Last month, it was discovered Disney was planning on releasing an animated series based on Kingdom Hearts in 2003.
The same veteran animator Seth Kearsley, who uploaded cast notes and even script segments of the axed project, has now revealed the full pilot animatic (a series of storyboard sequences) on his YouTube channel. It's got voice acting and a soundtrack, too.
In a brief description, Kearsley says he was really proud of the story and claims it tested better with younger audiences than anything else at the time:
"I don't own this. I claim no rights to any part of this except that this is my work. I'm not profiting from it. I want to show my work. It's been 20 years. This is not without it's flaws, which I have not doubt will be pointed out, but I was really proud of the story we were able to tell in the time we had. Setting up the entire premise of a series, and doing a 'typical episode' is a tall order. I feel like we pulled that off, and when they tested it with kids, it tested better than anything else they were testing in that round."
Would you have been interested in an animated series like this? Leave a comment below.
[source nintendowire.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 22
If they did a animated series, oh boy, do you have a lot to watch, however, I gotta say, would be easier then playing all the games plus three movies.
Or they would go toei animation style and add so much filler you might as well play the games.
More an animatic than anything. I wouldn't mind seeing a KH animated series... in the past. Now, it is another story. I'm not sure if the current Disney could handle KH as an animated TV series. Disney has other priorities now.
"Race ya"
Insanely early 2000's techno music
The child voice actor hurts to listen to. I get it's not the fault of the child, but the industry itself, and that they couldn't get ahold of the original voice for Sora at the time, but yikes. They could've probably gone with someone who's an actual voice actor that sounded more similar to his actual voice.
@VoidofLight
Those are probably just test voices.
@RareFan Gotta agree, I stopped caring about the story right around when they introduced time travel and somehow made everyone xehanort. In my headcanon, the series ended with KH II and everything after was just fanfic.
It's definitely got that late 1990s-early 2000s art style that I love so much. But to be honest, I never got into Kingdom Hearts. I played a little bit of the demo for 358/2 Days on the 3DS, and wasn't impressed by it, so that kind of scared me away from playing any of the other games.
Maybe I'll have to watch a Let's Play on YouTube to see if it's a game worth playing myself. Unlike others, who will see no point in playing a game after they've watched a Let's Play of it, when I watch a Let's Play, it makes me want to play the game myself. I've done it with games like Spyro, Vanish, and Minecraft, to name a few.
@Snatcher there are movies?
@MegaVel91 Technically, for some of there games they didn’t remaster then they just remade the cutscenes, same goes for the mobile app, but instead they made a whole new animated sort movie recapping and going over the games storyline, so you didn’t have to play it.
@Snatcher movies?
@PBandSmelly The techno music is the prelude of the song "Simple and Clean," which was essentially the "theme song" of the first Kingdom Hearts. It was cool at the time, lol.
isn't Disney making an actual Kingdom Hearts animated series or movie?
I'd care but both companies are both scum at the moment so meh.
I would be very happy to see something like that in 2003.
@RareFan Well, one of the voices is the actual voice actor for Riku reprising his role, so I don't think they're just simple test voices.. at least not all of them.
I would have been happy to watch any cartoon with Donald Duck.
@RareFan "more of a storyboard than anything"
It's an animatic, as the article states. It's the next stage on from storyboard, where the duration and pacing of shots are tested along with some very rudimentary animation.
This was shaping up surprisingly well. Shame they canned it...I wonder why though, if it tested so well?
Why are people saying this are not the original voices? Those are all the original voices from back during the first Kingdom Hearts game. They are not test voices nor are they different voice actors. Sora and Kairi's VA's voices just hadn't gotten deeper yet during this time period.
Omg I can't believe so many people haven't noticed this yet, did any of you even played KH1 ??
@RareFan @VoidofLight
Those are the real and original voice actors, they are not test actors. This was recorded back during KH1 when their voices hadn't gotten deep yet.
@Chibi_Manny Isn't Sora's actual actor different though? Like I don't think he was voiced by a literal child in the games.
@VoidofLight No, Sora has never gotten a different voice actor. Is been the same guy since the very first Kingdom Hearts game in which he was at that time an actual child voice actor. The only exception is on Birth by Sleep where Sora was a very young child, they had to get another child to voice that Sora since
Haley Joel Osment (Sora's VA) was not able to sound like a child anymore since his voice had already gotten deeper by then.
Btw Kairi's VA was also a child when she first did the voice in KH1 but her voice getting deeper in KH2 and later KH games isn't as noticeable as it is with Sora.
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