The Japanese giant Nintendo announced on Tuesday a cinema adaptation of its famous video game Zelda, which is in preparation. Mathieu Pinon, specialist in Japanese pop culture, returned to this project on franceinfo.
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150 million copies sold in nearly 40 years: more than a saga, the Zelda video game is a true social phenomenon. An intergenerational success that Nintendo announced on Tuesday, November 7, that it wanted to adapt to the cinema. A late adaptation explained by several factors according to Mathieu Pinon, specialist in issues relating to Japanese pop culture. “Thanks to the evolution of technologies, with computer-generated images, we can see for several years that video game adaptations are quite lucrative. There was Sonic, Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and Detective Pikachu, which no one was waiting around the corner and which was a real critical and commercial success”, he assures, on franceinfo.
The second factor is that Nintendo learned from its mistakes. There was a Zelda animated series in 1989 and a first Mario film in 1993, with Bob Hoskins in the role of the famous plumber, which left very bad memories. “In 2023, the Mario movie has grossed over a billion dollars so it’s interesting for everyone, for Nintendo and for the production. IThere’s everything to gain!” assures Mathieu Pinon. The intergenerational aspect of the saga also represents an asset: “The first games date from 1986. Parents who played it at the time are now playing the latest version with their children and will therefore be able to go see it with them.”
Find an actor who plays Link
The pop culture specialist, however, raises a question. The adaptation is planned as a “live film”, that is to say with a real shot and real actors rather than a cartoon. Additional risk-taking according to Mathieu Pinon: “We will have to find the actor who plays Link and who will satisfy all the fans. For the big bad Ganondorf, we will have to use prosthetics and have a result that is not ridiculous.”
A series could also have been considered, due to the episodic structure of the video game. “For a film in two hours, the scenario will necessarily be reduced compared to the hundreds of hours that we can spend on the game”warns Mathieu Pinon. What reassures the specialist is that the video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto should supervise the project. And he assures us: he will be “uncompromising, which is a guarantee of quality.”