Legend of Zelda III: Link's Awakening
Directed By: Terry Gilliam
Written By: Pen Densham/John Watson
Produced By: Disney/Nintendo
Based On: The Legend of Zelda by Nintendo
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio as Link/Shadow Link
Drew Barrymore as Princess Zelda
Christopher Lambert as Ganon
Tobey Maguire as Prince Richard
Kevin Michael Richardson as the voice of Mamu
Kane Kosugi as Sheik
John DiMaggio as the voice of Darunia
Salma Hayek as Ruto
Dame Maggie Smith as Impa
BRIAN BLESSED as Uncle Alphonse
Robin Williams as Tarin
Release Date: June 20, 1997
Budget: $250 million
Box Office: $1,032,213,084
The final chapter of the Zelda trilogy and a landmark film as the first film to reach the billion dollar mark in the box office. Our story begins with Link, believed to be dead after the last film's climax, falling into a massive swamp, nearly drowning in the murky water before he is fished out by a young man in regal garb. He introduces himself to Link as Richard, Prince of Hyrule, who was there to train so that he could fight and retake the Kingdom from Ganon. Richard is played by Leo's real-life friend, Tobey Maguire, who had sadly built a reputation ITTL as being box office poison. His appearance only leads to more jokes about how "Maguire can't make a buck unless his buddy Leo bails him out." which continues to do a disservice to Maguire, who puts on a fine performance as the Prince, who carries a lot of doubt over how he could never be the leader of Hyrule the way his sister Zelda is and his shame over abandoning his people when they needed him most.
Richard takes Link to Mamu, the Great Spirit of the Swamp, who offers to mentor Link so that he can properly face Ganon. This results in some good montages between DiCaprio and Maguire, all building up to one of the most iconic scenes of the movie: The Shadow Link fight. The fight, beyond some amazing choreography and a great double performance by DiCaprio, also tells a great story of Link having to overcome his anger at Dragomir's deception, and to face his own Shadow with a clear heart. Richard, despite being warned against doing so by Mamu, aids in the fight and is nearly killed, but gives an opening for Link's second wind, which allows him to defeat Shadow Link and begin his awakening as the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, the missing Triforce that Ganon seeks throughout the film. As Link completes his training, Mamu reveals that he was entrusted by the Hylian Royal Family with guarding the Master Sword, a sword only able to be wielded by one who bears a Triforce. He passes the Master Sword on to Link and tells him to go forth and defeat Ganon.
Meanwhile, Zelda's prayers seem to be answered as she is broken out of the dungeon by Sheik, a ninja of the Sheikah tribe who was called upon by Impa. Zelda's plan is to gather forces from the lands surrounding Hyrule to fight back, acting as the subplot as she seeks audience with Goron Chieftan Darunia and Princess Ruto of the Zoras, gaining their armies. The two plots would soon meet as Link and Prince Richard return to Hyrule at the same time as Princess Zelda, leading into the climax of the film: The Battle of Hyrule. It's a massive action climax, with the forces of the Hylian, Goron and Zora armies battling against Ganon's forces while Link races to Death Mountain, the sacred Goron landscape that Ganon had taken over and placed his own castle on. There we get the fight everyone has been waiting for, Link vs. Ganon, on the big screen.
The fight is wonderful, not just on the action, but the emotion as Link faces the man who taught him everything, who acted almost as a father to the young Hylian before revealing himself to be truly Ganon. The duel is intercut with scenes of the Battle, where things aren't going well for the Hylian army until a crucial point in the Link/Ganon fight sees Link sever Ganon's connection to the Triforce of Wisdom, which returns to Zelda. Zelda, imbued once again with the Triforce's power, turns the tide of battle and begins pushing back the Moblin forces. Finally, Link overcomes Ganon and the Triforce of Power, slashing him diagonally as Ganon had done to him, followed by another diagonal slash to form an X on Ganon's chest. Ganon's chestplate shatters, giving Link the opening to thrust the Master Sword into Ganon's chest, the glowing blade piercing through Ganon as he falls to the castle floor. The Moblins are soon forced back as Hyrule is victorious.
The final scene is a grand ceremony in front of the rebuilt Hyrule Castle, where Zelda makes a speech commending the gathered forces in defeating Ganon's army and Link is knighted, becoming a Knight of the Hylian Royal Guard and given the title of Hero of Hyrule for defeating Ganon. The movie ends with Link and Zelda sealing away the full Triforce in case anyone should try to seek their power as Ganon had done so before. The film was lauded by critics for being a deserving finale for the trilogy and knowing how to end a story, something that many noted the Mario movies never really figured out. Many of the cast were given high praise, especially DiCaprio, Barrymore and Lambert, with special mention give to Tobey Maguire's Prince Richard and DiMaggio voicing Darunia (who served mainly a comedic role but many loved the bombastic Goron chieftain)
The film became the #1 film of 1997, knocking off the likes of
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (which keeps its OTL box office) and
Men in Black (which actually got halved, putting it at #9) though this is all currently without calculating
Contra, so we'll see how true that holds up.
