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 #
“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
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.
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.
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.
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.
