"Well excuse me, Princess!"
If you grew up in the late eighties, those four words are probably burned into your brain with the intensity of a Fire Rod blast. They represent the peak—or perhaps the absolute valley—of the Legend of Zelda cartoon, a show that lasted exactly thirteen episodes and somehow managed to become one of the most immortal pieces of gaming subculture ever created. It wasn't exactly Ocarina of Time. It wasn't even The Adventure of Link. It was this weird, frantic, slightly snarky animated series that aired as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! on Fridays.
Honestly, it’s easy to look back and laugh. Link was a hormonal teenager. Zelda was a combat-ready leader who was constantly annoyed by him. Ganon looked like a pig-man wearing a cape he found in a theater department’s clearance bin. But despite the memes and the YouTube Poop remixes that dominated the early 2000s, there is actually a lot of history here that people miss. This wasn't just a cheap cash-in; it was DiC Entertainment trying to figure out what "Link" even was before the games had much dialogue.
Where the Legend of Zelda Cartoon Actually Came From
In 1989, Nintendo was the king of the world. The NES was in every living room. But the lore of Hyrule was thin. You had the manual for the original 1986 game and the side-scrolling sequel, but that was basically it. There were no sweeping cinematic cutscenes. No Ganondorf in human form. Just some sprites and a bit of flavor text.
Enter DiC Entertainment.
They had a deal to produce a block of programming for Viacom. The idea was simple: Mario for four days a week, and the Legend of Zelda cartoon as the "big event" every Friday. Because there wasn't a massive bible of lore to pull from, the writers had to wing it. They looked at the box art and the basic mechanics of the game—items, hearts, monsters—and tried to build a sitcom-action hybrid around it.
The voice cast was a small group of hard-working actors who probably had no idea they’d be signing autographs for this thirty years later. Jonathan Potts voiced Link, giving him that distinct, slightly nasally "cool guy" vibe that defines the era. Cyndy Preston took on Zelda, and Tabitha St. Germain (credited as Paulina Gillis) played Spryte, a fairy companion who was essentially Navi before Navi was even a glimmer in Shigeru Miyamoto's eye.
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Link Wasn't the Hero You Remembered
If you play Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, Link is the "Chosen Hero." He’s stoic. He’s silent. He’s brave.
In the 1989 show? He was a jerk.
He was basically a teenager who wanted a kiss. That was his primary motivation. Every episode featured Link trying to get Zelda to show him some affection, usually resulting in him getting shut down. It’s a dynamic that feels incredibly dated now, but at the time, it was the standard "Moonlighting" style romantic tension trope.
Link lived in the castle. He was ostensibly the protector of the Triforce of Wisdom, but he acted more like a bored bodyguard. He frequently complained about his chores. He made sarcastic remarks during life-or-death battles. It’s a jarring contrast to the Link we know today, but in a weird way, it gave the character more personality than he had in the games at the time. He wasn't a blank slate for the player; he was a guy who really liked his sword and really hated Ganon's interruptions.
The Ganon Problem
Ganon in the show was... interesting. He didn't live in a dark, imposing fortress in the middle of a wasteland. He lived in the "Underworld," which looked like a series of interconnected caves. He spent most of his time yelling at his minions—Moblins, Stalfos, and Octoroks—for failing to steal the Triforce of Wisdom.
One of the funniest things about the Legend of Zelda cartoon is Ganon's teleportation. He would constantly vanish in a puff of smoke, often just to travel ten feet across a room. He was obsessed with the Triforce, which in this show was a physical object that could actually talk. Yeah, the Triforce of Wisdom had a voice. It would give Zelda cryptic advice, usually in a haunting, echoed tone that felt slightly out of place with the rest of the show's zaniness.
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Why the Animation Matters
A lot of people trash the animation quality of 80s cartoons, and to be fair, there are plenty of errors in Zelda. You’ll see Link’s brown undershirt change color, or his sword vanish from his hand in the middle of a swing. But for 1989, the character designs were actually pretty solid. They captured the "North American" look of Nintendo—the art style you’d see in the Nintendo Power comics or the game manuals.
The action sequences were surprisingly creative. Link didn't just swing a sword; he fired beams from it, just like he did in the games when his health was full. This is one of the few things the show got exactly right. The sound effects were pulled directly from the NES hardware. When Link picked up an item, you heard the "discovery" chime. When Ganon took damage, it was the actual NES grunt. For a kid in 1989, that was magical. It bridged the gap between the flickering pixels on the TV and the "real" world of the characters.
The Episode List: A Short-Lived Legacy
Since there are only thirteen episodes, you can marathon the whole thing in a few hours.
- The Ringer – Link enters an amateur wizard competition to impress Zelda.
- Cold Spells – It’s spring cleaning at the castle, and a Moblin causes chaos.
- The White Knight – A rival hero shows up, making Link jealous.
- Kiss ‘N Tell – Link saves a girl who turns out to be a monster.
- Sing for the Unicorn – Ganon kidnaps a king from another land.
- That Sinking Feeling – Ganon tries to pull the entire castle underground.
- Doppelganger – Ganon creates an evil mirror-version of Link.
- Underworld Connections – The Triforce of Wisdom gets split up.
- Stinging a Stinger – A fake merchant sells Link a "super" sword.
- A Hitch in the Works – A robotic enemy causes trouble.
- Fairies in the Spring – The king gets kidnapped (again).
- The Missing Link – Link’s physical body is stolen, leaving him as a ghost.
- The Moby’s Guest – A giant bird-monster carries Zelda away.
There was no grand finale. No final showdown where Link finally defeats Ganon for good. The show just... stopped. When The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! shifted its format, Zelda was dropped. It eventually lived on in syndication and was later released on DVD, which is how a whole new generation of fans discovered it and turned it into an internet legend.
Realism Check: The "Excuse Me, Princess" Count
People think Link said his catchphrase every five minutes. In reality, he only said it 29 times across the entire series. That averages out to about twice per episode. The reason it feels more frequent is that the delivery was so incredibly specific. Jonathan Potts put a level of "annoyed teenager" energy into that line that is scientifically impossible to ignore.
It became a meme before memes existed. In the early days of the internet, sites like Newgrounds and early YouTube were flooded with remixes of the show. It’s a testament to the show's impact that even Nintendo eventually acknowledged it. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are subtle nods in the dialogue that fans have interpreted as a wink and a nod to the show's legacy.
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The Writing Room and "The Nintendo Bible"
Phil Harnage was the primary writer for the series. In various interviews over the years, it's been revealed that the writers didn't have much interaction with the Japanese development team at Nintendo. They were given a "style guide"—a basic document outlining what characters looked like and what their names were—and told to make it work for an American audience.
This explains why Zelda is such a "tough" character. In the 1980s, American Saturday morning cartoons were starting to move away from the "damsel in distress" trope, even if only slightly. The writers wanted Zelda to be a partner, not just a prize. She wore a practical outfit (well, practical for an 80s cartoon) and frequently saved Link’s skin when he got too cocky. It was a dynamic that actually predated her transformation into Sheik in Ocarina of Time by nearly a decade.
Why It Still Matters Today
You might ask why anyone should care about a thirty-year-old cartoon that most critics pan.
The answer is simple: it’s part of the DNA of the franchise. For many Western fans, this was their first introduction to Link and Zelda as characters with voices and motivations. It expanded the world of Hyrule beyond the 8-bit screen.
Also, it’s just fun. There’s a sincerity to 80s animation that we don’t see much anymore. Even when it’s bad, it’s trying so hard to be exciting. The music, heavily inspired by Koji Kondo’s original themes but rearranged into a synth-pop orchestral hybrid, is genuinely catchy.
Actionable Steps for the Zelda Historian
If you want to experience the Legend of Zelda cartoon for yourself without just watching 10-second clips on social media, here is how you should approach it:
- Watch "The Missing Link" first. It’s widely considered the best episode because it actually explores the lore a bit more and has a slightly higher stakes plot than the usual "Ganon sends a monster to the castle" formula.
- Look for the DVD set. While the show is occasionally on streaming services, the Shout! Factory DVD release from the mid-2000s contains the best transfers and some interesting bonus features about the production.
- Compare the monsters. One of the most fun things to do is see how the show interpreted enemies like the "Vire" or the "Wallmaster." Some are very accurate; others look like they were described to the animator over a very bad phone connection.
- Check out the Captain N crossovers. If you can’t get enough of this version of Link and Zelda, they also appeared in the show Captain N: The Game Master. Their designs are slightly different, and the voices changed, but it’s a fascinating look at how Nintendo was trying to build a "cinematic universe" long before Marvel.
- Read the Valiant Comics. Around the same time the show aired, Valiant published a Zelda comic book series. It uses the same character designs as the cartoon but has much better writing and deeper world-building. It’s often considered the "definitive" version of that era of Zelda.
The show isn't a masterpiece of high art. It’s a relic of a time when video games were still "just for kids" and TV studios were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. But for all its flaws, the Legend of Zelda cartoon remains a charming, hilarious, and vital piece of gaming history. It’s the reason we know that Link can be a brat, Zelda can be a warrior, and a simple phrase can live forever in the hallowed halls of internet history.
Don't go into it expecting a serious fantasy epic. Go into it expecting a goofy, fast-paced adventure that isn't afraid to be weird. You might find yourself saying "Well excuse me" by the time the credits roll. It’s inevitable. Just embrace it. After all, Ganon is probably lurking in the Underworld right now, waiting for his next chance to snatch that talking triangle.