I don't see how anyone can say it looks uglier but the HD version has definitely moved away from the graphical style of wind waker. As many have said, it looks more like clay then the cel shaded gamecube title. I was a tad dissapointed but I still think it looks great, and playing WW in a slightly different art style will add to whole point of replaying it.
I assume they wanted to do more then just a 1080p upgrade (i wouldn't really be interested if thats all it was) but equally if they wanted to replicate WW artstyle but show off the added power of the wii U they would of had to recreate almost all of the assets and then it would literally be a remake. With this new approach, they seem to have taken the texures/characters models fro teh GC title but thrown over a new lighting system which has essentially made it look brand new. I'm sure they've remade some of the textures (like the signs) but for the most part I assume this was the quickest way to make the game look noticably "better" without having to devote to much time to it.
Edit: Not all of wind waker was cell shaded. many of the environments were in the same style as this HD remake. just with crappier. If you post teh comparison screens, this is even more evident.
