Did Zelda Make Peter Jackson Successful?

  • How much of the success of the Lord Of The Rings films is because of Zelda? When Fellowship of the Ring screened in 2001, the wild success of OoT was still riding high and MM had been released only the year before in 2000. Not only that, but these were both 'serious' games in aesthetic. Did these games prime western audiences to be receptive to a movie like Fellowship of the Ring? Would LotR have been quite as successful if it had come out in 1994, or if it had come after WW?

    Bonus discussion!

    Was Twilight Princess hankering after an OoT audience, or a LotR audience?

  • I wholeheartedly disagree with any zelda game trying to get LotRs fanbase or emulate said films in any way.

    Japan does what they want. They do not need outside influences.

    That being said of course I believe that Nintendo panders to what people want in zelda games.

    They gave us the Ravio head, Majoras mask etc on BotW. People want inclusion in some ways of their favorite games....and kind of got it.

  • It is an interesting question. I like to think that most of the movies success was plainly because the books were already a success so there was a lot of people wanting to watch how such a huge fantasy would be adapted.

    During the eighties we had some movies that really appealed to that medieval fantasy kind of stories and then by the nineties, around the time of Ocarina of Time, that trend seemed to go down. If at all, I think that the nostalgia for that kind of films was part of what made people excited for it. It seemed to be promising something as big as Styar Wars was on its time.

    With that being said, I do think that Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask might have helped some gamers to feel predisposed to check these movies out. Also Legolas looked similar enough to Link to pull on some viewers and stir the pot when people were comparing them to say who was cooler.


    Speaking of which, there has been some pretty cool stuff in BotW so it would be anice time to remake this Meme with an actual cool footage of Link breaking havock while shield surfing.