Zelda Wii U Info from Nintendo Direct

That's kind of what I meant by "the variety of the environments and the fantastical nature of the content."
Walking from a snow-capped mountain to a barren desert and then through thick forests would be suitable in Zelda... not so much in Skyrim.
The difference is primarily in the audiovisual aesthetic: the sights and sounds of the world.
As far as the actual gameplay function is concerned, Skyrim is very close to the ideal Zelda overworld.

Just imagine if you took an Elder Scrolls game and "toonified" it, so that things looked more like these:

It isn't when you look at the recent direction of the series. As the Zelda team has focused more and more on puzzles and gameplay gimmicks, the world itself has been stripped of meaning, eventually culminating in the disaster that was SS Hyrule.

Yeah, something like that.

I mean, we've all seen what happens when a game developer teams up with a renowned Japanese animation studio (we get Ni no Kuni). Imagine what would happen if Nintendo worked with Disney on Zelda...
Not only would it be just as, if not more amazing, but it would have a more mainstream appeal.

How is Disney Interactive Studios' track record? And how well would they even be on working with that type of game?

I'm not talking about Disney Interactive Studios. I'm talking disney animation studios.

And the idea isn't for them to make the game. Only to create the concept art and establish the visual direction for the game...Possibly even the story
It's not like Studio Ghibli made Ni No Kuni. I don't even think they made art assets for the game...

Wow, that really does put it into perspective, I guess the difference lies not in the world itself, but instead the focus of the game. I guess that made the world feel different to me because I had different goals in mind as I traveled. This probably applies to both games, but I hope that Zelda Wii U's world is scaled better than Skyrim's. Also, those screenshots are beautiful.

That's true, but I mean when just looking at the over worlds themselves. Zelda had definitely been moving in the direction of Skyward Sword, but it was still quite a bit away from going entirely into levels and having no open spaces. Remember how people complained about TP having a large-ish world with nothing in it? Though it may not be a problem I have with TP, it still shows just how much more of an actual game world it had (and the games before more so).

LoZ was non-linear? Really? It's been a long time since I've played it, but I vaguely remember that it was necessary to go through at least half of the dungeons in a certain order because you needed the item from the previous dungeon to even get there.

Same with ALttP... you could theoretically skip from Dark Palace to the Thieves' Hideout without playing through the two dungeons before... yet it's necessary to collect the items from these places before being able to reach the second half of the Dark World dungeons.

Completely? Because I remember I had to beat the dungeon with the ladder in it to get to the dungeon with the raft which I then needed to get to another dungeon.

What the man says. LoZ is hardly less linear than OoT. In OoT you could do Water Temple before Fire, Spirit before Shadow. In LoZ you could do one, two and three in any order, but needed to have done three to get the raft to go to four, need the stepladder from four to complete five, six, seven or eight, need the recorder from five to get into seven or complete any with digdogger as a mini boss, need the bow from one to complete any dungeon with Gohma in (except the last where it's avoidable, but you need all eight pieces to get there anyway). In practicality, there are precious few dungeons able to be skipped or played out of order in LoZ.

Do you know of something called render distance, The reason Windwaker was at sea? That's a hardware limitation. That makes it a lot harder for a 3D game to have an open world. If you're just referencing non-linearity, then sure I guess it could have happened, but I was mainly talking about a Zelda game with an open world.

That could be what they mean, but I sort of doubt it. They certainly wanted to make a more open world when Zelda was entering 3D, Windwaker even had one. It's entirely possible though since we know nothing concrete about the game that it could turn out either way. We'll have to wait and see

When I say non-linearity, keep in mind that I also mean there's not much of a recommended path. Allowing players to at times go off the beaten path is great, but it's not what I'm hoping for. Optimally I just want to stumble upon the dungeons as I explore the world, perhaps with a little direction as to where dungeons might be by the NPCs who live nearby.

That's reasonable. Skyrim is primarily focused on the pure freedom of exploration, with very little sense of urgency. The sheer size and volume of the world make it very easy for someone to forget about any existing main quest and become 'lost' in the game world.
On the other hand, Zelda benefits more from a world that seeks to reinforce the main quest and remind the player of the need to save the land and it's inhabitants, kind of like it did in Majora's Mask.

I don't think Zelda Wii U's world should be as large as Skyrim's. Something that takes 10-15 minutes to ride across on horseback should be adequate.

What I really want to see in a new Zelda, is more play with terrain heights. Zelda worlds are still quite flat, especially in the towns and cities (more reason why Windfall island was so interesting).

More importantly, the dungeons themselves are far more open.
They are designed with a 'critical' path in mind, but there are hidden shortcuts and side content all through them.
It provides the illusion of freedom that has been entirely absent in most Zelda games since.

Zelda needs less linearity across the entire board and not just in the order you complete dungeons.

Exactly.
Anyone who has played Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic can tell you that.

Very true. This article does a good job at analyzing and explaining that if people have time to read it.