The Legend of Zelda
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
Drew Barrymore as Princess Zelda
Tony Todd as the voice of Ganon
Christopher Lambert as Dragomir
Dame Maggie Smith as Impa
BRIAN BLESSED as Uncle Alphonse
Robin Williams as Tarin
Release Date: December 11, 1993
Budget: $72.5 million
Box Office: $457 million
Nintendo's offering for 1993 was a bit more ambitious and the risk paid off with the second highest-grossing film of the 1993 box office. (Only being stopped by the monster megahit of
Jurassic Park) The film tells the story of Link (DiCaprio) living out his life as a farmhand for his uncle Alphonse (Blessed) a former Knight of the Hylian Guard of the Kingdom of Hyrule. The film, as opposed to the fast-paced action-adventure of Super Mario, takes its time to build its story and world for the audience, allowing newcomers to the franchise to get engrossed in it. Link aspires to be a knight just like his father and uncle, though Alphonse is reticent to train him. When Link puts himself at risk to help stop an attack by Moblins, he is rescued by Dragomir (Lambert) another Knight who admires Link's courage and takes the boy on as his apprentice.
Intercut with Link's training are scenes of Princess Zelda (Barrymore) and her nursemaid/advisor Impa (Smith) discussing the recent Moblin attacks. Fearing the possibility of invasion, Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom into three parts, scattering them just before Hyrule Castle is attacked by the dark wizard, Ganon, covered in black full-body armor and speaking with the booming voice of Tony Todd. Zelda manages to help Impa escape the castle to seek Dragomir while she attempts to hold Ganon off. Impa finds Dragomir and tells him of Zelda's capture and pleads with him to reforge the Triforce of Wisdom and find the Triforce of Courage as their combined powers can force Ganon back.
The story mainly focuses on Link and Dragomir's journey to gather the first fragment of the Triforce, allowing for worldbuilding such as what the Triforces are and learning more about Dragomir. The second act also has a fun scene of Robin Williams as Tarin, a kindly merchant who giddily shows off his wares to Link. Along with Robin, his daughter Zelda (named after the character) appears in the background (officially not given a name, but dubbed Marin by fans) The film ends Link and Dragomir defeating the first of three Triforce Guardians, Dodongo, and claiming the first fragment of the Triforce while Ganon watches Hyrule Castle from upon Death Mountain, giving orders to his Moblin army to destroy it as a warning to those who would try to stop him.
The film was the biggest movie of December, with kids and adults lining up to see it in theaters. While this didn't have much effect on the likes of
Philadelphia or
Schindler's List, it absolutely decimated
Beethoven's 2nd, which only took away a quarter of it's OTL box office take (going from $118 million to $29 million) meaning the movie underperformed and completely shuttering future Beethoven films. It also prevented
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm from seeing a theatrical release (which suit Paul Dini just fine as he wanted it to go straight to video anyway.) and since Leo was in this film and not
What's Eating Gilbert Grape the role of Arnie went to Tobey Maguire instead. That movie did the same as OTL, and while Tobey is no Leonardo, he brought his own spin to the role and does a good job.
But yeah, another ballpark success for the Nintendo/Disney partnership. Should make up for the disappointing early sales on the SNES-CD before that takes off.