Live Action "Legend of Zelda" TV Show

[Harleena]

So, I hear that they're making a live action Zelda TV show. Basically, it's been described as "Game of Thrones, but more family-friendly". So what do you guys think? Will the show be good, or will it fail (like the Super Mario Bros. Movie)? I'm personally excited for it, as long as they have all the good characters like Midna and Zant, and of course the Sages, and as long as it isn't too "cartoony" (like, it'll have it's humorous moments, but it won't be like, "Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess!" all the time).

 

[Muppetjente]

They're making a Legend of Zelda tv show? I'm so looking forward to it, I've always wanted a tv show of it. I love The legend of Zelda games

 

[D'Snowth]

LOZ has something working in its favor that Super Mario Bros. didn't - it actually has something of a comprehensible plot that could really lend itself to a story format. In fact, I've thought that despite the SMB movie bombing, that a live action LOZ movie could have worked... of course, it would need better people involved behind the scenes; I've heard that one of the reasons the SMB movie wasn't very good was because it had a husband-wife directing team who were incredibly mean to the actors (I think I've also heard they dumped a bucket of water on an extra for flubbing something) that the studio had to step in and remove them from the set.

I actually like the SMB movie . . . yeah, it may not have been a great movie, but to me, I found it to be creative and imaginative from an artistic stand point; it really looks like the kind of dreams I have regularly when I sleep. And, again, the source material they had to work with didn't have a lot to offer in the first place, but as I said, LOZ has more of an actual plot to follow.

So, I might be up for checking this out if it really happens.

 

[Drtooth]

I actually like the SMB movie . . . yeah, it may not have been a great movie, but to me, I found it to be creative and imaginative from an artistic stand point; it really looks like the kind of dreams I have regularly when I sleep. And, again, the source material they had to work with didn't have a lot to offer in the first place, but as I said, LOZ has more of an actual plot to follow.

Didn't stop Japan from making one back in 1986. BEFORE the franchise was even fully flushed out. I don't buy "not enough source material" as an excuse beyond "we had names but didn't want to go beyond that." That's the truth behind live action cartoon remakes anyway. But the real problem? That was in the late 90's. Gamer culture wasn't well known (or a thing beyond basement dwelling PC role play gaming dorks), and Nintendo was synonymous with spend 100 bucks and 50 bucks per game to shut your kids up for 30 minutes. Genesis commercials nothing, gaming as a whole was a kiddy thing. Well, either kiddy or dangerously unhinged psychopath that revels in high violence thing.

The differences now are quite obvious:

• Gaming Culture is a thing
• Retro Gaming culture is a thing
• Nintendo is extremely protective of its characters to an insulting degree
• Those in the entertainment industry actually have played a game for more than 2 minutes
• Some even grew up playing games to the point that every single cartoon does SMB and Street Fighter references
• There's a place for these kinds of things beyond children's Saturday Morning/Weekday syndication. Especially since none of those formats exist anymore.

If it's not good, Nintendo will pull the license faster than you can say "'Ey Pizanos!" Hopefully this marks the stick being removed up their butt as far as adaptions go. Mario needs something. SMW can't be it's last cartoon, and SMB The Movie shouldn't be the last outside Mario project. Then again, Nintendo gave VIZ the license to translate the Zelda Manga and nothing has come by the way of Mario, so...

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't buy "not enough source material" as an excuse beyond "we had names but didn't want to go beyond that."

What I meant was unlike LOZ, SMB really didn't have a comprehensible plot that could work well in a story format.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

If they're making a live action Zelda online show, I hope they follow the games, and not do a crappy adaptation like people did back in the 80s/90s like that stupid cartoon that aired alongside the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, (which THAT I didn't mind, and I'm referring to Mario, not Zelda). and those stupid CD-I games.

 

[Drtooth]

I agree partially, but disagree. Adaptions do indeed need some sort of expansion, and video games, no matter how detailed a story they have need it more than anything. Then again, the cartoons barely drew anything from the video games other than characters, themes, and music. But they managed to be fun on their own. Though I think it's absolutely weird that both the American SMW cartoon and the Japanese Kirby Right back At Yah both managed to have the old introducing modern world technology and ideals to a backwards culture with disastrous and social commentary making results trick. And frankly, Kirby was a better cartoon. And all things considered, it was a really good dub on 4Kids part (though it was sad to see the book burning parody edited out of the Harry Potter Expy episode).

I'm just saying that the movie did it wrong. Had it been renamed "Adventures in Lizardopolis" or something, it still would have been meh at best. They totally could have turned the movie into a Medieval adventure with crazy characters, but the technology wasn't there at the time. So there's that too. I have confidence that even if they did a LOZ movie instead, they would have found a way to mess it up.

If they're making a live action Zelda online show, I hope they follow the games, and not do a crappy adaptation like people did back in the 80s/90s like that stupid cartoon that aired alongside the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, (which THAT I didn't mind, and I'm referring to Mario, not Zelda). and those stupid CD-I games.

(Facepalm) As someone who grew up watching that..ehem...crappy adaption, I have to call generational spoilage into this. Expecting some long drawn out anime-esque drama in the 1980's would have been a bit much. While I do indeed think there should have been a better adaption down the line (The Captain N episode was actually far superior), there's a lot to praise about that series. It was indeed fair for its time. Among other things, I absolutely loved how proactive Zelda was. The overly compensating strong female character hasn't been ruined and generalized yet, and considering the games (and Mario's) were about rescuing the helpless princess, I love how Zelda was able to fight and hold her own. Plus, the top notch Canadian voice talent. The late Len Carlson as Ganon? Fantastic. Sure it doesn't quite hold up, and none of the Nintendo based cartoons will ever get that "made in the 80's" context from anyone younger than their late 20's, it's a stretch to call them bad. Especially when Nintendo thinks F-Zero and so repetitive you can set your watch by it Pokemon are so incredible.

But yeah. Personally, the Zelda cartoons could have been so much better if they were self contained for 22 minutes instead of half that. But trust me, that cartoon was impressive in its day. Sure, it's no Real Ghostbusters or G.I. Joe. But even TMNT and Transformers had their terrible, rushed to fit 65 episodes.

 

[D'Snowth]

One thing that I find interesting about the SMB movie, though, is for years, John Leguizamo has been talking about how much he hated doing that movie, noting it as one of the lowest points of his career, how he and Bob Hoskins were so miserable they'd both booze their brains out every night just to get through the production... but in recent years, Leguizamo has been saying the opposite of all that, saying looking back on it in retrospect, he's proud to have done the movie; proud to have gotten to work with Hoskins, Dennis Hopper, Samantha Mathis, and Fisher Stevens; and he even still has his Luigi action figure NRFB that he's proud of.

 

[Drtooth]

I like Leguizamo. But he was a poor choice for Luigi. Yeah, Luigi's supposed to be Mario's Younger Brother. Well... in the American fiction before Nintendo ruined it with Yoshi's Island. Only thing I hate about that game, actually. That and the boys not being born and raised in Brooklyn. Really, Luigi should have been less ambiguous teens/20's and more pushing 30. With a 'stache.

But the film suffers poor casting, dopey choices, and a dismally low budget. They were hoping the only ones upset would be stupid little kids crying through the movie asking why The Mushroom Kingdom is now Blade Runner. No one over the age of 10 was going to see that movie willingly, and something tells me they knew the film would be a failure.

 

[mr3urious]

I thought Bob Hoskins was a great-looking and sounding Mario, while Luigi looked more like he could have been his son or nephew. And at least Dennis Hopper hammed it up really well as Koopa despite looking nothing like a repulsive reptile ("Why thank you, Princess!").