If the thought of a Zelda film made by Illumination has got you feeling down, this gorgeous new teaser for a project that is reimagining The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Castle Town as a Studio Ghibli film is a surefire way to showcase what a Hyrule-set movie has the potential to be.
We have covered the work of YouTube channel RwanLink on Nintendo Life before (you might remember the 3D animator’s gorgeous renditions of Zora’s Domain and Lake Hylia in Unreal Engine 5), but this latest project might just take the biscuit for things that we really, really want to see Nintendo make a reality — as unlikely as that is.
The above video is just a teaser of a longer Ghibli-inspired Castle Town project that the channel has been working on which will be released on 21st November. According to the video description, work on the animation began as a side project in August, which has since seen 30 individual characters being created in Studio Ghibli’s iconic art style.
RwanLink left the following note in the video’s comments:
In my previous videos, I showcased various other locations, and I plan to do the same for Castle Town. This video has been crafted with immense love, passion, and dedicated hard work. I’m eagerly looking forward to sharing the final video with you on November 21st to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time! I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your incredible support!
It’s worth noting that this is by no means an official collaboration between Nintendo and Ghibli (what we would give for one of those, though), and the finished project is all dependant on whether the Nintendo Ninjas deem it worthy of being in the public eye — all of RwanLink’s previous Zelda videos are still up, mind you, so we’d be surprised if this is the one that the Big N takes issue with.
Overall, though, this is some truly fantastic work and we are excited to see what the finished product looks like later this month. Be sure to check out RwanLink’s channel for more Zelda videos.
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