The Legend of Zelda (TV series)

''The Legend of Zelda'' is an American animated television series. The series is heavily based on the first game of Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game series, ''The Legend of Zelda'', but includes some references to '' Zelda II: The Adventure of Link''. It was exhibited during the Friday episodes of '' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!''.

The plot follows the adventures of Link and Princess Zelda as they defend the kingdom of Hyrule from an evil wizard named Ganon.

The show has thirteen episodes, which first aired in North America from September 8 to December 1, 1989.

Premise

Each episode of ''The Legend of Zelda'' follows the adventures of the hero Link and Princess Zelda as they defend the kingdom of Hyrule from an evil wizard named Ganon, who somehow came into possession of the Triforce of Power. Most episodes consist of Ganon (or his minions) either attempting to capture the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda, kidnap Zelda, or conquer Hyrule. In some episodes, Link and Zelda are assisted and accompanied by a fairy-princess named Spryte, who dislikes Zelda as she considers her to be a competitor for Link's affections. Throughout the series, Link is a moaning, self-centred teenager who repeatedly fails to convince Zelda that he deserves a kiss for his heroic deeds. Although Zelda is sometimes the damsel in distress, she is a headstrong, self-sufficient princess who is Link's equal. Link frequently meets Zelda's angry remarks with his sarcastic catchphrase, "Well, excuse me, Princess!"

Characters

* Link (voiced by Jonathan Potts) is a young hero who is hired by King Harkinian to protect the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon
* Princess Zelda (voiced by Cyndy Preston) is the princess of Hyrule and daughter of King Harkinian
* Ganon (voiced by Len Carlson) is an evil sorcerer and owner of the Triforce of Power
* Spryte (voiced by Paulina Gillis) is the fairy companion to Link
* King Harkinian (voiced by Colin Fox) is the King of Hyrule and father of Princess Zelda
*Triforce of Wisdom (voiced by Elizabeth Hanna)
* Triforce of Power (voiced by Allen Stewart Coates)

Production and development

The show was produced by DIC Animation and premiered in 1989, which was just two years after the original ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game was released outside Japan. The television series was based heavily on the game and focused on its core characters, Link, Zelda and Ganon. The game concept was adapted into a Saturday morning children's television series in the genre style of a romantic comedy. Due to the lack of available ''Zelda'' lore at the time of production, the series diverges from traditional plot elements of the games in various ways, including placing Princess Zelda as a central protagonist and portraying Link with an exaggerated vocal personality. It also features only two pieces of the Triforce, with Zelda and Ganon each possessing a Triforce and Link's Triforce being completely absent. The episodes drew little inspiration from ''Zelda'' lore outside of the main characters' battle for possession of the Triforce, but feature numerous references to the games, including the names of monsters, weapons, and special items, as well as identical sound effects, a theme song based on the first game, and an underworld in the form of a massive labyrinth.

Writing

According to screenwriter Bob Forward, the writing team was given significant freedom to develop the series as they wished, particularly with regards to the script and character design. The fairy character named Spryte was inspired by Forward's childhood obsession with the character Tinker Bell from Walt Disney's animated film ''Peter Pan''. Forward also explained that Link's catchphrase "Excuse me, Princess" was based on a popular Steve Martin comedy routine. He decided to include it in every episode of the series as a way to poke fun at DIC's VP of Creative Affairs, Robbie London, who had forced him to use the phrase. Forward also stated that the relationship between Link and Zelda was influenced by the dynamic between the characters of the American television series '' Moonlighting'', which were portrayed by Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.

The show is one of the few instances of Link having dialogue in ''The Legend of Zelda'' franchise. The games intentionally do not give Link dialogue. ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game series producer, Eiji Aonuma has explained, "since people have played ''Zelda'' over the years, they have their ideas of how Link might sound. If we were to put a voice in there that might not match up with someone else's image, then there would be a backlash to that. So we've tried to avoid that".

Episodes

As the series is a part of '' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show'', each episode contains both a live-action ''Mario'' segment and an animated ''Zelda'' segment.

Broadcast

Edited versions of the episodes were a part of "Captain N and the Video Game Masters" from 1992 to 1993, which were syndicated by Rysher Entertainment.
The series was to be continued, but was canceled along with '' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!''.

Home media

North American airings/DVDs

''The Legend of Zelda'' was featured on every Friday episode of '' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' in place of the ''Super Mario Bros.'' cartoons. Each episode ran for about fifteen minutes. The series was made in association with Nintendo of America, produced by DIC Entertainment, and distributed for syndicated television by Viacom Enterprises (now CBS Television Distribution). Due to its syndicated nature, only fifty-two episodes of the ''Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' were made and ''Zelda'' ended after thirteen episodes. However, slightly modified versions of the characters of Link and Zelda, together with their original voice actors, were later transplanted into NBC's Saturday morning program '' Captain N: The Game Master'', also produced by DIC Entertainment. In 1992, the episodes were time compressed (sped up) and played in double episode format on the ''Captain N & The Video Game Masters'' syndication block. ''Zelda'' episodes were rarely shown, but at least once, the episodes "Underworld Connections" & "Doppleganger" aired with the titles switched around. It was played in this block from 1992 to 1993 in syndication, and from 1993 to 1995 on USA Network.

Clips previewing the episodes were shown in the middle of the live-action segments when the ''Mario'' cartoon was shown. These clips were cut out of the video releases and Yahooligans! TV, but were restored for the ''Super Mario Bros. Super Show'' DVD set (except for "King Mario of Cramalot").

Like with Super Show, ''Zelda'' was released onto VHS by Kids Klassics, who released the series on two-episode tapes in four volumes; the gold color of the VHS slipcases matched that of the original NES games.

Lions Gate Home Entertainment also included an episode each on their "Mario's Monster Madness" and "Action Adventures" VHSes; both also included on their DVD counterpart "Mario's Greatest Movie Moments".

Sterling Entertainment released another VHS/DVD titled ''Ganon's Evil Tower'' on July 22, 2003, which included three episodes. The DVD release also included 2 episodes of ''Sonic Underground'' as a bonus. The second DVD was released on September 27, 2005, titled ''Havoc in Hyrule'', containing five episodes.

The complete ''Zelda'' series was released on October 18, 2005, by Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, with extra bonus features such as interactive DVD games and line art from the series. However, it did not include all of the associated the ''Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' live action segments; some were included as bonus features. This release has been discontinued and is out of print.

NCircle Entertainment eventually re-released Sterling's DVDs, and released another one titled "The Power of the Triforce" on July 22, 2008, which contained five episodes. NCircle re-released the complete series on May 22, 2012.

United Kingdom

''The Legend of Zelda'' was originally shown in the early 1990s on the early morning TV show ''TV-am''. They were not commissioned for a second run. They were also shown on CITV in the 1990s within the ''Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'', and on Channel 4 on its Sunday morning kids' line up, which included shows such as '' Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors''.

In 1992, Tempo Video released a set of two VHS tapes with three episodes per tape. ''The Legend of Zelda'' shared a tape with '' Captain N: The Game Master'', which included the episode "Underworld Connections".

There are currently no plans for a Region 2 DVD release.

Germany

PIDAX FILM released a Region 2 DVD of the show on December 2, 2016. The two-DVD set includes all 13 episodes in German and English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Reception

IGN rated the DVD release of ''The Legend of Zelda'' a 3.0 out of 10, or "Bad", citing poor writing, repeated plots, and over the top acting. Link's catchphrase, "Well excuse me, Princess!" is an internet meme and commonly used in-joke used by video game players, especially Zelda fans, and is spoken by Link on 29 occasions throughout the 13 episodes.

James Rolfe of Cinemassacre has shown a more positive response to the series. While acknowledging that the dialogue "can make you cringe", he favored Link and Zelda's characterizations and found the action satisfying. He labeled "The White Knight" as the best episode for showing Link's heroic nature against the more pompous and vain Prince Facade, but described the following episode "Kiss'N Tell" as his least favorite for Link complaining throughout.

Michael Mammano for ''Den of Geek'' commented that the series "falls squarely into the category of guilty pleasure" and continued, "it's not very good, but that doesn't stop it from being eminently enjoyable. It's quality nostalgia and, at a total running time of just over three hours, not a bad way to kill an afternoon". However, he also described Link's characterisation as "appalling", describing him as "a whiny, obnoxious, barely competent creep" and also considered the writing and animation to be poor quality.

Nathan Simmons of '' SVG'' considered the animation to be "pretty stiff" but also opined that "the greatest sin of this cartoon series might be it's iccharacterization of Link" who is portrayed as a "creep" and that "for longtime fans, however, it was simply painful to watch".

Luke Plunkett of '' Kotaku'' noted "shoddy animation, poor voice work, execrable humour and terrible writing make it one of the decade's worst cartoons" but also commented, "for all its flaws, there's something about it that defies genuine ridicule. Something charming". He responded more positively to the show's faithful presentation of the artwork from the original ''The Legend of Zelda'' game and the music stating that it "featured great renditions of the game's most memorable music, especially the intro's version of the trademark title theme".

Dave Trumbore for ''Collider'' described the series as a "20th century mess" and commented: "Despite 30 years of beloved video games that have evolved with each of Nintendo's successive video game systems, the one-and-only 1989 animated series remains a blight on an otherwise impressive record. This disaster, and similar ill-fated animated/live-action adaptations of Nintendo's intellectual properties, left a foul taste in the IP-owners' mouths, essentially locking out any additional adaptations outside of the video game realm".

Writing for ''Destructoid'', Chris Moyse commented that the series "was merely one more harmless entity in a thousand mediocre cartoons", but opined that it harmed the future potential of the franchise because "we most certainly would have had a new ''Legend of Zelda'' anime, movie, or live-action series by now".

References

External links

*
Full series on YouTube
courtesy of WildBrain

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legend of Zelda (TV series), The

1980s American animated television series
1989 American television series debuts
1989 American television series endings
American children's animated action television series
American children's animated adventure television series
American children's animated comedy television series
American children's animated fantasy television series
Animated series based on Nintendo video games
Animated television series about teenagers
English-language television shows
Film and television memes
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
Television about fairies and sprites
Television series about princesses
Television series by CBS Studios
Television series by DIC Entertainment
Television series by Saban Entertainment