A pure hero, a captured princess, and an ancient embodiment of evil. Most fantasy stories center around these key elements, but when they’re mentioned without context, a vast majority of people are picturing a specific trio. Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf have never made it to the big screen, but when people look for a feature that reminds them of the franchise, they findLegend.
In the wake of the record-breakingopening ofThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, studios are finally going to start seeing the box office potential of beloved video game franchises. Mario may be the face of the company, andPokémonmay be the most profitable, but when it comes to Nintendo’s golden children, no one has the prestige ofThe Legend of Zelda.
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What isLegendAbout?
Six years afterAlienand threeyears afterBlade Runner, Sir Ridley Scott released a project he’d had in his head for around a decade. During the filming of his directorial debutThe Duelists, he imagined creating a proper art film in the style of The Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales. Scott discovered the works of William Hjortsberg, a novelist who had previously worked on a couple of unproduced scripts. Scott and Hjortsberg bonded over their shared appreciation for the original 1946Beauty and the Beastand began plotting a basic story outline for what would becomeLegendjust before shooting began onBlade Runner.
The film had some major production troubles, most famously including an event in which a set fully burned down between shoots. Its runtime was also a concern, as Scott had to recut the film three times to get it to a breezy 89 minutes. For what it’s worth, everyone involved with the film has been a huge proponent of the 114-minute director’s cut.
Legendtakes place in a wonderful fairy tale world, marked byforest spirits and unicorns. The evil Lord of Darkness seeks the power he needs to plunge the world into a terrible eternal night. To pull off his apocalyptic scheme, he’ll have to sacrifice the beautiful mares of the meadow. Along the way, Darkness wants to corrupt and marry the innocent Princess Lili. Lili’s partner Jack, a forest-dwelling empath who can speak to animals, is recognized as a destined hero and sent on a quest to save her. With some clever trickery and unorthodox solutions, Jack will do battle with the ultimate evil to save the life of his beloved. It’s a classic tale with a very traditional structure.
How doesLegendRelate toLegend of Zelda?
The broad overarching storyofTheLegend of Zeldais deceptively simple. There are three principal players and three roles to fill, each character finds their way into a new version of the old role, and the battle continues forever. The firstLegend of Zeldacame out only a year after the theatrical release ofLegend. Both works clearly take a lot from the world of fairy tales. The game’s original story writer Takashi Tezuka cited medieval Europe andLord of the Ringsas his primary inspirations. Their connection is almost spiritual. One could imagine Jack as yet another incarnation of the hero, Lili as yet another princess, and Darkness as thenewest form of Demise’senduring hate. The film is obviously missing much of the iconography of the game franchise, but its central elements are almost identical. Interestingly, though both works were playing with similar inspirations, they wound up with very different cultural reactions.
The Legend of Zeldawas a hit from day one, and it’s never faded from popularity.Legenddid not make its budget back at the box office, but it swiftly became a cult classic. The North American release, like a lotof early Nintendo games, was hacked apart to appeal to an audience that the studio had very little faith in. WhileZeldawas celebrated for its mish-mash of fantasy influence,Legendwas derided for the same choice. This partially sells the benefit of an interactive medium, asZeldainherently invited fans to explore and enjoy the world whileLegenddemanded a more distant connection to the material.Shigeru Miyamoto famously designedZeldaafter his experiences wandering around Kyoto as a youth. That wonderful exploration resonated with fans, allowing the game to become iconic.Legendwasn’t so lucky, but it’s found its audience.
Legendis a film built out of older stories. It wasn’t the most original release of the 80s, and it’s barely a footnote in the career of Ridley Scott, but the film captures something fundamental about the fantasy genre. Fans of thesimple honest storytelling of earlyZeldawill loveLegend. The film evokes the ancient tales, brought to life gloriously with beautiful set design and fantastic practical effects. If Nintendo ever does manage to get aLegend of Zeldamovie to the screen, they could take a healthy amount of inspiration from this simple little fantasy adventure.
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