I refer, of course, to "Legend" starring Tom Cruise and Tim Curry, directed by Ridley Scott. It's the film Miyamoto said partially inspired his vision of the Legend of Zelda series. I just watched it yesterday.

I noticed a number of similarities:

- The three characters of the woodland crusader, the princess and the evil lord of darkness.

- Tom Cruise's character wears similar clothes to Link, he starts out as a woodland boy with limited fighting skill but then takes up his sword and shield to become a fighter once the faun in the story declares that he is a bold warrior and true of heart. At the end of the film he wields a bow and arrow as well.

- The evil lord of darkness has very large bull-like horns which are similar to those of Ganon.

- At one point the princess opens a chest and there is a bright upwards-shining light coming out of it as she takes out the object inside.

- The overall aesthetic strongly resembles parts of the Zelds games, with the contrast between rich woodland areas and dark, foreboding dungeons.

- The faries in the film are similar to those in Zelda. They spend most of the film as little balls of light, almost like fireflies.

These are the only similarities I can remember, if anyone can remember any others then please tell me. I'd definitely recommend seeing the film because of the Zelda connexions, although I must admit that I found the screenplay and some of the acting left a little to be desired...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089469/

Just to help provide better reference.

dam, I never even heard of this movie.
For the sake of Zelda, I shall attempt to watch this movie at least once.

Thanks for the heads up JUG

I like this part of the plot summary 'A demon who seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns'

Sounds very Zelda-esque


Which leads me to my next point, I was just about to make a thread complaining that I want a new Zelda. I think this will hold me off for a couple of days or so..

Edit: watch the first bit here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgx2u0kgY-A

Strangely the music kinda reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOsS3EV_lA

I can see some simliarities but nothing more than the usual hero/princess/evil villain set up. It has been a long time since I last watched it so maybe I'm missing something.

No way Zelda should be compared to the little bitch in Legend. I seem to remember her doing something naughty that made everything go bad. I think she stupidly led the baddies to the unicorn or something. Zelda's not that dumb and Tom Cruise is no Link.

Every serious Zelda fan should also watch this:

http://uk.movies.ign.com/dor/articles/863515/legend-of-zelda-movie-trailer/videos/legendofzelda_filmtrailer_040108.html

You would be have to be under twenty years old NOT to know about this film.
There is some differences in the US version and the UK version. Mostly just minor details.
Tim Curry is the devil,Robert Picardo is the Swamp Witch (you may know him better as the bald doctor in Star Trek Voyager) He used to do mostly make up roles as robots and aliens and monsters.

This brings back some very good old memories :D. That movie was excellent, and the vision I had back in the days was that it was really very zelda-esque, didn't knew back then that it would inspire Miyamoto's vision, but i'm really glad that it did.

Now, please, a new zelda game would be so good right now :D

I have seen that film, it sucks. It really REALLY sucks.

I'm all for Miyamoto drawing some inspiration from it, but over all, it's a terrible terrible movie. If you haven't heard of it, consider yourself lucky.

Great movie, very enjoyable. There was a theory once that Zelda drew inspiration from Legend. Which is incorrect. They are were parallel in design, but embodied some similar concepts. For those that haven't seen it, enjoy.