‘The Legend of Zelda’ fans have long awaited the announcement of a feature film based on Link’s many adventures in the land of Hyrule, but as time passes, such a film seems like an impossible dream.

Little did we know, however, that animation studio Imagi Films had once pitched a computer-animated ‘Legend of Zelda‘ film. The animation team, which is known for 2007’s ‘TMNT’ and 2009’s ‘Astro Boy’, created a short animated trailer to showcase the film’s art style and animation, giving potential publishers a taste of how the iconic franchise could work as a major motion picture. Luckily, the trailer has recently surfaced online, and you can watch it below:

It’s an impressive video, to say the least, and seeing what could have been makes you wonder why such a project never came to fruition. Imagi Films clearly has a good grasp on the source material, and even in such a short presentation was able to capture the look and feel of the series, most notably ‘The Ocarina of Time’ which was is most likely to be the inspiration for the film. Both Link and Zelda look exactly as we would expect, while the villain (who is presumably Ganondorf) has some notable changes.

For years there have been rumors that Nintendo has been approached on several occasions, from a variety of different film studios and animation teams, to engage in talks about turning some of their most popular franchises into films. After the live-action disaster that was 1993’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’, Nintendo has guarded the rights to their properties from landing in the hands of Hollywood, even though fans have shown a high demand for feature films. Out of all of the classic Nintendo games, ‘Castlevania’ came closest to getting a film adaptation, but after several rewrites and cancellations, the future of the project is on hold as an issue with acquiring the rights is holding the film back.

We still don’t know exactly why Nintendo shut Imagi Films’ project down, but hopefully the fan response from the release of this trailer will show the company that we would love to finally see Link on the big screen.