The Legend of Zelda (1989)

The Legend of Zelda (1989)
"Well excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!" -Link
Genre: Action Adventure Fantasy Comedy Running Time: 15–16 minutes Country: United States Release Date: September 8 – December 1, 1989 Network(s): Syndication Created by: Andy Heyward Shigeru Miyamoto (original characters) Distributed by: Viacom Enterprises Starring: Cyndy Preston Jonathan Potts Len Carlson Colin Fox Elizabeth Hanna Seasons: 1 Episodes: 13

The Legend of Zelda is an American animated series based on the Japanese video game series The Legend of Zelda by Nintendo.

Premise

The series follows the adventures of Link and Princess Zelda as they defend the kingdom of Hyrule from evil wizard Ganon. It is heavily based on the first installment of the Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda, but includes some references to the second, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

"Excuuuuuuuuse Me" Qualities

1. It has very little to do with the video game series it's based on.
2. Where there was little to work with when it comes to characterization, but most of the characters are either forgettable, cliche, annoying or unlikeable.
   • Unlike in the games, Link is an unlikable brat and annoying brat in this show as he is always trying to get a kiss from Princess Zelda.
   • Despite Zelda being understandably annoyed with Link's pestering nature, she is often extreme when it comes to being harsh or just the worst to Link, a prime example of the latter being her complaining, bickering after Link does something actually helpful or just violently mistreating him on occasion (e.g Link sleepwalking and nearly dies because of Zelda cutting the rope Link was walking on, or making him to be a maid).
     • Speaking of which, her portrayal came from the worst time period for female characters, Zelda was made out to be hyper-competent, while this is shown most of the time, she tends to be kidnapped a lot and where she was written to be independent, she often keeps telling Link to do everything for her.
3. As typical for DIC cartoons during this time period, it suffers from off-model animation.
4. Link's catchphrases ("Well excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!" and "Kiss me!") get annoying fast, and it's shoehorned in nearly every episode and even in the intro.
5. Ugly color palettes.
6. Below-average writing.
7. The premise is the same in every episode, which makes the show and humor both; formulaic and predictable.
8. Annoying voice acting, especially from Link and Spryte.
9. Link carries a sword, but only uses the Sword Beam because any actual swordplay wouldn't pass muster with the censors.

Good Qualities

1. The show's version of Princess Zelda is far more competent than her video game counterpart was at the time.
   • Spryte is very adorable and cute.
2. Ganondorf is by far, the most entertaining character in the whole show, who can be intimidating for a kid's cartoon and also offsetting it by acting like a clown (e.g the biggest example being episode 1 with telling his minions on how to fight Link and Zelda, and doing this by behaving like a total goofball).
3. Link actually speaks, which is unique because he's mostly silent in almost all of the video games he starred in.
4. Even though Link's line "Well excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!" is annoying and repetitive, it can come off as funny to some viewers.
5. The music score is actually pretty good. The theme song in particular is a great orchestral rendition of the original Zelda theme song.
6. The action scenes can be viewed as enjoyable. Where some of these scenes contain sound effects from the original game.
7. The animation is very well done, the backgrounds, environments, and the designs of the world in itself are lush, very detailed and has a lot of effort put into it, most of the character designs (besides Zelda and Link) that include the creatures that the protagonists encounter like Moblins, Stalfos, Tektites, Octoroks, and the monsters Ganon commands, are brilliantly designed and are very faithful to their game counterparts.
8. The Italian dub is positive and underrated.

Trivia

1. Sneak peeks of this show can be seen in the live action segments of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.

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