Musings on a 'Zelda OOT' Movie

Whenever I talk to people about Zelda, I bring up the notion of what a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time movie would be like. Every Zelda fan I talk to about it, disagrees with me that it could be adapted into a feature film, mostly on the basis that you could not pull the story together cohesively because the main character, Link, does not talk, and a few other reasons that I cannot seem to think of right now because of my bias.

If the right kind of person directed it, I think it could be an amazing movie. I think it would have to be split up because the story is huge, but I imagine that it would be such a fantastic thing to make into a movie. I mean, it's a 10 year old boy embarking on a quest to save the world from which he has been alienated, and I believe that the emotional journey that he would undertake would be incredibly interesting. At least to me. I think Zelda has so many underlying themes that could be explored in a movie that couldn't be explored in the game; parental abandonment, alienation, building confidence, search for love & understanding of the world, the building of relationships. These are the things that came across to me through the game and I totally connected to the game at these levels when I first played it at 10 years of age.

Someone pointed out to me that we project our own emotions onto Link and that he does represent you as the player, which is why the developers decided to have no dialogue for him, so that we could identify with him more freely. This they say, is why a Zelda film would be so unachievable, because we all project different emotions onto Link and therefore, everyone would take away a different feeling and understanding of the main character.

Though I think this is a good point, I still don't think that the range of emotions felt and the impression of who Link is, would vary greatly amongst fans. I really don't think it would because, like directors with movies, the developers purposefully put in elements that all work together to create scenes that attain, more or less, a particular set of emotions from the player.

So I really think a Zelda movie would work, but I would be very disappointed if hollywood adapted it and overdramatized it, like they do with a lot of things. I mean, has anyone read the manga even? I think it's horrendous, Link is very talkative in it, which surprised me greatly. So I am also afraid that it would be noticed by the wrong person and be absolutely pumped with overdramatics and largely incorrect interpretations of characters, when it should be subtle and real and gritty, with the main focus being, of course, Link's emotional development and understandings.