Part I: A Zelda Movie

Forget everything I've ever said about a Zelda film, except for one thing - the common traits of the series, the "staples" if you will, must be adhered to or else it will not have broad enough appeal to fans. My rants and raves about a live action film, how a great fan should do it are statements I wish to retract from the ZHQ days. After seeing a very ambitious attempt at a fan film (as seen in the trailer), I really sat down and thought carefully about what I've said in the past.

The short of it is, I don't think it is possible for any fan to make a great Zelda film. Why is that? For starters, if you know anything about making a film, not a trailer, and not some lame thirty-minute short you shoot in the backward, but a feature length film - you would know how much time, money and crew member you would need to make this thing. That's for a decent feature. When we go to the realm of indie films, which apparently is all the rage in the community now, you can forget it. Indie films are low budget films made outside the studio system, which means more alternative style narrative and media. Stories like Napoloen Dynamite or Ferris Bueller could be done on a very low budget, indie film. But could you imagine Lord of the Rings done as an indie film? Or Star Wars?

Yes, this doesn’t mean you can’t attempt to make one. It doesn’t mean your "story isn’t good". But for some franchises, there is more to the whole ordeal than just the narrative. Film is a visual medium. The cinematics matter as much as the narrative, sometimes they’re even more important. The point is, while you may get a decent Star Wars fan film here or there, please point out how many Star Wars fans would rather have that indie fan film over the original Star Wars. Who would want some random fan’s film of Lord of the Rings over Peter Jackson’s work? You may have issues with some details and presentation, but you’d be hard pressed to say an indie film could outdo the big studio film. My point is, indie films are not for huge epics with special effects and cast and crew of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

What about animation or CGI? You would think that with the advancements in technology, and the improvements in home computers as well as more advanced software available to the public that an animated film could be plausible. But have you actually researched how long it took to make Advent Children? Or The Incredibles? Just look at the credits of either. These types of projects take just as much time and resources as a live action film. Sure, through piracy I bet many people could get a hold of the proper software to begin working on such a feature. But I question just how much time one would have to really pull this off. It took one of the best animators I've ever seen a week of non-stop work to produce that Nintendo ON video, and that wasn't even close to the level of a real film, and as talented as that guy is, the sequences near the end weren't up to par with modern CGI films. In fact, none of his work looked passable. Honestly, most CGI projects end up like the Joe Cracker hoax trailers for his "film".

Here’s my bottom line for all of this. Nobody is rich enough or has enough free time to make a very good looking Zelda fan film. The amount of people that would need to be organized, the amount of money it would take to get everything together, and the amount of work that would have to be put into it - all for free - is simply beyond all imagination. And let's say you managed, but some grace of god, to make something that is B-film worthy. It's more than likely any feature length film of Zelda that is passable as a theater quality work would be trampled by Nintendo because it would more than likely present conflicting presentations of the franchise - something Nintendo is adamantly against (especially Shigeru Miyamoto - he does not want a Zelda cartoon or film period because if fans liked it too much, he may be forced to create a static image of Link - restricting creativity and his options).

Sadly, there is a hard reality we all must face. Zelda fan films, or fan films in general, are reserved to indie status, and will never be good enough to exist outside of the fan community. For as great as many think that "Hero of Time" trailer is, there are major flaws with it and it's caused a lot of arguing amongst fans. In the end, they all end up on YouTube, Google Video or the host site, and they're nothing more than a few fans dressed up like the characters in attempts to create the world of Hyrule, which utterly doesn't come close to the majesty of the games. It is beyond the power of the entire community to make a film on caliber of something worthy of the Zelda title. Think about it. Zelda is known for greatness. Is any fan film in existence worthy of the title "Zelda". Would you accept it as an official product?

I'm not here to totally knock fan attempts. I'm just saying Zelda deserves better. This brings me to my main focus - an official Zelda film. The topic of official video game films drives fear into the hearts of many, especially after the long history of bad films based on game. Yet, there is hope. I believe there is a way it could work, and please a majority of the fans and have wider appeal than just our community. The answer lies within the manga. The same manga some of us choose to dismiss as non-cannon or just fan art.

Whether or not the manga are actually apart of the official Zelda lore is a matter of opinion right now as we don't know how exactly the product is made and to what the extent of Nintendo's involvement is. What I do know is that the manga are narrative pieces. Films are visual narratives. Translating a written source into a film is much easier than translating a video game. For if you know anything about film, they all start as written mediums - a script.

I know there are some concerns with the manga. Many fans, as I've read in various forums, have issues with the accuracy of the manga. I fail to see how this would impact a movie. A movie verbatim of Ocarina of Time wouldn't really hold any narrative surprise for fans, would it? Sure, if it looked awesome, you’d like it. But would you enjoy the story as much as a fresh take? The manga, which I say hold up well to the official game content, present very good takes on the in-game stories, developing them far enough so they can be suited for a film adaptation. It's much easier to make one of the manga into a film, and remain faithful to it, then trying to convert one of the actual games.

Now, I know some people have issues with books translated into films. I'm here to say books are not films. Books are written mediums, designed to give all access to the thoughts of the characters, and focus on being more descriptive in the diction to allow readers to use their imagination. The visual work is up to the reader. In a film, the visual work is up to the director, and the "thoughts of the characters" are left to the viewer, unless they're stated somehow (which I say is cheating in film). When Link draws the Master Sword in a book, you probably get this description of how this excitement was rushing through him, he could feel the power coursing through his body. On screen, you see Link pull the sword, and the visual cues try to imply meaning.

In that sense, film is just as "imaginative" as a novel. They just do the opposite tasks for the consumer. I know that people will say books are more detailed, but that's how it is. You can read books in chapters. Watching a film in chapters, even with DVDs, doesn't quite convey the full meaning. Films are meant to be consumed in one sitting. Books are not. They're two different formats, two different goals.

What's amazing is the manga are more focused on artwork than text. The text is usually very shallow and just enough to get the story across. Most of the work in manga, and in comics, is done through the drawings. In this sense, manga are almost perfect to adapt into a film. This is why comics adapt so well into film - with special effects and visuals, you can recreate the same atmosphere of a comic on-screen. Video games, honestly, have bee done all wrong. Too many times the visuals are ignored, too many times the look strays too far from the "safe" zone.

The manga could almost pass as official materials. They are licensed by Nintendo. If Nintendo approved the project, the film would get major funding and good treatment from the creators. No matter what style it was done in (live action, anime, CGI), adapting the manga would work well because it has a solid story, is a visual medium itself, and is short enough to work within the time limits of a film as to not cut much of the source out. It makes the job easier for film makers than trying to adapt a video game because the manga lends itself so well to the film medium.

- Mike "TSA" Damiani is the Senior Editor and Owner of The Hylia.

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