Footage From Cancelled "Legend of Zelda" Movie Pitch Surfaces

[Gahars]

The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's oldest and most celebrated franchises. Link is one of Nintendo's most iconic protagonists, only second (well, arguably) to Mario himself. So, naturally, there have been many attempts for the franchise to branch out of video games.

They ended poorly.

Still, a history of failure has never deterred Hollywood, and so in 2007, a studio put together a pitch for a proposed feature-length Legend of Zelda animated film. It has finally surfaced online. Seriously, it's in the Youtube video below and everything. Check it out.

In the last few days, a number of users uploaded this fascinating footage of a canceled pitch to Nintendo for a CG Legend Of Zelda movie, created by Chinese studio IMAGI, best known for their work on the Astro Boy and CG TMNT features. Created in the same house style that the studio has become well known for, it showcases an even more stylized take on the franchise that would have probably been best suited for Western audiences, with cameos by Link, Princess Zelda and of course, Ganondorf.

Awesome Robo!

(Before commenting, it's worth mentioning that the pitch was more of a rough approximation of what the studio would be aiming for than anything else, and was in no way, shape, or form "finished.")

There was a disheartening lack of ,"Well, excuuuuuuuuuse me, princess!" in that presentation. "ruin_final" is right. 0 Stone Ganondork Jaws out of 5, more like Legend of Zeldumb A Link to the Ass, would not pitch again.

Then again, that's just me. I have stupidly specific standards when it comes to these sorts of thing.

So, what do you think? Would you have liked to see more from this studio, or *some LoZ joke or something here but it's late and I don't even like the franchise so whatever, change Link's name to "Stink" and call it a night*?

 

[chavosaur]

Legend of Zeldumb A Link to the Ass,

Not to be confused with the porno of the same name =w=

 

[MAXLEMPIRA]

and now I know why it was cancelled, and thank god, it is a really poor quality video (characters, movement, etc) *snip* maybe some group project with high expectations ?

and.. that Ganondorf is even worse than "Toon" Ganondorf, I feel it like a Disney Movie "Tangled" hahaha

 

[Nathan Drake]

Although I appreciate the effort, and Link himself didn't look terrible, the art style just does not fit what we've come to expect. The character models couldn't quite seem to get it right (why did Zelda look 12? why did Ganondorf not look anything like his OoT or Wind Waker or Twilight Princess iterations?). If someone is going to handle an LoZ movie, ever, I'd rather it be an animation studio that won't butcher it like this would have.

 

[FireGrey]

Link looks too much like an elf.

 

[Ericthegreat]

The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's oldest and most celebrated franchises. Link is one of Nintendo's most iconic protagonists, only second (well, arguably) to Mario himself. So, naturally, there have been many attempts for the franchise to branch out of video games.

They ended poorly.

I didn't like the art style.

 

[calmwaters]

The Legend of Stink? Or more accurately, The Legend of Zelda: A Stink to the Past, or, A Stink to be Remembered. That's a catchier movie title, methinks.

But anyway, if they do make even an animated movie, it'll definitely be better than that Mario movie *shudders*

 

[Fluto]

For those who care the original video is here
I don't remember it looking so low resolution last time I saw the video.

 

[Celice]

For those who care the original video is here

I don't remember it looking so low resolution last time I saw the video.

Can you give us a non-embedded link? Vimeo has disabled streaming this vid when it's off-site.

 

[Fluto]

Can you give us a non-embedded link? Vimeo has disabled streaming this vid when it's off-site.

Fix'd
The forum automatically turns Vimeo/Youtube links embedded automatically

 

[stanleyopar2000]

why did the guy on the horse look like Mr Winters from the TMNT movie?

and the girl in the hood look like the leader of the footclan from TMNT?

is this the same studio??

Edit: looks like you edited the OP. so yes, yes it is.

 

[Isaac]

I hate it already.

 

[MarioFanatic64]

Still, a history of failure has never deterred Hollywood,

It stopped them from making Super Mario Bros. 2.

But this Zelda pitch looks more cheaply done than SMB, so I don't blame Nintendo for turning it down.

On the other hand, why hasn't there been an attempt to do a CGI Mario?
If they made a 90 minute Galaxy-esque cutscene I would go see it 6 times, buy a shady pirated copy and then buy the 2-Disc Blu-Ray Collector's Edition on day one.

 

[indask8]

Looks very Dreamwork-ish.

 

[PatrickD85]

Please keep in mind ... pitch released in 2007 (which is roughly 6 years back).
Sure a redone version would probably be better ...

But slightly off-topic who can recall :

I would love to see both styles ... and why has a simple reason;

We have seen cartoon link, we have seen game link ... but we have never seen a more realistic link.

Sure I would love to see below become reality but doubt it ... if not take my money now:


On the subject of cartoon link:


This would also get the take my money now response

 

[Xenirina]

I like the look of it.

 

[CropUpAnywhere]

240p? that's the best they can do? That HD fake trailer for a Majora's mask film was in HD and it wasn't even created by some big studio!

That aside I'd have loved to see a full length and surely it's only a matter of time before a full-length CG fan-film is made.

 

[BORTZ]

Zelda would make a terrible movie. Grill me.

 

[Flame]

Zelda would make a terrible movie. Grill me.

you never know... that's what people thought about Batman.

 

[Obveron]

A Zelda movie could never work due to the lack of vocal dialogue. Nobody has ever heard Zelda or Link speak and that shouldn't change.

 

[Par39]

A Zelda movie could never work due to the lack of vocal dialogue. Nobody has ever heard Zelda or Link speak and that shouldn't change.

Why couldn't they talk? It might not be a bad thing, if the voices are good. Also, have you ever watched The Legend of Link live action fan movie? They pulled it off with a mute Link really well. It didn't seem forced.