Illumination is an awful fit for Zelda and here’s why:
illumination can’t write complex stories, after Despicable Me 1 (which I’m not trying to imply is complex) they just stopped trying to write (good) character development or deeper themes or anything of that sort. The reason the Mario movie worked is cause Mario has such a simple story that you can get away with a movie that’s basically just fanservice with minimal plot, and I liked the Mario movie, but, my god, you just can’t do that with Zelda! There is so much more interesting lore and plot that happens in Zelda games than in Mario games that I don’t have faith in illumination to tackle. Also illumination’s artstyle does not work with most of Zelda’s artstyles! Illumination’s artstyle can’t replicate the dark art of twilight princess, or the ghibli inspired look of botw or totk, etc, Truly the only artstyle that could work with it is The Wind Waker’s but even thats a stretch. Now, I get why Nintendo chose Illumination again, cause they made them over a billion dollars last time, but almost any other studio would’ve been a better pick for Zelda and I just don’t see this movie being good with illumination at the helm.
TLDR: Zelda + Illumination = bad #
There is so much more interesting lore and plot that happens in Zelda games than in Mario games that I don’t have faith in illumination to tackle.
unfortunately no matter what it seems pretty likely this will make a billion at the box office if it’s actually made, and making a good movie is ultimately secondary to a movie that makes money and which pleases children. Illumination, love them or hate them, absolutely has churning out content to maximize profits on that content down.
This is true, and again, I understand why Nintendo as a company has partnered with them again, it’s just a bummer when it comes to the actual creative side of things.
I’m not a huge fan of my fav books and games becoming movies , they’re super easy to get wrong
But even a crappy studio can be wrangled - if Nintendo has as high a standard for the movie as the 2 switch games it may work out -
They just need a good writing team , good music , and maybe they’ll come up with a completely new art style for the visuals ,
Just hope it has some soul ,
Sorry if this post is messy or hard to read, I basically never actually post anything on social media usually, And I’m definitely not a writer lol.
I definitely understand your concern here. I myself am on the fence about this.
I personally enjoyed the Mario movie too, and agree with your points. The plot of Mario is simple enough that it worked in their style. With Zelda, the whole atmosphere and plot are more dark and serious, and I’m not certain if the fit is right.
I think we might tend to land at the assumption that the style they’ll go with is along the lines of a “darker” Zelda game like Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess, or even BOTW/TOTK.
But maybe if they go with “Toon” Link from Wind Waker, etc., it could work. I think more than anything they need to be extra careful about how much story they try to take on.
I can see where you’re coming from, but even WW had deeper elements such as ganondorfs character in that game, and in general the theme of moving on from the past, and I just don’t trust em to handle stuff like that, more likely they just won’t approach anything of that sort at all, and like I tried to communicate in my post, the themes of the story are just as important as the set prices for Zelda IMO.
I’m with you. I think Illumination isn’t the preferred option… But since it’s what we’re getting we can only wish for the best. WW definitely did have darker parts. I think maybe the cartoony, celshaded style just took the edge of for most of the game except for when the game reminded you that now is serious time.
I think we also all have the OG CDi burned in our brains, which can never be forgotten.
Honestly if they had morshu in the movie I would drop all criticism and give it a 5 on letterboxd.
I think it could be an exception with Nintendo simply because I expect Nintendo to exert a ridiculous amount of creative control upon them, but I’m not sure.
“Hey what’s up gang, it’s me, ZELDA! Ha, just kidding, my name’s Link, and this is my story!”
Link pulls out his iPhone 14, Take On Me by A-ha starts playing
Could maybe be fine if they tap a decent writing team and just let Illumination handle the Animation. Zelda has a very specific style and vibe that would be easy to screw up.
Why would they not partner with Ghibli when BotW and TotK clearly took inspiration from the studios work and visual aesthetic?
They’re very staying in their own lanes … The thing they have in common is that they are an absolute nightmare with copyright,
I sell Ghibli museum tickets in Australia and they allow us to use exactly one image to promote them - like they have amazing IP and lock it down even to market themself …
The crappy thing is that Nintendo has like 700 trillion dollars and Ghibli is forever bankrupt (hand drawing animation in Japan is pricey) if they got married it’d be a dream
If by any consolation, I won’t watch the movie until the review is out. Just vote with your wallet and don’t watch thing that you don’t enjoy.
Honestly I’m not hopeful that anyone would be able to really capture the spirit and story of a zelda game in a movie series. Even as a comic/manga or tv show I think it would take a lot to flesh out properly and as such I’m kind of apathetic about the whole thing in genera.
14 year old me would be going NUTS over this news one way or another, but in my 30s I dont really have much expectation for hollywood adaptations and in general these things dont really matter to me as a person who enjoys the game. If it’s decent I’ll be pleasantly but otherwise I expect nothing.
This is especially true for a game like zelda. Zelda has lore and storytelling and cutscenes and characters, but at the end of the day they are a franchise where the heavy lifting is done by the gameplay and environments. Filling in those blanks or trying to capture it properly would be difficult. Any adaptation that’s good would have to be to do a lot of work to adapt it to a different format and will have to add a lot while picking and choosing from different eras.
Au contraire my friend. We have had a lack of good Zelda YouTube poop material for FAR too long. The faces of evil, that weird 90s cartoon. If anything I hope this comes out and is aggressively bad. I want Chris Pratt to play Link.