Nintendo has conspicuously shut down a Zelda fan film on copyright grounds, disappointing fans who held the work in high regard.
“The Legend of Zelda: Hero of Time,” a 100 minute live action fan film inspired by ocarina of Time, was released late in 2009, but seems to have attracted the attention of Nintendo, who promptly shut it down.
The trailer is still visible for the moment:
The creators “voluntarily” withdrew the film from circulation:
Hey, everyone. We just wanted to let you know that Dec. 31 was the last day that The Hero of Time was available for viewing.
We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film. In the spirit of the holiday season they were good enough to let us keep the movie up for you to watch and enjoy through the end of 2009, but not past 2009.
We understand Nintendo’s right to protect its characters and trademarks and understand how in order to keep their property unspoiled by fan’s interpretation of the franchise, Nintendo needs to protect itself — even from fan-works with good intentions.
Curiously, Nintendo generally leaves doujinshi and other such unauthorised derivative works alone in Japan, where even semi-commercial fan-works with purely pornographic intentions pass completely unmolested, with the relationship between fandom and publishers understood to be a symbiotic rather than adversarial one.
Right decision in my opinion. From what I saw they didn’t grasp the spirit of the series. Too much fairy tale where there should be “Dark Souls”. Zelda games Are dark. Are brutal. But some people just don’t want to see that. Should have played Twillight Princess or A Link to the Past. They would have learned alot about “Zelda”…
Of course they are going to shut it down, looks like they have a sweet deal with other people to make a live show.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/06/netflix-may-be-making-a-live-action-legend-of-zelda-show-with-nintendo/
Its about the $$$$$
The Legend of Nelda: Times of Copyright
Should of produced it under that name.. would of made it…
I personally loved the trailer and wanted to see the film so badly. It looked like it had a good story and decent effects (for a fanfilm that is) and I’m a fan of Zelda (not so much the newer games, really) so when I first saw the trailer, I nearly had a nerdgasm. I’m still a fan of Nintendo, even though they commited possibly the biggest mistake they have ever made. And I noticed someone mention the Megaman film in one of the above comments… that film was actually decent, and actually had Asian actors (oddly enough, though, they all played the robot characters).
Just another reason why copyright needs to be changed.