The graphics of Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon on CD-i are partly made of real paintings made by illustrator Rob Dunlavey. CD-i member Mossworm remembers: "The backgrounds in the sidescroller Legend of Zelda CDI games are actual physical paintings by illustrator Rob Dunlavey, with level collision placed over the drawn objects and individually animated water / fire effects. I think it's quite a beautiful and interesting method. Look at the sweet and cute details in each of these buildings. The rugs on the floor, the little framed tchotchke that says "home", the old wheel in the barn."
Now, CD-i member The Mundy Sea has tried to have some of them restored to HD quality and last year he shared a sampler of it. The Mundy Sea: "I've always wanted to restore their backgrounds with AI upscaling + color correction to match the original BG art we have, but couldn't for a long while due to an underpowered computer. I have one now, though, and am slowly fixing up the maps."
We hope to see more of this! We agree with SkeletonDoggy, who sais: "People always goof on the CD-I games but the animation and visuals are really interesting and neat!! I wish people discussed it more in discussion of the history of Zelda's art, its such an interesting intersection point of American led art direction"
Some more backgrounds that shows how beautiful the game actually is:
[Thanks, The Mundy Sea, Mossworm]