 Today we get to talk about a possible Zelda animated movie, not a series, not a live action Netflix show. We've seen rumors like this crop over the years, hence why I mentioned a couple of things we've seen before. Reality is, we have had some Zelda animated stuff in the past. The Zelda cartoon series comes to mind, but really this is something that seems a bit more serious, especially based on the source of this rumor. So this does come from Giant Freakin Robot and I just want to read through their article here because it's an exclusive they have saying the Legend of Zelda movie is in development from Illumination. Our sources say Illumination, the same studio behind the Super Mario Bros movie is developing an animated movie adaption of the Legend of Zelda. The greatest hero of Hyrule is finally on his way to the big screen. Our trusted and proven sources tell us Illumination, the same studio behind projects like the Spiccable Me franchise and the upcoming Super Mario Bros movie is developing an animated Legend of Zelda movie. Assuming it eventually makes it to the big screen, it will be the very first film adaption of the franchise. So everything else that it goes on to talk about in this article is just them talking about their ideas and what it could be and bringing up the old cartoon series. So this is essentially the rumor in a nutshell is Illumination's next big project or whatever is going to be the Legend of Zelda as a movie. Now that does make sense, we've heard rumors in the past about a Donkey Kong movie but they were rather unsubstantiated rumors and more like murmurs on the internet. This one has an actual source at a place called Giant Freakin Robot who has been very very good at these sort of animation movie leaks over the years. They've actually gotten a number of movie leaks correct from their sources. So it is something worth paying attention to. There's a lot of obvious questions that come up with any sort of Zelda animated or live action film. One is obviously with Illumination making the animated film, you would think that Zelda is a bit more of a serious IP. There are definitely jokes and stuff inside the Zelda franchise and all throughout the Zelda history. But Zelda in general is a bit more of a serious tone video game. And when you have a bit more of a serious tone, you wonder if Illumination is the right studio to handle that. I'm not saying they can't do more serious stuff. There are some examples of some Illumination films that went a bit more serious. But to go very serious with Zelda requires quite a bit. Things like obviously Link's going to have a voice. Unlike Mario, Mario has said complete sentences in the past so it's not abnormal to have Mario talk. Link however has always been a silent protagonist. Now the big caveat to this is Link is not a mute. People confuse the fact that because we don't hear Link speak, that Link never talks. In fact, it's been inferred in every single Zelda game that Link is talking to them. Like they say, oh what's your name and they're just like, oh your name's Link. How the heck do you think they found out your name was Link after they directly asked you? Because Link told them we just don't audibly or textually see it. Because it is actually a gameplay trick to make us feel like we are Link. That's the idea. It's a gameplay thing. It's not that Link's a mute, it's that it's supposed to trick us into us saying the sentences for Link. Us having that natural response for Link. But yeah, Link does actually talk. We just don't hear him. So he's not a mute. So him talking isn't abnormal. It's just we've never been able to put a voice to him because the voice has always been our own. Again, Zelda's a video game. It can do things like that to make us the voice of Link. So how is this going to work then with an animated show? Well clearly they're going to have to have somebody voice him. I don't know who the right person is. Look, we all have in our minds what we think Link sounds like when he does talk. Some of it is just us talking. You guys imagine certain voice actors and other people in the role. I don't know. Obviously everyone else talking isn't do now. Breath of the Wild has voice acting. Would they use the voice actors in Breath of the Wild and maybe tears of the kingdom in this show? I don't know. I don't really know what direction it would take in. One thing I will note is that in any animated setting I sort of would like them if this is going to be a movie to create their own story. You can base it on the Triforce and the Sages and Ganondorf and you can have all this stuff involved but I would like to see an original story that could be told through a movie in a way that can't be told during a video game. I think the video game adaptations that do that into film are best because if you're just going to tell me a story that I already know about in a video game chances are I'm just going to feel like the video game did it better because the video game did it in a video game story. It was meant to be told through a combination of gameplay and cutscenes whereas if I'm watching a movie I want this to be the type of story I can't get in a Zelda game. So look this is just obviously my personal opinion. Is this going to be their next project? I would say in terms of things that could turn into movies Mario is really popular. Zelda is as well. Zelda is more popular than it's ever been. So maybe they want to strike with the iron is hot. They have tears of the kingdom coming out. I would say they announced a Zelda movie before the end of the year as well even if the movie is not going to come out for a couple of years. I do think that there is some logic to think that after Mario it could be Zelda. Pokemon already does its own movie stuff. Zelda might be that next big IP that Nintendo thinks they want to hit on because obviously turning like Splatoon or Animal Crossing it might be a bit more difficult at least in the moment. So yeah let's just see what happens. I was sort of assuming it would be Donkey Kong given the Donkey Kong expansion but maybe if the next movie is not going to be done for two or three years then by then they could be expanding into Zelda at these universal parks. So even an expansion there could line up with this. Also I do think the Mario movie is going to have a sequel of course. I don't think this is going to be the only Mario movie unless it I mean completely bombs at the box office then I guess it probably will be the only one. I don't actually think it's going to happen. Reactions to the movie seem pretty good. And can illumination pull off a more serious tone animated Zelda film? Because I mean yeah there's jokes in Zelda but that's not predominantly what Zelda is. It's a pretty serious story overall and it's honestly one of the strangest IPs for Nintendo because of how serious it is. They don't have a lot of things that are like this beyond like Metroid. Metroid has a pretty serious story as well but besides that it's usually mostly just silly goofy fun. That's not Zelda. So let's see what happens. Anyways folks I'm Nathan from Nintendo Prime and I know your ideas for an animated Zelda movie down below and if you think this rumor has any teeth. I'll catch you guys in that next video.