The Legend of Zelda (film)

The Legend of Zelda is a 2006 computer-animated fantasy action-adventure film directed by Peter Jackson, produced by Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, and written by David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, based on the video game series of the same name by Nintendo, and the second film in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU). It stars Elijah Wood, Winona Ryder, Christopher Plummer, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Keith David and Morgan Freeman. The film follows Link as he embarks on a quest to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of the sinister Ganondorf.

The film was the result of a complex development process, starting with Zemeckis' idea of directing and co-producing Link and the Legend of Zelda with Universal Pictures in 1999, which was to feature Tom Cruise as a main protagonist character. After cancelling the project due to lack of financial support, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka turned their attention to producing Zelda, which was to be a computer-animated fantasy film directed by Jackson starring Wood and Ryder. The team agreed and completed filming in two years with Centroid Motion Capture at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California using motion capture technology, after which animation work and post-production ensued in the United States, Hong Kong, and China for a year. Tom Cruise was hired to rewrite Paul Haggis' screenplay. His script positioned the film as a reboot of the series, distancing it from the 1996 film to give the new version its own identity. Cruise was ultimately not credited for his writing.

The Legend of Zelda premiered at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento on May 27, 2006, and released in the United States on June 2, and in Japan on June 23, as part of Level One of the NCU. It set the record for the biggest opening weekend for a video game film, and was a box office success, grossing $1.167 million against a $451 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2006, and received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the plot, casting, performances, humor, action sequences, visual effects, emotional weight, faithfulness and Jackson's direction to the source material. It was praised for its darker plot, sets and a story appropriate for a young audience. It was followed by The Legend of Zelda: The Sacred Realm (2013) and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2016).

Plot
In the land of Hyrule, the demon Ganon was defeated by Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule, the King of Hyrule. Before passing away, however and tragically, the King separates the Triforce, a sacred golden relic (left behind by the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, once they finished creating the realm) that grant their holders great power, into three fragments; the Triforce of Wisdom was covered and hidden by the Hyrulean Forces while the Triforce of Power was captured by Ganon's forces. Meanwhile, the fate of the Triforce of Courage is unknown, possibly under the possession of a hero who would soon take the now deceased king's place as defender of Hyrule.

A long time later, in Fort Hateno, the only home of the Hyrulean Forces during the time of the ongoing Hyrulean Civil War, Link is a young boy soldier who is the runt of the legion under the command of his uncle, General Alfon. Link opts to be the legion's lookout, a relatively easy job as no one dares to attack them. As the Hylians feast, Link spots an army led by the evil Ganondorf. He attempts to blow the warning horn, but his lungs are too weak, and the Hylians are taken by surprise. Alfon is killed by Ganondorf and all the other Hylians are captured. The only two left behind are Link and Tingle, a wise-cracking wizard.

Link seeks out the help of the Oracles for assistance, with Tingle planning to tag along to which the boy soldier himself reluctantly agrees. The Oracles reveal that Ganondorf wears a magical suit of armor and the only weapon capable of killing him is the Master Sword, a powerful weapon King Rhoam once used to defend his kingdom, which must be wielded by a fearless warrior donned in green. The Oracles also say that the Master Sword is hidden somewhere in the catacombs beneath the Hyrule Castle, the heart of Hyrule currently under the Ganondorf's control. Meanwhile, Ganondorf finally possesses the Triforce of Wisdom, and plans to use both Triforces to control the world, but his advisor, Wizzro, reminds him about the Triforce of Courage Link had around his neck. Realizing that he does not have enough power to control Hyrule yet, Ganondorf decides to set a trap for Link.

Later, Link manages to enter Hyrule Castle, disguised as a Moblin Sentry, but during one of Ganondorf's assemblies, his cover was blown by a mob of Hylian slaves, resulting in his capture along with Tingle's. Ganondorf then lectures him on the power of flesh, which he demonstrates by hypnotically enticing a Hylian slave girl to leap to her death. Thrown into the dungeons with his partner, Link is left to brood over his failure. Just then, a piece of the floor opens, and a girl in a tiara armed with a bow pops up. The girl introduces herself as Princess Zelda, daughter of King Rhoam, and, despite not seeing Link as a warrior, offers Link and Tingle a chance of escape. Link and Tingle agree, and the trio teams up to escape the castle.

While exploring the dungeon, they share their stories about how they got thrown in the dungeon. Zelda was captured because Ganondorf thought she can tell him where the Triforce of Wisdom was, and like Link on the Triforce of Courage, she was thrown into the dungeons when she refuses to surrender it. They come across a burial chamber of King Rhoam, where Link obtains a sword. They then enter a room where a minstrel is being chained by another Moblin. The minstrel, Kass, tries to convince the henchman to let him go. But everything he says is a lie: he is cursed, and every time he lies, one of the strings on his harp snaps. Link, Tingle, and Zelda attempt to set him free, but then they hear more henchmen coming. They run for it, while Kass tries to save himself. Link and Tingle get separated with Zelda in the process.

Suddenly, Link runs into a Moblin guard wielding an axe. The guard attempts to kill Link, but before he can strike, Link pulls out his sword, which is suddenly revealed to be the Master Sword, and uses it to block the axe. The sword magically damages the axe, and the horrified guard runs away. Excited over the magic sword, Link uses it to clear a path in order to regroup with Zelda, and the trio continues onward. They run into more guards, and Link deflects them with the Master Sword. Meanwhile, Kass has escaped the dungeon, but is being chased by a dog. Link slows down the guards by slashing some wine barrels with the sword. The trio finally makes it to the entrance of the castle, only to find the drawbridge closed. Onox and the other henchmen have them cornered, but then Link uses the sword to cut the chain to the drawbridge, allowing it to fall down. Onox and the guards stand back in fright, while Kass bowls past them. The trio make it past the closing gate, but Kass barely makes it with his pants ripped, and together, they escape into the forest.

Back in the castle, Onox nervously goes to Ganondorf and informs his master of Link's escape. Angered by this, Ganondorf sends his army to find him. In the forest, Zelda has sewed Kass's pants back together, much to his relief. They are all very thankful that they made it out of the castle alive, except for Link, who was suddenly troubled over the fact that the Hylian Shield, a special shield which King Rhoam also used along with the Master Sword, was supposed to be in the burial chamber with the Master Sword. Convinced, Zelda pinpoints the Hylian Shield's current location, Turtle Rock. The quartet soon travels to Kakariko Village to find passage to Turtle Rock.

For 17,000 rupees, 2,000 in advance and 15,000 upon arrival, Darunia, a noble descendant of a lost Goron tribe, agrees to take the four of them to Turtle Rock. Suddenly, General Onox and his troops enter the tavern, where the team is hiding, to confront the quintet, only to be subdued by patrons in a ensuing bar brawl which allows Link and his friends to escape the confusion. Darunia leads them to Turtle Rock, where Link braves a series of booby traps to retrieve the Hylian Shield, but not before the team gets chased out of the temple by a giant rolling boulder first. They are then confronted, arrested, and taken back to Hyrule Castle by Ganondorf's soldiers.

Ganondorf's goons take Link and his team to an area where all three Triforces will be brought together and tie them to a post to observe. Soon, Ganondorf combines all three Triforces, transforming into a massive boar-like beast, Ganon, to finally execute the Hyrulean Forces. Eventually, Zelda uses her dagger to free the team, allowing Link to free the rest of the Hyrulean Forces to battle Ganondorf’s army. Link and Ganondorf face off and succeeds in stabbing Ganon's weak point, i.e., Ganondorf’s crown, destroying them both.

With Link believed to be dead, the Hyrulean Forces honor him as the bravest boy soldier in history, only for Link to suddenly wake up, having only been unconscious after the final battle. As Hyrule returns to its former splendor, along with the now combined Triforce safely secured in the highest room of the tallest tower back at the Castle of Hyrule, a victory celebration commences, complete with medals for the heroes, Link, Tingle, Kass, and Darunia, presented by Princess Zelda, who now safely takes back control of Hyrule on behalf of her late father.

Voice cast

 * Elijah Wood as Link
 * Kate Winslet as Princess Zelda
 * Christopher Plummer as King Harkinikan
 * Zelda Williams as Navi
 * Emma Thompson as Impa
 * Pom Klementieff as Princess Ruto
 * Golshifteh Farahani as Nabooru
 * Uma Thurman as Great Fairy
 * Mary Steenburgen as Saria (motion-capture)
 * Joey King as Saria (voice)
 * Michael Clarke Duncan as Darunia
 * Nick Offerman as Rauru
 * Julia Butters as Malon
 * Charles Marinet as Talon
 * Keith David as Ganondorf
 * Ewan McGregor as Kass
 * Tress MacNeille as Twinrova
 * Kurt Russell as General Alfon
 * Morgan Freeman as General Onox

Development
After the release of Link and the Legend of Zelda (1996), Robert Zemeckis approached Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka to help complete an animation feature that Peter Jackson, who had directed The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), had begun in 1999. The project titled The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link had run into problems with its production and Jackson hoped that they could salvage the project by adding a historical back plot which would make the film partially animation and partially live action. Alfonso Cuarón, who had directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), then developed a story for fifteen days with his team of assistants and after being impressed by the script, Jackson felt that Cuarón's story should be an entirely separate film.

The film was finalised to be a co-production of DreamWorks Pictures, Nintendo Films and ImageMovers. Cuarón further stated that Zemeckis had worked with David Fincher, Aaron Sorkin and himself on the script of the film. With regards to the film's title, Zemeckis claimed that it drew reference to an alternate name of Triforce, while also being partly inspired by the name of the Middle-earth king Elindil, and that the plot would be a fictional account with small references to mythopoeia history. The title's etymology was defined by Tezuka who deconstructed it into its root words, which collectively meant "king with a long, curly mane." The director clarified that Zelda was not related to the same-titled history series being published by the Tamil magazine Kumudam. When rumours circulated that the temporarily shelved feature Rana was being remade as Zelda, Zemeckis denied these rumors saying, "Zelda has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit." In October 2003, the name of the film was changed from The Adventure of Link to The Legend Zelda on Jackson's request citing numerological reasons.

Casting
For the male lead role as Link, Sebastian Stan was initially approached, but sources confirmed later that he was not part of the film. It was then rumored that Hayden Christensen and Matt Smith were being considered for the role, since producers preferred a Hollywood actor. Jackson approached Andrew Garfield in January 2004, who was not able to clear his schedule for the film and the team reapproached Smith. Despite reports that Garfield was finalized, Elijah Wood, who was slated to pair with Jackson in Zelda, took up the offer in February 2004. Wood was paid a salary of $380,000 for shooting only for two days in the film. According to Jackson, he was "quite relieved to not be wearing make-up for a film for the first time in his career." The film began to increase its casting profile after Winona Ryder was rumoured to have been signed to play an important role as Princess Zelda. Nicole Kidman was reported to be finalised for a supporting role, with the actress confirming her presence in the film in December 2003. She, however, opted-out a couple of months later citing conflicts in her schedule and Kate Winslet was signed in her place. She accepted Cuarón's offer for an important role in the film while Christopher Plummer was recruited in the film as well for a supporting role of King Harkinikan.

Furthermore, Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Renner were said to be considered for a role as Kass. Zemeckis confirmed that the former was added to the cast saying that she was the "only choice for the role" as the character was written keeping her in mind. Cuarón disclaimed the rumor that Andrew Lincoln was chosen to do a guest appearance in the film. Keith David was also approached for an antagonistic role as Ganondorf. David immediately gave his consent, when the cast and the technical scope of Zelda were revealed to him. Reports claimed that the film would feature late actors like Michael Jeter recreated through sophisticated animation techniques, although it was later revealed that only Jeter was recreated for the film. According to Jackson, "The biggest triumph for Jackson was bringing back late comedy actor Jeter to the screen."

Design
Zemeckis worked on the looks of each character, including the lead role portrayed by Wood. According to Zemeckis, the project required a lot of research. Around 150 costumes per character were designed on paper and out of those, 25 costumes were selected and detailed. He also created a range of 20 to 30 looks especially for Wood's suit of armor as well as the supporting cast of Zelda. Zemeckis, along with the team working on the costumes, created the looks of all characters on the sketch. They had worked for about eight months on the various characterizations of Wood and the supporting cast. According to him, "It was a different kind of design experience altogether".

Zemeckis drew inspiration for the visual-effects of Legend of Zelda from experience with The Polar Express (2004), which uses motion-capture technology to create three-dimensional CGI images of characters. Appointing Jerome Chen, whom Zemeckis worked with on The Polar Express, the two decided to chart realism as their foremost goal.

Animation supervisor Kenn MacDonald explained that Zemeckis used motion capture because "Even though it feels like live-action, there were a lot of shots where Bob cut loose. Amazing shots. Impossible with live-action actors. This method of filmmaking gives him freedom and complete control. He doesn't have to worry about lighting. The actors don't have to hit marks. They don't have to know where the camera is. It's pure performance." A 25 × 35-foot stage was built, and it used 244 Vicon MX40 cameras. Actors on set wore seventy eight body markers. The cameras recorded real-time footage of the performances, shots which Zemeckis reviewed. The director then used a virtual-camera to choose camera angles from the footage which was edited together. Two teams of animators worked on the film, with one group working on replicating the facial performances, the other working on body movement. The animators said they worked very closely on replicating the human characters, but the character of Ganondorf had to be almost reworked, because he is a monster, not human.

Over 450 graphic designers were chosen for the project, the largest team ever assembled for a Sony Pictures Imageworks-produced movie as of 2006. Designers at Imageworks generated new animation tools for facial, body and cloth design especially for the movie, and elements of keyframe animation were incorporated into the film in order to capture the facial expressions of the actors and actresses. The mead hall battle scene near the beginning of the film, among others, required numerous props that served as additional markers; these markers allowed for a more accurate manifestation of a battlefield setting as the battle progressed. However, the data being collected by the markers slowed down the studios' computer equipment and five months were spent developing a new save/load system that would increase the efficiency of the studios' resources. To aid in the process of rendering the massive quantities of information, the development team used cached data. In the cases that using cached data was not possible, the scenes were rendered using foreground occlusion, which involves the blurring of different overlays of a single scene in an attempt to generate a single scene film.

Sound design
Diego Stocco is the sound designer for the film. He worked over two and a half years on the sound design of the film. Three teams of sound editors were working in Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Chennai under him. The final phase of re-recording was done in Chennai at A. R. Rahman's studio during end-March 2006. In an interview with The New York Times he quoted, "For the war sequence, we got 150 people scream like how they would in a war and recorded the sound. I went to fortresses and collected samples of how sound resonates. Based on the impulse response data, we recreated the acoustics of a durbar." Pookutty started working from the scratch instead of using available sound samples. He added that when his team started working on the foley (ambient sounds) he told the film director to provide him with the exact costumes used whilst filming. However, realising that the filming was done using performance capture technology, the entire set of costumes were designed to provide requisite foley. He also paid attention to nuances extensively where he added, "For instance, the image you see on screen is a composite of several layers of images. The clothes, the movement, the swords and so on were created separately and put together. My team also had to add sound, layer by layer."

Filming
The film posters showed that the film would use performance capturing technology, which was previously used in The Polar Express. Miyamoto announced that the filming would commence from January 15, 2004. The first schedule of indoor shooting started with Wood's base actions being filmed as per the motion capturing norms.

The film was launched with a formal puja on January 19, 2004 at the Hyrule Castle located inside Stage 25 at Paramount Studios. The first phase of production began in Chennai on March 15, 2004. It was then moved to London on March 17, 2004, where motion capture filming was done at Centroid Motion Picture lab in Pinewood Studios Production in London lasted for 15 days, during which, Jackson announced that the film might be released for June 2, 2006. After completing the first phase of production in London, the crew returned to Chennai on April 2, 2004. The next schedule of the film shooting was planned at various locations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Filming in Los Angeles took place at Stage 16 at Warner Bros. Studios backlot.

The second phase of production began at Stage 19 at Universal Studios Lot. Although initial reports claimed that production had moved to Mohanlal's Vismayas Max studio, it was later reported that shooting never took place at that studio. It instead happened at Stage 12, where the crew shot scenes which they were unable to complete during their schedule in London. The second phase was completed on April 30, 2004, after which a romantic song choreographed by Saroj Khan was filmed in early May 2004. It was said that the entire film shooting would be completed in the second schedule itself and the post-production work would begin. However, the team was off with the lead actor to Hong Kong for the third schedule of the film on May 12, 2004 where some crucial scenes and combat scenes featuring the lead actor and the antagonist were shot at the State of the Arts Gallery studio. Since the film was shot using performance capture technology, 48 cameras were used to shoot each and every scene. The 48 cameras captured performance of artistes' at 48 angles. Kochadaiiyaan was equipped with Dolby Digital sound technology. As per reports, due to involvement of extensive graphics, four separate teams, including teams from Chennai and London were also working on the film. On February 20, 2005 the director announced that Zelda was in the process of being finalized. On February 28, 2005 the final edited version of the film was screened by the director, writer and the lead actor along with handful crew members.

Music

 * Further information: The Legend of Zelda (soundtrack) and Music of the Nintendo Cinematic Universe

The original score was initially set to composed by Patrick Doyle and has written several cues for the film. Due to creative differences with Jackson, Doyle opted out of the project in February 2006 and subsequently Howard Shore replaced him. With scoring beginning by late-March 2006, Howard had only five weeks to work on the film, as a result, he found the film "hardest to compose". Recording sessions took place at the Sony Scoring Stage, California and Todd-AO, Los Angeles, consisting of 108-piece orchestra and 40-member choir, and a varied range of instruments used. The soundtrack album was released on May 19, 2006 in CD format.

Theatrical
The Legend of Zelda premiered on May 27, 2006, at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento and was released in theaters on June 2 in the United States, where it opened in 3,505 theaters. The film is part of Level One of the NCU.

Home media
The Legend of Zelda was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on DVD (in separate widescreen and pan and scan editions) and HD-DVD on December 5, 2006, and on Blu-ray on November 4, 2008.

The film was also collected in a 10-disc box set titled "Nintendo Cinematic Universe: Level One – The Beginning" which includes all of the Level One films in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, released on June 22, 2010.

Box office
The Legend of Zelda opened theatrically on June 2, 2006, alongside The Break-Up, and grossed $22.2 million in its opening weekend, ranking number three at the North American box office behind The Da Vinci Code and X-Men: The Last Stand.

In its opening weekend, Zelda earned $60 million in 3,985 theaters in the United States, ranking number one at the box office, ahead of The Devil Wears Prada 's $326 million. For six months, it would hold the record for having the highest opening weekend for a video-game-film until it was surpassed by Sonic the Hedgehog. In the United States, the film held onto the number one spot for a week before being surpassed by Cars. On its second weekend, it grossed $64,878,725 in 3,908 theatres, an average of $16,601. The film remained in the Top 10 at the box office for the remainder of its first twenty-two weeks. It ended its initial domestic run on November 5, 2006, taking in a total of $1.167 million.

Critical response
The film received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the plot, casting, performances (particularly of Wood and Ryder), humor, action sequences, visual effects, emotional weight, faithfulness and Jackson’s direction to the source material. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 87% score, based on 55 reviews, with an average score of 8.54 out of 10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “The Legend of Zelda is a action-packed adventure that all fans of the series will enjoy, and proves that 2006 isn’t such a bad year for movies after all.” On an A+ to F Scale, the film received a “B+”.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 205 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.

Robert Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, and wrote: "The movie's races are thrilling because they must be thrilling; there's no way for the movie to miss on those, but Zemeckis and cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt, get amazingly close to the action."

Accolades
Coming soon

Sequels
Coming soon

Transcripts
Coming soon