Hear Me Out: ‘The Legend of Zelda’ movie needs to be animated
Fans of Nintendo worldwide rejoiced when the legendary Japanese video game company announced they were making a movie based on the wildly popular game series The Legend of Zelda. The project is being handled by director Wes Ball, known for his work on The Maze Runner film series and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
A Zelda movie seems an exhilarating prospect, all the more so considering how damn fun the recent Super Mario Bros Movie was earlier this year. However, in the announcement, there was a disturbing phrase used, one which will have likely sent shivers down the spines of all Master Sword wielders eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Deku Tree in their local cinemas.
The words “live-action” ought not to be anywhere near a movie related to Link and Zelda, but sadly, this looks to be the case. And if that is true, and Nintendo sticks to their guns, then they will likely be making the wrong choice, at least from a critical perspective. Now, of course, Nintendo could release a rotten apple with the Zelda name emblazoned across the front, and it would sell out in a matter of moments; such is the emotional and cultural pull of the iconic franchise.
Regardless of how the Zelda movie arrives, it will, without a doubt, be a box-office smash. Nintendo sells; they still manage to dish out lazy rehashes of old games at exorbitant prices by the bucket load, so there’s no way that Zelda on the big screen won’t be a massive commercial success. But that’s mainly ignoring why we, the people, would want a Goron, Gerudo and Zora movie in the first place.
Video games are naturally an animated medium; that’s the way we experience their worlds, and Zelda’s world is one of the most visually complex and enticing worlds there is. Our experience playing a video game versus watching a movie is incredibly different, too. While film can indeed be immersive, we can lose ourselves in the world of a game, primarily down to the fact that we interact with and control it.
The prospect of a Zelda movie conjures up so many gloriously embedded memories from our childhoods, the moment we chased chickens around Kakariko Village in The Ocarina of Time to that incredible soundtrack, setting sail for the very first time in The Wind Wake or looking over the beautiful vistas of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom as the sun peeps over the horizon. Simply, there’s always been a beauty to Zelda that many other game franchises can only ever dream of achieving.
To attempt to put all of that glory and wonder into a live-action format is a complete disservice to the history of one of the most important and culturally relevant video game series of all time. No one wants to see a Goron City in the flesh; we want to see it how we always imagined it. The very beauty of the video game medium is that it provides rich fantasy worlds that are so unbelievable and magical that they can’t be comprehended through our usual perceptions. Yet, we, through the art of technology, can experience them first-hand.
As is the problem with many adaptations of previous works of art, to solidify the series’ protagonist, Link, as any given actor is to cement him into the audience’s minds. But that’s also missing the point of Link themselves; they’re an everyday hero who spans centuries, fighting back the same force of evil time and time again, and more importantly, they’re the figure that we control. Whichever actor comes to play Link will no longer be representative of all players, regardless of their culture or creed, but will be just one overpaid human person in an ill-fitting green tunic.
The Super Mario Bros Movie got it so right. Mario is an equal everyman (I mean, he’s a plumber, for starters!), but because he’s animated and voiced wonderfully by Chris Pratt, his legacy as a cultural artefact remains unspoiled; he’s forever in our hearts and yet always just slightly out of reach. The same should be the case for Link, and giving them a permanent human face is to undo their very cultural impact and to un-weave them from the fabric of our memories.
How in Hylia’s name are the Gorons, those lovable hulking figures of rock, going to be portrayed in a live-action movie? It’s simply not going to work. The world of Hyrule is one of the most visually striking and, more importantly, racially diverse environments in video game history, and this ought to be at the forefront of Nintendo’s mind when making the final product.
The crazy thing is that an animated movie is just there for the taking. Nintendo has already proven its quality in bringing a video game to the big screen in animated form, and with Sony also producing, having recently enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, then making another animated feature with Link and Zelda as the focus seems like an all-too-easy win.
As stated, the Zelda movie will have old and young alike flock to the cinemas to experience the wonders of Hyrule with popcorn in hand. Still, that very wonder will largely be undone by real-world locations, real people and real costumes. Video game worlds are so enticing because they are so unlike our own, and yet we keep to experience them so vividly. Sorry Nintendo, I love you (even though you take the piss with price points and weak re-releases), but this time, I think you’ve got it wrong.
