A new fan-made trailer was released featuring an animated mash-up between Studio Ghibli's style of animating films and Nintendo's beloved Legend of Zelda series. The mash-up video is already going viral and only clocks in at a simple minute and 45 seconds.
The mash-up trailer was put together by Matt Vince, and features the music of Kyle Landry, who puts the piano front and center in his rendition of the classical "Zelda's Lullaby", which has played throughout the Legend of Zelda series. Typically it's played with the ocarina, as it was introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
The piano rendition of the popular song helps give a soothing atmosphere to the images of various locations from the Legend of Zelda universe illustrated as a Studio Ghibli film. We see a few of the store shops, a lonely storekeeper, a windmill spinning slowly at the turn of dusk; we get a nice pan over to a beautiful shot of the mountains that eventually brings Hyrule Castle into view.
Everything is put to screen in a subdued fashion, something that Studio Ghibli is known for when it comes to the way their films are animated.
As the crossover moves forward and the piano swells over the imagery, we eventually get a look at Link's Master Sword... tucked away within the erected pillars of a dark tower. Light from the concave windows shines through onto the sword as the camera zooms in on the iconic weapon.
The next scene is reminiscent to the opening of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which easily has one of the best video game openings of all time. We see Link riding through the fields on Epona, as the darkness of the night gives leeway to the light of the moon.
The camera pans upward toward the sky where the title appears, similar in presentation to the way many of Studio Ghibli movies open up.
The feedback and fan support for the Legend of Zelda crossover project by Matt Vince has been overwhelmingly positive. A lot of people love the atmosphere Vince managed to capture from both Nintendo's property and Ghibli's animations.
Of course, the victory of fantastic fan-made art was short lived, a the comment section quickly devolved into discussions about the potential take-down notices and copyright infringement blocks that Nintendo will aim toward Vince to have the short animation taken down.
In recent months Nintendo has been very strict on protecting their copyright, having various online distributors and portals remove games that either were too close to Nintendo properties or utilized the same assets.
In this particular case, at least you can enjoy the work of Matt Vince and the music of Kyle Landry while it's still up and available for your perusal. Now we just need someone to make a full movie based on the Legend of Zelda and Studio Ghibli crossover.
