In 1987, a video game was created by Shigeru Miyamoto that ended up becoming a phenomenon and became one of the main flagship franchises for Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda. It was a game that came out at the right time, because it was one of the very first games where you actually play a hero that goes and rescues a princess. It has every element you want, action, adventure, romance, puzzle solving, you name it, Zelda has it. It was also the first game on a console that you can actually save your progress of level completion on.
The Legend of Zelda was principally inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's explorations as a young boy in the hillsides surrounding his childhood home in Kyoto, Japan where he ventured into forests with secluded lakes, caves, and rural villages. According to Miyamoto, one of his most memorable experiences was the discovery of a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he apprehensively entered the cave, and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern. Miyamoto has referred to the creation of the Zelda games as an attempt to bring to life a "miniature garden" for players to play with in each game of the series.
As of April 2010, The Legend of Zelda series has sold over 59 million copies since the release of the first game, The Legend of Zelda,[1] and continues to be successful worldwide. The series consists of 15 official games on all of Nintendo's major consoles, as well as several spin-offs. It is also one of 2 Nintendo properties that has been released on all of Nintendo's consoles (Mario being the other franchise)
In the late 80's/early 90's, Zelda had its own cartoon series that came on every Friday during the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" and made 4 guest apperances on the NBC Saturday morning cartoon show "Captain N: The Game Master", with the same voice actors (It was also distributed by the same production company)
One other thing Zelda is known for.....Its Theme song. The theme has been used in some way in every Zelda game. It has one of the most catchy themes that it seems like it came straight out of the movies. Its theme song is to video games as the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws or Superman themes are to movies. Many polls online have done surveys about the top video game themes, and just about all of them have Zelda at the top of the list.
So with the enormous popularity of the Zelda games, the impact it has had on pop culture, one thing comes to mind.....Why has Zelda not made it to the big screen?
One logical answer is that video game movies have not been adapted well on the silver screen. Most have been made into utter garbage (see: Uwe Boll) some have been moderate success' at best (Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil). There has not been one video game adaption that has blown the box office out of the water. Zelda does have something that does play to its advantage if it does come to the box office....
Films that have similar plotlines have been success' at the box office. The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was an explosive box office smash, with all 3 films grossing over 300 million dollars, altogether getting over 1 billion dollars altogether, and winning a total of 15 Academy Awards among all 3 films (The Return of the King won 11 of those Oscars including Best Picture).
The "Harry Potter" franchise has been the most successful franchise at the box office in movie history, and we still have 2 more films to go (The final book "The Deathly Hallows" is being split into 2 parts) and the 6 films so far have grossed 1.7 BILLION dollars in the US alone and no film grossing less than 250 Million at the box office.
The "Chronicles of Narnia" franchise had a big start and a bit of a rough sequel. The first film "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" grossed 295 million (and was the second highest grossing film of 2005) but the sequel "Prince Caspian" only grossed a disappointing 149 million, probably due to the fact it was released between 'Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones". We will see how the third film will do this December when it is released.
In the past decade, fantasy films have done well at the box office, but there have been some major dissapointments, such as "Eragon". The main question is...Will the general non-gamer and general movie audience flock to see Zelda?
We all know that Nintendo is very reluctant to do a Zelda movie, due mainly to the fact they tried to do a Super Mario Bros. movie in 1993, and well we don't need to talk about that one.
When IGN's April Fool trailer hit in 2008, many people thought it was an actual Zelda movie trailer that was kept secret. IGN had 3.5 million views of the Zelda trailer on April 1, 2008, more than when "The Dark Knight's" trailer premiered. The hoax was pulled off so well it was the top story the next day on Yahoo's front page. Even Peter Rallis on Movie Buzz when his show was in its early stages mentioned it as the top story.
3.5 Million views for a fake trailer and more than The Dark Knight? Maybe Nintendo should see fans are serious about seeing Zelda on the big screen. Nintendo is sitting on a potential box office gold mine and it is holding it back.
I am sure they fear that if a studio gets ahold of the Zelda franchise that Nintendo fears they will wreck it and not keep it close to the source material. If Nintendo is involved, I think they will keep it closer to the source material and make it a truly epic film.
What are your thoughts on a Zelda movie? Do you want to see one yes or no? Who would you like to see play Link, Zelda, Ganon and other characters. Leave your comments and opinions below and tell me what you think?