The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is a tv show adaptation of the video game series. It doesn't require any knowledge of the game series, but the intended audience is fans of the early games. Various trends from the series started here.

The show is an episodic interpretation of various exploits by the evil Ganon to steal the triforce of wisdom. The main characters are very different from their game counterparts and the dynamic between them is entertaining.

The plot is repetitive, predictable and there's no overarching narrative. The catchphrases are iconic but cheesy. The animation is pretty generic and the action is simplistic but the sound design is great and has lots of callbacks to the classic game

If you are a fan of 90s cartoons or The Legend of Zelda and don't mind how corny it is you should enjoy this. It's actually pretty fun and humorous if you can get past the faults.

The 1989 "Legend of Zelda" animated series lasted for 13 episodes, and aired as part of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show". As a huge fan of the video-game series, I was aware of the infamy that this series holds, but I figured I'd give it a shot- I was able to get the entire DVD set online for about $10, it arrived a few days later, I gathered some friends who also knew about the show and how bad it apparently was... and we popped it in!

This was bad. Really bad. Uwe Boll-bad. "Super Mario Brox. The Movie" bad. Just really, truly bad.

You know your cartoon based on a reasonably serious and well-loved game is going to suck when the most compelling episode revolves around our hero Link having to save a water-park. Yup. Whereas the games had Link saving the world, and featured deep plot lines about loss, power and corruption... in this cartoon, Link protects a water-park. I must give credit where credit is due, unlike the Mario series, at least this cartoon didn't have a bad rap song to start out with.

This series follows Link and Zelda, as they struggle against the evil Wizard Ganon. Whereas Link was a noble, good person in the video games, here, he is turned into a snobby, perpetually-randy teen-aged jerk. (With one of the most aggravating, irritating catch-phrases since Scrappy Doo showed up... "Hey!!!! Exc-uuussseee me, PRINCESS!" Makes me want to punch myself in the head.) And Zelda, always the damsel in distress in the games, is actually a capable heroine who more often than not saves Link. The evil Ganon, whom at the point of this cartoons release was just a stock villain, well... he's still just a stock villain. He shows up, cackles and threatens our heroes, is defeated, and flees. Rinse, wash and repeat in the next episode.

I will say a few things to this shows credit. For one, the animation was actually halfway decent, and was much better than Nintendo's other cartoons. The music was also a step-up, and featured some good orchestral covers of the themes from the game. And despite my complaints, some of the gags in the series did work, and I could see a 6-year-old loving this show.

But the writing is just so bad. It really feels like a phoned-in cash grab. It reeks of Nintendo selling the rights just to make a quick buck. None of the writers really seem to be trying with this show. At least the Mario show had puns... This show has one lame catchphrase that it falls back on constantly.

This is a pretty pathetic show. I give it a 4 out of 10, just for the unintentional laughs it will give you if you watch it ironically. But it's not worth buying, even for fans.

Next to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show is The Legend of Zelda, Altough not lasting long on it's run. It's still a can't miss!

I have this on DVD and my 5-year-old loves it. Watching it now as a 43-year-old man, I can see how there are some irritating aspects to the storylines... but those aspects were necessary to perpetuate the series.

Yes, plenty of times, Link should have zapped Ganon again instead of warning him "one more zap and you're history", giving him the chance to defend himself. Plenty of times, Link or Zelda should have grabbed the Triforce of Power when they had the chance, instead of saying "there's no time". Plenty of times, they should have kissed instead of talking about it for so long that something happened to stop it.

But if Link destroyed Ganon or got the Triforce of Power, what would've been the plotline of the next episode?

As a 9-year-old in 1989, I lived for this show. I always watched the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, but Fridays when they played the Legend of Zelda were by far my favorite. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for this. It was awesome, for a kid in 1989, and all of my friends loved it. Okay, so Link does say "Ex-CUUUUUse me, Princess!" too much, but in 4th grade, plenty of us said it and thought we were cool. It became a cultural icon for a brief moment. It was never meant to entertain the adults who complain about it now. And don't forget, when this show was running, all we had in the Zelda series were games 1 and 2. They never had the chance to expand the storyline to the games that came afterward.

Yeah, it's kind of annoying in retrospect that they changed the roles so that Link was a somewhat derpy teenager and Zelda was a strong and often snarky woman who wore pants instead of the dresses she was shown wearing in the Nintendo games, but think of how it helped show girls that they could and should be strong. It did much better on gender balance than the video games did.

It only gets a 9 out of 10 because it has nothing to offer adults that didn't grow up with it. But if you'd asked me how I felt about this in 1989, it would've gotten about a 100 out of 10. And obviously it still grabs the hearts of kids.

The Legend of Zelda is a cartoon contained within the much more successful Super Mario Bros. Super Show based on the game of the same name.

This cartoon is obviously a big screwup. It does no justice for the awesome game series it is based on, and anyone can you tell that.

Yet still, there's something about it that is extremely funny. Maybe it's how they turned Link into a cocky jerk, or the nightmarish acting, but it manages to be so funny you just have to keep watching.

In closing, the show is horrible, but it's hysterical. It's a guilty pleasure. Too bad it only lasted 13 episodes.