Fans think Super Mario Bros. Movie character might be a Zelda: Ocarina of Time Easter egg

Fans of the Super Mario Bros. Movie think that one character from the film may be a hidden reference to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been out in theaters for nearly a month now, and fans are dissecting all the hidden Easter Eggs and secrets scattered throughout the film.

From references to Duck Hunt to hidden Yoshis, the Mario Movie is filled with references that eagle-eyed fans can get a real kick out of — but nearly all of them are references to the Mario franchise itself.

However, some interested viewers seem to think that a prominent character in Mario and Luigi’s story may just be a subtle reference to another one of Nintendo’s most popular IP: The Legend of Zelda.

Mario Movie fans think they’ve spotted Zelda Easter Egg

The theory gained traction thanks to Content Creator Shesez, who hosts a show called Boundary Break on YouTube. Shesez tweeted out a side-by-side comparison picture of Mario and Luigi’s dad from the film and Talon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The tweet said, “Thought it was a nice touch that they modeled Mario’s dad after the Mario inspired cameo Talon from Ocarina of Time.” It’s certainly hard to deny the resemblance, as both men share a similar balding hairline, large blue eyes, and facial hair.

For those who may not know, Talon is the owner of Lon Lon Ranch and the father of Malon in Ocarina of Time, although the character has made several appearances in other games in the series as well.

The tweet gained a lot of traction, gathering over 13,000 likes in less than a day, with nearly 1,000 retweets as well. However, multiple Twitter users in the replies claimed that this reference is most likely unintentional.

According to an interview published by Polygon, director Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic said that they based many characters off of “sketches that [Nintendo] had done years ago that they had never used; Mario’s dad is almost a one-to-one design adaptation of [Nintendo’s] original Mario’s dad design that they provided us.”

Of course, Nintendo could have very likely based these old sketches off characters from other IP, or vice versa. Regardless of the design’s origin, it’s clear that Mario’s dad bears a striking resemblance to this side character from an entirely different IP.