Forum - View topicNEWS: Live-Action The Legend of Zelda Film Opens Globally on March 26, 2027
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Kougeru
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it's so over lol |
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MFrontier
Posts: 15451 |
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Well, best of luck with it.
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Nekbone
Posts: 77 |
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Link's gonna be like his Saturday morning cartoon version, isn't he? |
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Ataru
 Posts: 2335 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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Well, I hope Nintendo will be just as hands-on as they were with The Super Mario Movie. Hoping for a fantasy/ LotR style movie, not a CDI movie. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 438 |
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I don't like to be a pessimist but I just don't see how a live-action Zelda movie can work, regardless of stuff like who's the director. Zelda's just not a series that lends itself to being squished down to ~2 hours (even if you cut out sidequests and stuff).
I would laugh if someone did a live-action version of stuff like the Ocarina of Time speedrun where Young Link warps straight to Ganon and wins the game in like 15 minutes. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1314 |
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There's a lot to unpack here, so I'll just try to break it down on different parts.
First of all, Nintendo first shared this news on their brand new Nintendo Today app, so maybe this is going to replace X/Twitter when it comes to their major announcements. I think we know the reason why. Secondly, I think a lot of people were starting to wonder what had happened to the project, as there had been no major news ever since it was revealed that Nintendo and Sony Pictures were working on this since back in late 2023. Thirdly, the Zelda movie will premiere one week after Sonic the Hedgehog 4: the movie, this will be the first thing we'll get in regards to a Nintendo vs. SEGA in cinemas. Wonder if Paramount will consider moving Sonic 4's release date, but both Paramount and Sony Pictures will have to compete against Godzilla & King Kong 3. And finally, I know that many are still wondering why Nintendo and Sony are making a live-action Zelda movie instead of an animated project, and I think the reason is that there's not really any big precedent for a high fantasy action adventure animated film, the closest thing I can think of are the How to Train your Dragon movies and I don't know a Zelda movie should be like those. I know that people always like to bring up some Studio Ghibli films as an example of how a Zelda movie should be, but the only examples I can think of are Nausicaä and Princess Mononoke, which aren't exactly as popular compared to other Ghibli movies like Totoro or Spirited Away. I think a serious animated Zelda movie, whether 2D or CGI is a tough sell, there's the recent failure of The Lord of the Rings The War of the Rohirrim. Ironically, I say Nintendo and Sony are probably would like to capture the success of the original LotR Trilogy, even then, high fantasy movies aren't that successful outside of Tolkien, the 2023 Dungeons & Dragons movie was a commercial failure (ironically, it lost to the Mario movie). |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4724 Location: New York |
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Avi Arad is the Poochie of Hollywood, but he keeps getting to work on movies due to his massive funds. And we get to suffer for it.
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FireballDragon
 Posts: 695 |
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There BETTER be an "Excuse me, Princess" in the movie! I'm still sore the Sonic movies didn't have Eggman go "I hate that hedgehog!"
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5550 |
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I wonder if it is adapting one of the game's narratives or starting from scratch. OoT seems like the most obvious game to adapt, if they go down that route. If it is original, I can see story beats like Link coming from a small village and Zelda hiding as Sheik being included.
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jdnation
Posts: 2172 |
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I feel the same way. That Zelda should be CG animation that story wise should imitate classic 2D Disney minus the musicals, or older Pixar, meaning a more serious story with sufficient character/situational driven levity but not total gag humor; a complete contrast to the Mario movie. Live action feels like a tertible mistake. I know One Piece worked, but I treat that as an exception that's hopefully not a fluke.
If the reason why is that they want to drive traffic to their app for further marketing and metrics potential, I agree. It's a fair point that more serious-leaning stories in animated form haven't been successful theaterically. But I believe Zelda is enough of a power house franchise to succeed on name alone. If the trailer looks good with the right art style, it'll be a success. I think a cross between Ocarina and Twilight Princess is the way to go. I wouldn't consider War of the Rohirrim, which changed lore and ticked off Tolkien fans as indicative of anything other than corporate decisions ruining the IPs they hold being made by people who don't care and use these properties as vehicles for their own modern views that run counter to Tolkien's world. Disney's animation and live action remakes are against the ropes, and families are looking for something they can safely take their kids to. Nintendo can fill that gap. Animation is a more sure thing, live-action with a good visual direction and director/cast/crew and a LOTR budget with balanced practical and VFX could work, but is costlier and riskier. I hope they pull it off, but it's not a decision I'd make. |
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Gamen
Posts: 263 |
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Put me down as another person that experienced a rollercoaster of emotion between "A Zelda movie!" and "A live-action Zelda movie....". And that was before finding out from this thread that Honor Among Thieves was a box-office disappointment. Until then I still had a spark of hope that since that was so well-executed maybe a live-action Zelda movie had a chance of being good. Edit: What was I saying, I still think Honor Among Thieves was good. Also, watched Detective Pikachu on the suggestion of a different reaction thread, liked it. So feeling a little more optimistic again.
Last edited by Gamen on Fri Mar 28, 2025 8:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6492 |
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Think you have that wrong the parents aren’t taking their kids to something out of concern kids’ safety. But out of the parents easily hurt feelings/sensitivity/ignorance that certain things exist in real life so they can also exist in fiction like gay people and that it’s also not wrong to feature such characters in these works. And even then the problems with Disney’s live action remakes have nothing to do with what a “certain” audience wants them to think some of this stuff is either just not written, directed, or casted well.
Uh no it’s not? There’s been slew of bad or underperforming movies (& TV shows) the last 40 some odd years. The Super Mario Movie may have succeeded but it doesn’t seem to have galvanized more game companies to try adapting their works into animated theatrical movies I’m still waiting on that Sly Cooper movie that was supposed to come out years ago that got shelved after the Ratchet & Clank movie bombed. |
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Chiyosuke
 Posts: 439 |
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Would much rather see Zelda animated but here we are
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jdnation
Posts: 2172 |
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So parents are not taking their kids out of concern for what they believe is their kid's best interests? It amounts to the same thing, they ain't going, and even Disney has an idea why and is trying to course-correct here and there. Disney has long coasted in the past on sub-par films and a marketing blitz and pressure on theater chains to give them as many screens as possible, so the quality wasn't the problem in the past. Even the Marvel and Star Wars brands have tanked for similar reasons alongside the oversaturation of making TV shows that nobody wants to go out of their way to watch or subscribe to in order to follow the story. Nintendo does not have this problem.
Animation is a more sure thing in terms of expense, creative control, and a broader audience appeal. Historically animated films have been easier box office successes. Even ones with not so strong numbers still profited. People used to go with their families (therefore multiple ticket purchases) to see these as an easy relatively inexpensive day out. Disney/Pixar owned that space. Lately they were losing to Dreamworks. And Sony's animated Spider-Verse movies are critical and commercial successes. Even anime is now making bank on the few screens it shows up on in limited releases. It is only Disney that has been having a problem. And when your animation wing of all things is having this issue, then something is very wrong over at Disney. Nintendo obviously intends Zelda to be a blockbuster on par with Mario. Animation would've been easier, for the simple reason that you can easily have the characters look like they do in the games. Live-action is more expensive, and harder to get the look right. I know AI exists to make the visualizations easier, but it's still hard to pull off in reality. There's a chance we could end up with another live-action Super Mario movie. And note, I'm saying it's hard, not impossible. I'm willing to be proven wrong and I hope Nintendo succeeds, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
As you yourself pointed out. The Super Mario Movie succeeded. And I'd argue it wasn't even a good movie either. So why did it? The reason why, is Mario has brand power. The same as Sonic. And these are family-friendly brands. They didn't get by on being profound auteur filmmaking. They simply sought to please their established fandom, Sonic famously redid Sonic's awful design to resemble the games. Disney used to have such brand power, and they own the top franchises. Ask yourself, what's the common denominator between Disney's failures across these unrelated brands? Sony's properties never had this brand power. They are trying though with TV series and films, and they had the Last of Us be a TV success, Uncharted a financial one theatrically, but this only means that Sony's key franchises are more interesting to older audiences, much like their games are Mature rated titles, and they do not have that family audience pull. Sony will play it more safely with their expectations and what they do with each IP they have and who it appeals to. Looking elsewhere, we've had Borderlands bomb, but we've also had the Fallout TV series be a success. Even Konami is having some success with the Castlevania animated series, and Capcom has Devil May Cry coming. And we of course had Arcane Season 2, though it seems that one was not a financial success, despite it's quality. The point is that most video game brands are titles that feature violence and therefore are usually Mature rated in content. So they are not leverageable as family franchises, nor very translatable to live-action without great expense, but animation is a more sure thing, where even if it does bomb, it's not as much money lost as a live-action piece, which often requires high expense to make, doubling your expense to market, and more risky if it doesn't work out. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4565 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I've never played a Legend of Zelda game in my life (we were primarily a Sega Master System and Genesis household), so Super Mario Bros. Super Show Friday afternoon Legend of Zelda segment "Excuse me, Princess" Link is still the definitive version of Link as far as I'm concerned. |
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