Sai the Magic Word

Sai the Magic Word is a 2003 comedy brickfilm by Nate Burr. It is the fourteenth film in the Steve and Dave series and is about a trio of ninjas chasing Steve and Dave to gain possession of their wish-granting book. It was an entry to the High Adventure Theatre Contest on Brickfilms.com and tied for fifth place with The Factory Fix by Stephen Nolen and Austin Nolen.

Plot
An unseen figure demands his three ninja underlings retrieve the wish-granting book of power by the day's end, or else they will be killed. At the apartment of Steve and Dave, who currently possess the book, Steve is using the book to annoy Dave, when the white ninja crashes through the window. Steve uses the book to drop a car on the ninja's head, but the ninja emerges with a massive bomb in hand, and blows up Steve and Dave's apartment.

Steve and Dave are thrown to a nearby park. Dave speculates that the book helped them survive, as BoB once told him the book chose Steve and Dave to protect it from evil. As Steve wonders why BoB hasn't shown up yet, the grey ninja confronts Steve and Dave for the book. Steve doesn't know where it went following the explosion, but Dave produces the now tiny book from his pocket, after wishing for it to be easier to be carried. As the grey ninja gets distracted while going on a tangent, Steve and Dave flee.

Later that night, Steve and Dave are hiding from ninjas on a rooftop. The red ninja arrives in a helicopter, and Steve uses the power of the book to give himself ninja skills, transforming into Super Samurai Steve. Steve throws a piece of wall at the helicopter, destroying it. The red ninja leaps onto the rooftop and has a sword fight with Steve, which takes them to ground level and into a different building. A building support is cut in the fight and Steve escapes before the building collapses on the red ninja. Steve returns to the rooftop to find Dave being held captive by the ninjas' master, revealed to be a head in a jar with a robot body. The head wants the book to get back his true form and rule the world. Steve fights the head until he removes a crucial component from its body, and it stops working. BoB finally shows up and takes the head in a jar back to a cryogenic chamber.

The hand of the red ninja emerges from the rubble of the demolished building, and he vows for revenge.

Crew

 * Nate Burr - Writer, Director, Animator, Composer

Sequel
Sai the Magic Word was originally supposed to be followed by a sequel which had the working title Sai 2. This film was planned to be half an hour long and explain the back story of BoB, as well as continuing the story of the book, the head in a jar and the red ninja. The planned release date was October 2004, and was later pushed back to 2005. However, Burr's existing back problems were aggravated by an injury in late 2004, and he was mostly unable to animate for the rest of 2004 and a large portion of 2005. Burr returned to regular animating with the 3-minute All Hallows Steve in October 2005, which only continued the plot element of Steve and Dave losing their house from Sai the Magic Word and didn't mention any of the other characters. Sai 2 was never released, and Sai the Magic Word became BoB's final appearance in a Steve and Dave film, apart from silent background cameos.