By JOHN CARTER JR.
The clock tower will sound, the moon will fall and everyone will die. Before that, however, a child will make some friends, two good … one bad.
Released on YouTube in November 2016 by Ember Lab, Majora’s Mask – Terrible Fate is a fan prequel to the 2000 Nintendo 64 Classic The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask. In its short run time, it features Joe Zieja as Skull Kid and Masashi Odate as Mask Seller, or as gamers know him as, the Happy Mask Salesman – along with a few other select characters from the source material. The film is a horror story and gives longtime Majora’s Mask fans a perfect taste of what a Zelda movie could be.
The short tells the story of Skull Kid before the events of Majora’s Mask and how he came into possession of the titular face covering. It depicts a fan’s interpretation of how the mask was Stolen, how the imp met his fairy companions and how the salesman reacted to losing the wretched object. The film excellently and accurately depicts the homages it displays. One of the clearest examples of this is when Skull Kid is fearfully lured into putting on the mask. As this scene plays out similarly to the transformation mask cut scenes in the original game, depicting it with expressed pain and loud screaming.
The character models in this short film are excellently designed and bring a whole new level of detail not able to be conveyed in a Nintendo 64 game more than two decades ago or in video-game film adaptations since. The Salesman’s bag and masks are game accurate and modeled and textured in exquisite detail. Speaking of detailed masks, Majora itself looks as if it has been hand-carved and painted by the ancient people the source material describes. The tendrils that come from within the mask are well-animated, horrifying and an excellent reference to the final boss fight at the end of the original game.
The short ends with the Skull Kid now possessed by the power of Majora floating in his iconic legs-crossed position and with the eyes of Majora eerily glowing in the night. At the beginning of the game, the first thing the salesman says to link is, “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” as Skull Kid had cursed Link. When that curse would be lifted it would become a mask. The film implies Link was not alone in his terrible fate, that what happened to Skull Kid was tragic. He was an innocent child playing with his friends until he was lured in by darkness.
With Nintendo and Illumination’s Super Mario Bros Movie on the horizon, it is interesting to go back and see the potential video-game movies have had. If a relatively small team were able to make this lovely short, certainly multimillion-dollar companies are able to make something at least on par. The Super Mario Bros Movie releases April 5, and if it does well, can we expect more Nintendo properties to make it to the big screen?
We can only hope, but Ember Lab’s Majora’s Mask – Terrible Fate proves it’s possible to create an exciting and faithful representation of our favorite video games, but one that will stick out in the mind of fans for years to come.
I give Majora’s Mask – Terrible Fate 10/10 rupees for being well-designed, perfectly horrific and for being a stellar proof of concept.
To check out the full short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbMQfaG6lo8