"Live Action Zelda Should Be a 3D Ghibli Movie | Castle Super Beast 243 Clips"

[kane_magus]

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I think a live-action Legend of Zelda movie has, at least, the potential to be way worse than the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie ever was, simply because they probably are going to be trying so very hard to make it be "authentic," which was something they obviously didn't even attempt to do with the live-action SMB movie. The live-action SMB movie certainly wasn't Super Mario Bros. in any "real" sense, but it was still an... interesting movie on its own merits, even if not actually all that good. Even though I liked the live-action SMB movie well enough, I still don't think it's a good movie. However, a very "by-the-numbers" attempt at a live action The Legend of Zelda movie, to me, just seems like it could be the blandest, most milquetoast thing possible. But then, if they don't do that and try to make it actually unique and distinct from the games in some way, we'll just get the same complaints about it that were made about the live-action SMB movie, that it wasn't enough like the games.

But, really, what even is "authentic" when it comes to Zelda? I mean, compare, say, Wind Waker Link to Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom Link to any other Link you care to name. Hell, throw in Super Mario Bros. Super Show Link or CDi Link, too, if you want. No two Links are the same[1], and that goes for Zelda and Ganon(dorf), too. Hyrule itself as a whole isn't even consistent from game to game (and that's assuming the game in question even takes place in Hyrule at all, since several of them don't). It isn't like the Mario games, where Mario/Luigi/Peach/Bowser/Yoshi/whoever are pretty much the exact same characters in every game.

And yeah, nobody that they cast as Link is ever going to be "acceptable" to the vast majority of fans, even if they end up doing a relatively passable okay-ish job (like what Chris Pratt did as Mario in TSMBM). It's like that whole "the elves aren't pretty enough" complaint I once heard about the Lord of the Rings movies. Basically, the point was that no matter how pretty Liv Tyler or Orlando Bloom were, they were never, as mere humans, going to be "elf-pretty," and I can understand that.

[1] - Well, aside from the ones in direct sequels to previous games, like Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass or TotK.

Comments

[goldpseudo]

I reckon the biggest issue with casting Link is the fact that Link in the games has practically no personality of his own. Pretty sure this was an intentional game design, the idea being that the player basically gets an empty vessel to insert whatever personality he chooses to role-play in the adventure.

Compare this to pretty much everyone else in the Zelda games; they have goals, interests, personalities, actual dialog, and all that interesting stuff. The world is expansive, developed, full of colorful characters and fascinating history. Plenty of fodder for a movie in there.

Give me a Legend of Zelda movie that actually focuses on, oh, I dunno, ZELDA? I'd be all in on that. Link can just stay sleeping in Kokiri Village or whatever it is he does when she doesn't actually need him to go find a Master Sword or whatever, which is honestly probably most of her life. I'm sure she has plenty of other stories to tell.

[kane_magus]

Even with Zelda, though, which one do they go with for the movie? Do they go with tomboy Zelda who spent most of her life as Tetra? Or Zelda who grew up in a crapsack world and had to disguise herself as Sheik for most of her adult life? Or Zelda who is the physical incarnation of the goddess Hylia? Or Zelda who spent the entire game asleep? Or the Zelda from Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom who something something I don't know because I haven't played those games yet?

Or... do they try something new and different, which too many fans will probably hate because she's not like their favorite Zelda from <insert game here>? Personally, I'd go with new and different, but that's just me. I'd hope that fans would be willing to accept that a movie isn't just going to retread some plot(s) from the games, but my faith in such things has been steadily eroded over the years.

Honestly, yeah, a Legend of Zelda movie sans Link (or with Link in a more reduced, background role) that focused more on Zelda could be interesting. Or heck, it could be kind of interesting if the character who everyone thought of as "Link" for the first half or so of the movie turned out to be the movie's version of Zelda. Fans would riot, of course, but I'd watch it, however they went about doing it.

[goldpseudo]

Link being a cross-dressing tomboy Zelda is exactly the movie I never knew I needed until now.

[kane_magus]

Now that it's come up, I'm honestly a bit surprised that they haven't tried it in the games themselves yet. I know that they've done the female Link thing before (kind of; Linkle didn't end up actually being "female Link," but she was originally designed as "female Link" before they changed it). And a couple of those CDi games straight up had Zelda as the main protagonist (but it hasn't happened in any of the Nintendo-made games, sadly). And of course there was the whole Zelda/Sheik cross-dressing/transformation thing in OoT. But I don't think they've ever specifically done any sort of "'Link' was really Zelda all along" thing in the games yet, though. They totally should. Even if the "fans" would probably rampage if Nintendo ever did do it.