The Legend of Zelda (film)

The Legend of Zelda is a 2006 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson, produced by Nintendo and written by David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, based on the video game series of the same name, 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.

After the success of the 1996 film, Nintendo reacquired the rights to the character though Universal Pictures retained distribution rights. Jackson, who had directed the Lord of the Rings film series (2001-03), was brought onboard and Paul Haggis began work on a script that would be much closer to the 1989 television series of the same name. In June 2001, Wood was hired to portray the role of Link and Tom Cruise was hired to rewrite Haggins' 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 June 21, 2006, and released in the United States on June 30, and in Japan on July 14, as part of Phase One of the NCU. It was also a box office success, grossing $617 million against a $101 million budget, and 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. 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 (2012) and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2015).

Plot
The fairy Navi awakens Link from a nightmare in which he witnesses a man in black armor pursuing a young girl on horseback. Navi brings Link to the Great Deku Tree, who is cursed and near death. The Deku Tree tells Link that a "wicked man of the desert" cursed him and seeks to conquer the world and that Link must stop him. Before dying, the Great Deku Tree gives Link the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and sends him to Hyrule Castle to speak with Hyrule's princess.

At the Hyrule Castle garden, Link meets Princess Zelda, who believes Ganondorf, the evil Gerudo king, is seeking the Triforce, a holy relic that gives its holder godlike power. Zelda asks Link to obtain the three Spiritual Stones so he can enter the Sacred Realm and claim the Triforce before Ganondorf reaches it. Link collects the other two stones: the first from Darunia, leader of the Gorons, and the second from Ruto, princess of the Zoras. Link returns to Hyrule Castle, where he sees Ganondorf chase Zelda and her caretaker Impa on horseback, like in his nightmare, and unsuccessfully attempts to stop him. Inside the Temple of Time, he uses the Ocarina of Time, a gift from Zelda, and the Spiritual Stones to open the door to the Sacred Realm. There he finds the Master Sword, but as he pulls it from its pedestal he is incapacitated and Ganondorf, having snuck into the Temple after Link, appears and claims the Triforce.

Seven years later, an older Link awakens in the Sacred Realm and is met by Rauru, one of the seven Sages who protects the entrance to the Sacred Realm. Rauru explains that Link's spirit was sealed for seven years until he was old enough to wield the Master Sword and defeat Ganondorf, who has now taken over Hyrule. The seven sages can imprison Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm, but five are unaware of their identities as sages. Link is returned to the Temple of Time, where he meets the mysterious Sheik, who guides him to free five temples from Ganondorf's control and allow each temple's sage to awaken. Link befriended all five sages as a child: his childhood friend Saria, the Sage of the Forest Temple; Darunia, the Sage of the Fire Temple; Ruto, the Sage of the Water Temple; Impa, the Sage of the Shadow Temple; and Nabooru, leader of the Gerudos in Ganondorf's absence, the Sage of the Spirit Temple. After the five sages awaken, Sheik reveals herself to be Zelda in disguise, as well as the seventh sage. She tells Link that Ganondorf's heart was unbalanced, causing the Triforce to split into three pieces. Ganondorf acquired only the Triforce of Power, while Zelda received the Triforce of Wisdom and Link the Triforce of Courage.

Ganondorf appears and captures Zelda, imprisoning her in his castle. The other six sages help Link infiltrate the stronghold; Link frees Zelda after defeating Ganondorf, who destroys the castle in an attempt to kill Link and Zelda. After they escape the collapsing castle, Ganondorf emerges from the rubble and transforms into a boar-like beast named Ganon using the Triforce of Power, knocking the Master Sword from Link's hand; with Zelda's aid, Link retrieves the Master Sword and defeats Ganon. The seven sages seal Ganondorf in the Dark Realm; still holding the Triforce of Power, he vows to take revenge on their descendants. Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to his childhood. Navi departs and young Link meets Zelda in the castle garden once more, where he retains knowledge of Hyrule's fate, starting with Hyrule's decline.

Live-action cast

 * Elijah Wood as Link
 * Josh Hutcherson as Link (child)
 * Winona Ryder as Princess Zelda
 * Emily Bett Rickards as Princess Zelda (child)
 * Christopher Plummer as King Harkinikan
 * 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
 * Austin Butler as Dark Link

Voice cast

 * Zelda Williams as Navi
 * Tress MacNeille as Twinrova
 * Morgan Freeman as Great Deku Tree

Development
After the release of Robert Zemeckis' The Legend of Zelda in 1996, screenwriter James Schamus was planning a sequel which would continue the story featuring Link. During the filming of the original film, producer Shigeru Miyamoto had a target June 2004 theatrical release date. On January 18, 2000, Miyamoto confirmed Nintendo would be providing the money for the original film's production budget, with Universal distributing, because Universal did not meet the deadline for filming a sequel. Director Peter Jackson, who had directed the Lord of the Rings film series (2001-03), felt it would be better to deviate from Zemeckis' old style to continue the franchise, arguing his film was like a parallel universe one-shot video game, and their next film needed to be, in Miyamoto's words, "really starting the Nintendo Zelda franchise".

Pre-production
Jackson had expressed interest in directing the Kirby film adaptation. Tim Hill had taken that project, so Nintendo offered him Zelda. Jackson was reluctant as he was unsure if he could replicate Zemeckis' previous style, but Nintendo explained that was not their intent. Jackson's primary inspiration was Takashi Tezuka and Ocarina of Time. He replicated every game series that he pinned-up during pre-production, from the many comics he browsed, in the final film. Zemeckis said that he planned to show Link's destiny with the spirits within him, while Miyamoto added the film would explore "that element of wish fulfillment, of overcoming an injustice or a bully and tapping into a strength that you didn't quite realize you had in yourself". Tezuka also said the film would be "a lot more of a love story between Link and Zelda". In October 2000, a June 30, 2006, release date was set.

Paul Haggis said the film would follow up The Legend of Zelda, but stressed it would be more tonally similar to the TV show. He compared his script to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), which was a very different film from Dragonheart (1996), but still in the same continuity. Wood, in June 2001, began discussions to play Link, and arranged a deal that included Tom Cruise as a writer, with a screenplay draft he was contractually obligated to turn in within a month. He did so, and continued to polish his draft as late as halfway through principal photography. Jackson acknowledged the only remaining similarity between the two films was Link leaving Korok, and that the film was a unique reboot, as generally audiences would have expected another twenty-minute origin story. There were previous discussions to set the first act in Thailand. Cruise felt audiences were left restless waiting for the character to arrive in Zemeckis' film. Miyamoto commented, "we didn't want to tell the origin story again, because we thought people were so familiar with it, which is why we didn't tell that... One reason we made Legend of Zelda was to get Link into the [ Nintendo Cinematic Universe] canon."

Filming
Principal photography began on April 29, 2003 at Stage 16 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Filming at the Neuschwanstein Castle, which was eventually selected as the principal location for the interior of Hyrule Castle, took place on May 13, 2003. The Palace of Westminster was selected as the location for Hyrule Bank, while Christ Church, Oxford was the location for the Hyrule trophy room. Location shooting took place in the Tunisian desert, at the Plaza de España in Seville, London, China, Vancouver, San Diego, and Italy (Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como, and in the former royal Palace of Caserta).

In June, the crew moved to the Yuma Desert in Arizona for two weeks of Gerudo Wasteland exteriors. Production then moved to the redwood forests of northern California near Crescent City where two weeks were spent shooting the Korok forest exteriors, and then concluded at Warner Bros. in San Rafael, California for about ten days of bluescreen shots. One of two "skeletal" post-production units shooting background matte plates spent a day in Death Valley. The other was a special Steadicam unit shooting forest backgrounds from July 24 to August 1, 2003, for the fight near the middle of the film. Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown personally operated these shots as he walked through a disguised path inside the forest shooting at less than one frame per second. By walking at about 5 mph (8 km/h) and projecting the footage at 24 frame/s, the motion seen in the film appeared as if it were moving at around 120 mph (190 km/h). Filming concluded on December 3, 2003, with final work being done in November 2005.

Special and visual effects
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Framestore handled the key visual effects shots for the film, while The Moving Picture Company, Cinesite, and Double Negative crafted additional VFX material.

Cuarón originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry. He hired master puppeteer Basil Twist and experimented with underwater puppets to figure out the movements of dementors. The tests were shot in slow motion, but ultimately the method wasn't practical. The water test footage provided creative direction for the visual effects team, adding the intangible metaphysical quality Cuarón was seeking. Visual effects supervisors Tim Burke and Roger Guyett, the Industrial Light & Magic VFX team, and Temime collaborated in the creation of dementors.

Cuarón commented on the difficulty of creating Buckbeak, which took months of research and preparation, beginning with the creature's skeletal design. Cuarón said, "Once we worked out the physiology, the way his bones would actually move, we had to capture his personality, which is a mixture of regal elegance, particularly when he is flying, and the clumsy and greedy creature he becomes back on land." Creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman created several practical hippogriffs for the production, while Burke and Guyett oversaw the creation of the computer-generated version. Guyett cited the complex movement of the feathers as an achievement that had "never been done before."

Cinesite was in charge of the time travel shot featured in the film, which was over a minute long. The main action was filmed on a steadicam against bluescreen, and four minutes of background footage was shot separately. The background was then sped up and composited behind the main action. Two other plates of background footage were tiled together as the camera turned.

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 March 2006 and subsequently Howard Shore replaced him. With scoring beginning by late-April 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 June 19, 2006 in CD format.

Theatrical
The Legend of Zelda premiered on June 21, 2006, at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento and was released in theaters on June 30 in the United States, where it opened in 3,505 theaters, and on July 14 in Japan. The film is part of Phase 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 Blu-ray Disc on November 14, 2006.

Box office
The Legend of Zelda opened theatrically on June 30, 2006, alongside Cars, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Click, and grossed $22.2 million in its opening weekend, ranking number three at the North American box office behind Superman Returns and The Devil Wears Prada.

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 nearly 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 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. On Independence Day weekend, it grossed $64,878,725 in 3,908 theatres, an average of $16,601. It was the third-biggest film opening on Independence Day weekend, after War of the Worlds. The film remained in the Top 10 at the box office for the remainder of its first sixteen weeks. It ended its initial domestic run on October 14, 2006, taking in a total of $524 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
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Sequels
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Transcripts
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