destroy the Pharaoh so he can destroy the world (yes, in that order). And he does it through a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, of course!

Anubis secretly “stacks” the deck of Yugi’s greatest rival, Seto Kaiba, a wealthy high school kid intent on beating our hero.

What “Yu-Gi-Oh!” fans should like best are the ways the monsters and other characters come to life in the duels. But, as with “Pokemon,” there’s also a nice message about the importance of friendship.