The Cartoon Databank

A visual history of animated cartoons

The Legend of Zelda

Year
Studios
Outlet
1989
DiC Entertainment
Nintendo of America
syndicated

In the 1980s, giving popular video games their own animated series was all the rage. It wasn’t long before a cartoon version of the hit Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda joined their ranks. Zelda shared time with two giants of the video game world, Mario and Luigi, as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! The fifteen minute Zelda segments replaced the usual Super Mario Bros. cartoon during the Friday broadcast of the daily half-hour show.

In The Legend of Zelda, Princess Zelda of Hyrule and her adventuresome friend Link kept a powerful magical artifact called the Triforce of Wisdom safe from the clutches of the evil wizard Ganon and his minions. Ganon already possessed another magical item called the Triforce of Power, and sought the Triforce of Wisdom because controlling both would give him the power to rule the land forever.

In large part, Link agreed to guard the Triforce of Wisdom as a means to gain favor with the princess. Despite Zelda’s rebuffs, Link remained committed in his never-ending quest for a kiss. A fairy-princess named Spryte, who sometimes assisted Link and Zelda, thought she was a better match for Link, but the brash young hero couldn’t look past her three inch height.

The series ran for a total of thirteen episodes. While the Mario Brothers went on to star in the 1990 series The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, followed up by Super Mario World in 1991, The Legend of Zelda didn’t prove popular enough to carry over into the new show formats.

Episodes

The Ringer

Cold Spells

The White Knight

Kiss ‘N Tell

Sing for the Unicorn

That Sinking Feeling

Doppelganger

Underworld Connections

Stinging a Stinger

Hitch in the Works

Fairies in the Spring

The Missing Link

The Moblins Are Revolting

Comments

  1. T Fazzini

    Again a series in which the last two epsiodes are in my opionion shown in reverse order…The Moblins Are Revolting [gannon is trapped by his own magic…but released because of Link foolishness (A crude way of keeping a cliffhanger ending] a better epsiode for a clifhanger is The Missing Link Link body and spirit have been seperated….Zelda has to reunite Link together…and its revealed only Zelda can see his spirit because she is in love with him…Incidently in 1989-1991 series Captain N: The Game Master Princess Zelda and Link appeared in several cameos in the 1990 cartoon series “Captain N and the Video Game Masters”. In the episode “Having A Ball”, it is revealed that Princess Zelda and Link managed to defeat Ganon and put him into permanent suspended animation. However, this victory does not stop other evil creatures trying to steal the Triforces of Power and Wisdom, similar to The Adventure of Link. Link and Zelda also had cameos in the episodes Quest for the Potion of Power,[Stopping Ganon from being restored to full power] Once Upon a Time Machine, The Trojan Dragon, and When Mother Brain Rules.

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  2. T Fazzini

    In fact the cartoon numbers for The Legend of Zelda show epsiodes the last 9 epsiodes of the 3rd season are show in chroncolgical order 101 The Rigner to 109 Stinging a stinger…number 110 is The Moblens are Revolting number 111 A Hitch in the works Number 112 Fiaries in the spring and Number 113 The Missing Link however it is shown in syndication as 111 as Number 10 112 as Number 11 Number 113 as Number 12 and Number 110 as epsiode 13! https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(television_series) in other words the last epside in syndication 110 should actually be epsiode 10….!

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