The Legend of Zelda's Live-Action Movie: Nintendo's Redemption Story

A New Era for Nintendo

Nintendo's plans for a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie will help the company make amends for a significant failure over 30 years later. The announcement for a new live-action movie adapting the popular Legend of Zelda games came on the heels of Nintendo finding great success with Illumination's animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The movie surpassed nearly all expectations financially, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie's box office total eclipsed $1.3 billion. This guaranteed that more Nintendo video games would get movie adaptations in the future, with the animated realm proving to be an ideal format for them.

Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi looking up in Super Mario Bros. 1993

That is why the announcement of a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie is a bit more surprising. The adventures of Link and Zelda were always expected to get a movie adaptation at some point, and the continued success and acclaim of the games only increased those chances. While there was some hope that the property could be done in live-action, The Super Mario Bros. Movie's success brought assumptions that all future Nintendo movies would be done in animation. The confirmation that The Legend of Zelda will be done in live-action means Nintendo is finally making up for one of its biggest failures.

Link in Legend of Zelda and Super Mario in Mario movie

Redemption Through Live-Action

The Legend of Zelda's live-action movie will not be the first time Nintendo has attempted to adapt one of its beloved games in this format. That honor belongs to 1993's live-action Super Mario Bros. The movie starred Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi and was meant to capitalize on the beloved status of the video games. Super Mario Bros. instead became a massive failure for Nintendo, as it was met with scathing reviews and flopped at the box office. The overall terrible performance of the movie left a massive imprint on Nintendo, as the studio elected to attempt any movie adaptations for decades later.

Now that Nintendo has proven its games can translate to successful and generally well-received animated movies with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the live-action movie realm is now getting a second attempt. It is safe to assume that The Legend of Zelda will be done better than 1993's Super Mario Bros. This is largely because Nintendo is directly involved in the development of the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, whereas the team behind Super Mario Bros. had complete creative freedom. The greater appreciation for the source material and knowing what audiences want to see should result in a much better live-action Nintendo movie this time.

The Perfect Fit for Live-Action

The other benefit that The Legend of Zelda has is that the core concept and characters were always better suited for a live-action adaptation than the Mario franchise. The Mario games have always been more cartoonish in their design, ranging from the characters to the world, which perfectly lends itself to an animated format. Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda has more realistic character designs, a bigger, more fantastical story and setting, and more that lends itself to live-action. That is why Nintendo's decision to test the live-action movie waters with Mario was always a bit puzzling. Now, The Legend of Zelda can give audiences a better live-action Nintendo movie.