Sounds sort of like Turtles in Time!
I am also hoping for a return to a more realistic style ala Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword had great graphics, but it seems the cartoon-y Zeldas like Skyward Sword and Wind Waker are missing some of the things I liked most, such as having Epona, expansive areas to explore, and just the general "huge world" feeling. Wind Waker is huge, but it's basically just one area with some subareas - no real changes in atmosphere like going from Gerudo's Fortress to Zora's Domain in Ocarina of Time. Also it feels like Twilight Princess, OoT, and even MM were much bigger worlds compared to Wind Waker and definitely Skyward Sword - although I realize size had a lot to do with story. The cartoon-y Zeldas just feel more silly to me, which isn't a bad thing, I just prefer the more serious toned Zeldas.
I think almost everyone agrees that Skyward Sword was probably the weakest of the main Zelda games, barring Adventure of Link, even if it was still really good. My only real issue with it is lack of areas, and a lot of repeat content in the game. How many times did you have to fight "The Imprisoned" guy? Then the same dungeons three times but changed somewhat. Probably being a little rough on it though. I just hope they don't try to continue this formula from the game-play perspective.
I think that now that we are on a 1080p console mixed with the fact that the Wii U is struggling, we should be pushing the realism style again. The realistic style generally sells better and builds more hype. Look at how Wind Waker split the community, no matter how unjustified that was. For comparison sake, Twilight Princess sold 8.3m copies and OoT 7.6m compared to Wind Waker at 4.6m and Skyward Sword at 3.69m. Nintendo needs to push the graphical limits of the Wii U here to build the hype they need to put asses in the seat, so to speak.