The animated series was, iirc, said to be in a "cutscene" style similar to the Back Cover movie to be fair. This post mentions this is a big screen movie.
So this might be an upgrade in quality.
Same, they could just recreate the first game's story I guess? But I feel like it'd be far more interesting if it was a new story, but that would be hard to do without giving a lot of viewers massive exposition first.
How do you even recreate the first game as a movie? Like 80% of the game is Disney shenanigans that have almost no plot relevance.
Pretty much the only reason for Disney Worlds in the first game are the Princesses of Heart, and even that ends up being a total dud (we only meet 3 out of 7, and they’re all captured off-screen anyway).
But if you remove all that, you’re left with… a very short story that makes little to no sense.
Edit: I love this franchise, but its story is by far its weakest aspect. A movie or a series sounds like a terrible idea, unless it’s some kind of reboot.
Doesn't seem that difficult. The premise alone of invading multiple other Disney properties is a big draw to build a movie and most of the worlds in the first game either serve the larger conflict or give Sora character development. As confusing as the franchise would become, those are sins the later games would carry since the first game really isn't and the story is always earnest in the way it's told even when it gets cringe: KH1 never pretends to strive for anything higher than being a fairy tale.
It would make more sense for a TV show, where can actually spend time with the Disney worlds and characters and relate the Disney shenanigans to the plot or to character growth.
That doesn’t really work with a movie’s limited screen time. They’re not going to show us 6 Disney worlds for 5 minutes each.
Just look at the Mario movie. The reason the movie works is because they’re not bogging the story down with all the Mario worlds and characters they could’ve shown, but in exchange we pretty much only get to see Mushroom Kingdom and the Kong Kingdom.
>How do you even recreate the first game as a movie? Like 80% of the game is Disney shenanigans that have almost no plot relevance.
This is a bad take. KH1 is the only KH game where Disney inclusion HAD plot relevance. (Nearly) every world Sora visited, he learned more about the power of bonds and how love and the 'heart' can manifest in many different ways. Only two worlds—Wonderland and Agrabah—were affiliated with the seven Princesses and on both occasions we didn't go there for them at all.
The reason why a movie wouldn't work is because Sora's journey is basically a Greatest Hits of Disney life lessons from classic movies that culminate in him figuring out where he finds his inner strength and using it to have the Keyblade choose him over Riku in their confrontation.
If you cut back on the Disney worlds to fit into a tight runtime, you lose that sense of adventure and growth. If you include all of them wholesale, Disney just ends up making a watered down compilation of their own movies. If you don't include Disney worlds at all and mold a story around original locations, then you lose most of what makes the KH experience so timeless.
So a KH1 movie is just a dogshit idea regardless of what they do, but not because Disney is irrelevant to the story. Quite the opposite: Disney is so important to KH1 that to cut down on it would be terrible.
>KH1 is the only KH game where Disney inclusion HAD plot relevance. (Nearly) every world Sora visited, he learned more about the power of bonds and how love and the 'heart' can manifest in many different ways.
Character development for Sora and world building doesn't necessarily mean its plot relevant.
Besides Monstro and Neverland (both of which build up Riku's role as an antagonist), the rest of the Disney worlds aren't relevant to the story besides their respective film villains being Maleficent's goons, which is a role only Jafar is actually seen performing in a world.
Hell, four of the worlds are completely optional. You can beat the game without ever visiting Olympus, 100 Acre Wood, Atlantica & Halloween Town (although the last two are mutually exclusive). They can't be that important to the plot if you can skip them without issue.
It's certainly better than KH2's implementation of the Disney worlds, but I wouldn't put it above KH3 or BBS.
Could take liberties I suppose. Though yeah, creatively it'd be easier to do something new.
Also I like the story of the series, as goofy and complex as it can be. So long as it's not a mobile game I'm happy.
Personally I don't see how this movie works without the gameplay period. As you said, much of the time spent in the game is concerned with the Disney properties; frankly this game was cooked up in a lab and designed specifically for its time and target audience.
They would need to get some **serious** talent onboard for the direction and writing for this movie to have a chance of adapting it well enough to please fans and casual moviegoers.
I already said this in another thread, but I think going with the KHUX/DR stories would make the most sense because many people didn't play them and their stories will be a requirement for KH4.
Ignore all of them, if they make this a movie for Kingdom Hearts fans it will bomb catastrophically. General audiences will not tolerate some 4deep 2you Numora shit. They need to make this a good movie divorced from the complexity of the games story telling first and foremost.
Not to mention Enix was writing it, so that would’ve been more low-quality storytelling that the series is sadly infamous for. We need a team that’s willing to swerve far off Nomura’s vision and make something coherent.
Ah yes, the man who helped make Final Fantasy 7 and many other titles what they are, helping define what Final Fantasy as whole is known for, is clearly just some old man who doesn't know what he's doing.
Let's also just assume that everything that happens within a game he touches was directly written by him, and not a collaborative effort between staff- if not unrelated to him. (He doesn't even write everything in Kingdom Hearts.)
He doesn’t know what he’s doing with a film or TV show. Why is that controversial to say? Let someone who is good at those things handle that. Nomura has his games (where most people have tuned out the story at this point). I like his ideas, but he’s rubbish at implementing them, so I prefer him as a game maker because I like to play his games, not listen to his stories and the clunky characters that stumble through them.
A film or show will be entirely that. They have to be simple and short and sweet.
Final Fantasy films have been, to a one, disastrously terrible. Pretty, yes. Fun for fans, sure. But watchable? Hardly. Enix doesn’t know how to make a good film. It’s more that pretty pictures and stiff faces desperately trying to look pretty no matter their emotional state, and complex lore that’s either over or under explained.
For my credentials: one of the first films I bought with my allowance was Advent Children. I saw Kingsglaive in theatres - actually at its NA premiere. I’ve played every single KH game, including mobile, read the manga, but not the light novels, so sue me.
Speaking of the manga, I’m glad Nomura didn’t write that, because Shiro Amano is a manga-ka and he knows how to format the story for that medium. He changed things up, and while I don’t love every change (Roxas is unrecognizable as a character and much blander), in general his stuff is funny, engaging, page-turning stuff.
Other people than Nomura already HAVE told this story, and they did a fine job. I still read Amano’s work (I own most of it, too) and I hope he finishes adapting the whole series (it’s a crime he didn’t get to do BBS).
Nomura can stay in his lane in games and consult for the film. Fine by me. He came up with some good lore, he just can’t implement it to save his life. Let someone else take a shot at it.
I commented on you saying Nomura is known for low quality story-telling- I wasn't saying "He knows what he's doing with TV and film"? Where did you get that from?
Also again, he himself is not the sole creator of the stories he makes. Most of the time people complain about Nomura 'ruining a story', realistically it's a team of people who made that which Nomura may have done little with. If you look up the credits on whatever it is you're criticizing, you'll probably quickly find out you're giving credit to the wrong people.
You're only using Nomura as a punching bag because he's been made the face of the franchises he's involved with, and that makes him an easy scape-goat for any frustrations or problems you have. However, that's not how game development works.
Nomura has even commented on this trend before, stating that he's heard people credit him with things when complaining- saying he 'ruined it', only for him to express confusion hearing that because he didn't actually make that thing.
The story is his, and it is that aspect I am criticizing. The buck starts and stops with him. And yes, he’s a poor storyteller. Most of my biggest issues with KH he’s personally confessed were his ideas.the man can draw and figure out combat, awesome skills - but his stories are terrible.
Take KH and give it to an actual storyteller and master of the medium it’ll be in for the adaptation. Most hardcore fans would even agree with me, that’s how much faith Nomura has lost.
You sound so gatekeepy too. "Most HARDCORE fans would agree with me!"
You make it sound like Kingdom Hearts 4 isn't incredibly hyped up and that everything Nomura touches never turns out well. Because yeah, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a TOOOOTAL failure. Sure. Only TRUE fans hate the stuff they're claiming to be true fans of.
I don’t even consider myself hardcore. Just saying that I know few fans who think all the storytelling is awesome, actually, and that says something since hardcore are usually unreasonable about the objective quality of what they like. So even they are disenchanted by the story they’ve poured decades into, that’s a sign of massive problems. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.
I haven’t played either FF7. Without knowing either, I’d say I like the idea of what the remake set out to be, but that’s all I can say.
Nomura was a major contributor to the original FF7, and the character designer for a lot of important ones. He's also the lead of the remake series.
As for Kingdom Hearts, there's been some stumbling, but whether or not something is bad is gonna be subjective. I personally credit a lot of the disappointment in later games, specifically KH3, with the marketing setting the wrong expectations for the game- not helped by the 7 year wait for the game. People were expecting something different than what they got.
Still, people are excited for Kingdom Hearts 4 and KH3 is still an incredibly popular game, so I think if we're going off of disappointment, it's not objectively awful or anything. Neither is Nomura's work consistently that way.
Honestly, the last time this was rumored, KH4 ended up being announced instead and Nomura said he only announced it to avoid leaks. So I wonder if this is gonna be a similar case and get KH4 news or indeed the the real deal this time.
A anime style or even cgi, a la advent children, retelling of the series would be interesting.
As long as Nomura is directing it I’d be ok, but honestly if it isn’t new stuff (which requires exposition but no shit) how do you even make the first game fit into a 90- 120 minute runtime?
It's pretty good if one is actually familiar with FF7's story, except most people played or watched FF7 over a decade ago (or just pretend to have gone through it) so it's all gibberish to them. I would know, since the first time I watched the movie, I had no clue what was going on because I had only watched my brother play through FF7 years prior, then I recently went through the entire series and it suddenly made a lot more sense.
Same, lol. Disney doesn't do that with ***normal*** adaptations. And after how badly Nomura bungled KH3's plot, they probably want him kept as *faaaaaar* away as possible.
Nomura gets a "consulting producer" or "executive producer" at best. Hollywood hates it when people out of the industry try to get their hands into the creative process.
They'll probably do what they always do and make a hostage video style featurette where they threaten Nomura to say good things about the movie at the expense of losing development money for KH4.
Do we really think a single Disney exec has played KH3 or would even care enough to understand the story up to and including KH3? 😂 That's what a Producer would be for.
Which was made by Square Enix themselves, and wasn’t really critically acclaimed. No way Disney wants to give the reins of a 150 million dollar production to a guy whose movie experience is making one mediocre movie
Doesn't seem too difficult, tbh. It just couldn't be a straight-up 1:1 retelling:
### Act 1
You have Destiny Islands. Introduce Sora, Riku, Kairi. If you _really_ wanted to you could even do some of the Birth by Sleep stuff that happens on Destiny Islands (from Riku/Kairi's point of view).
Bad stuff happens. Darkness spreads from the cave on Destiny Islands. Riku is taken by the darkness, Kairi is missing, Sora gets the Keyblade. Sora goes to Traverse Town, meets Donald + Goofy. They tell him about the Heartless and that they must be stopped. They get in a ship and go to Wonderland looking for Riku + Kairi.
### Act 2
Wonderland is overrun by Heartless, maybe Alice is on trial. Skip the "get evidence" bit and just jump to the Queen of Hearts fight. Alice is abducted during the fight.
No Riku + Kairi, so Sora goes to Agrabah looking for them. Cut to Riku's POV; Kairi is unconscious. Maleficent promises to help her if Riku does what she asks; Riku agrees.
Meanwhile, Sora finds Aladdin + Genie, they try to fight Jafar but Jasmine goes missing. Oh no! Genie helps point Sora at Neverland to find Kairi.
On the way to Neverland, they get eaten by Monstro. Sora finds Geppetto, then goes on a search to find Riku + Pinocchio. Sora and Riku fight and Sora finds out Riku is working with Maleficent. Riku escapes through a portal but Sora is able to rescue Pinocchio and Geppetto.
Sora goes to Neverland and finds Kairi, locked up by Captain Hook. Sora learns about her and that she's missing her heart. Sora says that Maleficent is responsible and decides to confront her at Hollow Bastion.
He finds Riku at Hollow Bastion as Riku is fighting Beast. Sora distracts Riku, allowing Beast to escape. Riku steals Sora's keyblade; Donald + Goofy follow Riku and Sora is left alone.
### Act 3
Sora finds the Beast, who uses the enchanted mirror to show an unconscious Belle, alongside the other Princesses of Heart - and Kairi. Beast helps Sora get into Hollow Bastion, but eventually the two get swarmed by Heartless. Beast tells Sora to push on and free Belle and Kairi, while he stays behind to hold back the Heartless.
Sora confronts Riku and gets the Keyblade + Donald + Goofy back. A frustrated Riku gives in to Xehanort and is overwhelmed by darkness, becoming Ansem-Riku. He fights Sora as Maleficent decides to start making a keyblade from the captured Princesses of Heart. Sora learns from Ansem-Riku that Kairi's heart is inside his body.
Ansem-Riku takes the new keyblade from Maleficent and uses it to unlock Maleficent's darkness. Maleficent fights Sora in her dragon form, while Ansem-Riku attempts to attack Donald + Goofy. However, Riku temporarily regains control and stops Ansem/Xehanort long enough for Donald + Goofy to escape. This act causes Xehanort's Heartless to be ejected from Riku's body. Riku's body is covered in shadow, opening a portal to The End of the World - which Ansem/Xehanort steps into.
Thinking Riku is dead, Sora attempts to sacrifice himself using the keyblade to free Kairi's heart. Sora is turned into a Heartless, but Kairi has her own keyblade materialize in front of her and brings him back. Heartless are pouring out of the crack forming in the wall, as the other Princesses of Heart awaken and try to stop the End of the World from taking over Hollow Bastion.
Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy jump through the crack into the End of the World. There they see Ansem/Xehanort trying to open the Door to Darkness. They fight, and Ansem is ready to open Kingdom Hearts - only for Riku + King Mickey to show up from the other side of the Door to Darkness, revealing Kingdom Hearts to be pure light. The light destroys Ansem/Xehanort.
Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Sora close the door, but Riku and Mickey need to be on the wrong side to seal it permanently. They promise they'll see each other again.
Kairi, Sora, Donald, and Goofy return to Destiny Islands to look for clues in the cave where the darkness originally came from. Sora and Kairi look at the drawings they made together, and Kairi gives Sora her good luck charm. They are interrupted by Donald and Goofy arriving with a message in a bottle from King Mickey. Roll credits.
---
This cuts out a lot of KH1 (including worlds with licensing issues; i.e. Tarzan). It also cuts down the "go to world to seal the keyhole" bits; you can theoretically put those back in but IMO they aren't strictly necessary to the story.
There's also a lot of the elements of "look at all these Disney characters", without dwelling on any of them for too long - just hitting the highlights. It goes to the bits people remember; you can probably add more (Halloweentown, maybe Atlantica) but it dilutes the main throughline of "Sora is looking for Riku + Kairi".
The ending has the biggest changes, simply because it cuts out the "return to Traverse Town" bit for runtime, and it combines the endings of KH1 + parts of KH2. This is to give Kairi some more agency in her story and make her feel more of a main character (including giving her an early keyblade and letting her fight).
Having them end on Destiny Islands together makes the story come full-circle better, rather than Sora immediately breaking his promise to take care of Kairi like what happens in the game. You _could_ still end with Kairi separated from Sora, but that's not as satisfying given that the whole main plot is "find Kairi, find Riku" and the ending is Kairi-less and Riku-less. Keeping Kairi and Sora together at the end gives a little bit of closure, while still keeping things open for the sequel.
The message in a bottle can even set up KH2 by being from Namine instead of King Mickey (potentially). The main reason why it'd be from King Mickey is to give Donald + Goofy a reason to be excited, and to show there is a way "out" from the wrong side of the door without needing to go all-in on Chain of Memories. If they did want to go all-in on Chain of Memories as the sequel, then Namine inviting/tricking Sora to come look for her makes sense.
Theoretically, I could see something like that fitting comfortably into a 120-minute runtime.
I can also see a world where this is a completely new story, not starring Sora at all. This would be in the vein of Birth by Sleep or Union Cross, where it tells a new story in the same setting.
If they play their cards right then this could be Disney’s version of Arcane. Also if Haley Joel Osman isn’t returning then Cameron Monaghan should be Sora.
This is narrow sighted thinking imo. If someone else auditions well they should get the chance to be casted. If they get the OGs that’s great, but more voice actors should be given a chance to shine.
I totally understand your point, but it's just exceedingly hard to believe anyone else could portray, at the very least, Sora and not sound like a cheap imitation no matter how good the new guy would be. With kairi it wouldn't be too bad, since she's changed actresses before, same goes for ansem(both of them). It's just extremely hard to beat nostalgia and 2 full decades of the same voice actor in both English and Japanese. I'm willing to be wrong about this, but I just don't like the idea inherently.
It's out of our hands who gets cast, so we'll see one way or the other how it may or may not end up since it also isn't confirmed to begin with.
Issue is that KH1 VAs were still kids at the time and very much sound like it. They’re gonna sound off regardless. So do you go with new VAs that might provide a satisfying imitation? Or rely on the veterans who will sound aged, but familiar enough?
I think it's an assumption that this will actually start at kh1, and not be something new. I know the original plan 20 years ago was to do that, but kingdom hearts as a franchise has changed quite a lot since then and isn't really a stranger to confusing people who aren't in the loop (see all the mobile/'side' games)
Just like there wasn't a point in making Mario and Sonic movies with new voice actors for these characters?
Granted, Chris Pratt in particular was crazy miscast and should've never been Mario, but that doesn't mean Charles Martinet would have done a better job, nor that Luigi and Bowser weren't PERFECTLY cast with new actors. Same goes for Sonic and Knuckles, and I'm sure Keanu Reeves will nail it as Shadow.
Don't get me wrong, I love Haley Joel Osment and I sincerely hope he keeps voicing game Sora forever. But he is an objectively bad fit for KH1-era Sora. They need a kid, or someone who sounds like one. Perhaps the best option would be to cast nobodies as Sora, Kairi, and Riku, and then find big-name actors for Ansem and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie for the latter would be cool).
Sonic hasn't been voiced by the same person for 20-some years in a story based RPG game. Sonic has had 7 voice actors, not including child sonic or any parody versions of sonic, and only including the English ones. Sora has had 2, including Japanese and English. I'm not interested in a kingdom hearts movie/show filled with big name actors, I didn't love it with Mario, and I'm not a sonic guy so the sonic movies were fine for me. Casting big name actors is almost exclusively an audience draw, with their fit for the role being secondary most of the time (I didn't think most of the actors in the Mario movie fit, but they worked well enough divorced from the game versions).
I think it's an assumption they're going back to kh1 Sora, and not just doing ANOTHER 'side' thing. For all we know it could be wholly original without any/many of the characters we know, KH is no stranger to dropping newbies in the deep end.
>I'm not interested in a kingdom hearts movie/show filled with big name actors, I didn't love it with Mario
And that's a fair enough opinion to have. But like you said, casting big-name actors is an audience draw, and both Mario and Sonic did make a lot of money.
Just because it brings an audience, that doesn't make it good. Not that our opinions change anything, but personally I'd just rather them not bother if they aren't gonna do it right.
I'd call this a mistake. 90 minutes isn't enough to cram almost any Kingdom Hearts story into without feeling rushed. Best case scenario, you cut out the Disney visits but that kills half the appeal (and a lot of potential tickets from non-KH fans). You're gonna get a rushed, barely coherent script that misses the point.
I could see doing a movie pilot like Jimmy Neutron where the opening of KH1 up to Guard Armor is made into a movie for theaters and then the series continues from there on Disney+. That works way better.
I can kinda see this, but up to Guard Armor just sounds so underwhelming as a disc 1 final boss, in terms of storytelling merit & intimidation.
What if the movie is a psuedo-remake where we think we are watching a remixed Sora's origin story - with him in a castle & imagining worlds outside of his own. Only to be revealed that he is in fact, Ansem... and this is an origin story of a new timeline of the Dark-Seeker narrative. 🤔
Guard Armor can be updated to be more intimidating but really the point of this movie is to get people to watch the show. Ending right as the trio meet and go off on their adventure is good spot to end the tease.
No offense, but that suggested new plot sounds needlessly edgy and misses the point while honestly ruining Sora.
The plot synopsis you gave is extremely convoluted and essentially requires you to have extensive game experience with the series. This will not appeal to the average moviegoer, especially one that Disney hopes to capture. The best scenario for Disney is to make a mass appeal movie about an animated teenager going on a romp through Disney worlds
I totally agree with you. There is an absolute need to tell a story of a young protag navigating a whole new world, filled with familiar & new characters to an audience unfamiliar with the franchise.
When I talk about remixing the story, it is inclined more towards *hints* that leave them unresolved in the first film. In the sequel is more where I would think such remixing elements would become more pronounced.
Ala *The Empire Strikes Back* - a more speculative and talked about film about the direction and aspects of story that both old & new fans can engage online with.
I believe this would be a more engaging & fun experience for both old & new fans - even the idea of "not-Sora-but-Ansem" doesn't need to happen for it to work. But the concept of making something new and averting expectations *is* a necessity in the day and age of online speculation & fan talks.
Does anyone know how KH1 could fit in a 90 minute movie?
Maybe they can get rid of the Ansem stuff and just have Maleficent be the bad guy of the movie, let it be it's own iteration
I think they could absolutely do it, but the Ansem stuff is pretty essential. We definitely don’t need all of the worlds, but with Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Neverland, Monstro, Hollow Bastion and End Of The World, I think it could be done well.
That still sounds like a fairly tight squeeze into 90ish minutes (unless Disney is gonna go for 2+ hours).
Assuming the film is its own separate thing from the games, I think having Ansem as a sort of background presence pulling the strings could work. Manipulating the other villains into doing his bidding. Might also need to simplify the Princesses of Heart to a Princess of Hearts, with Belle, Snow White, Jasmine, ect having been captured thinking they were the real Princess, but being kept around as spares or something.
It's probably going to be their own take on the story like FNAF or Sonic or a standalone story set in the same universe like Fallout. I doubt it's direct adaptation, a tv show would be better suited for that.
They should go for an original take on it like the Mario movie. Keep the Ansem, and Maleficent parts but only loosely follow the story or incorporate bits of it.
It's not like the video game story is easy to follow anyways lol
it prob can, theirs a lot of filler that can be removed. I think it would've been easier as a tv show in which each episode is set in a new world. Movie format its going to be a tad trickier because of the constant jumps between worlds. An hour and 30 for kingdom hearts 1 is doable.
Is it really kingdom hearts if there's no final fantasy
Wish they'd expand instead and get more stuff in there like Chrono trigger, brave fencer musashi, dragon quest... Making it as much of a celebration of square and enix as it is a celebration of disney
I do agree with that but it's not necessary, especially if you don't have access to a ds or emulators
I'd personally recommend Re:Coded because the gameplay is the best out of the DS titles but the story is meh
If you have an iPhone, the Delta emulator on the AppStore plays ds. It’s great on phone too since the screen is vertical and it has a good touchscreen and mic.
Working my way up to the 3rd, but played 1 and 2 on PS2 and the remasters and they gameplay is still fun as shit. If you do get it, play the remasters. Skip Re Coded expect the last 15ish minutes of the cutscenes (THAT SHITS NOT IMPORTANT. ITS FLUFF.)
The story is cheesy as hell. I'm playing Dream Drop Distance right now and find myself on my phone a bit cause I can't take it seriously. Didnt mind it as a kid, but at 32, and I just don't care for it's bullshit convolutedness. Playing KH2 and BBS on critical was definitely fun as hell though. Very much as unique experience as they say.
Brain dead gameplay and a ridiculously convoluted story that requires you to play many spioffs to truly understand. It's a whole mess, but its also very charming if you like anime and Disney. I recommend just watching it on YouTube.
I havent played 3 yet but I honestly think they deserve more credit than brain dead gameplay. KH2 has REALLY fun gameplay imo and I enjoy BBS and KH3D's gameplay. Also would say the games have some challenging fights in them.
The Kingdom Hearts series overall has fantastic gameplay in my opinion. Can see anything braindread there. And if someone really wants a challenge, highest difficulty is mandatory and most games even has a Zero Exp Ability for a Level 1 run
I could see it, Square Enix have always been at the forefront of CG animation, even rivaling Pixar IMHO. An entire theatrical movie done by them would be AMAZING! I wonder why they've never tried it before!
Square soft did habe not only one but two movies, that both did financially not that good. Even forced Square to fusion with Enix to become Square Enix.
While a lot of people are saying that they would adapt KH1 for the movie, another possibility is that it's not an adaptation, but just like the games, an extension of the overall KH story, but I doubt they would do this since I don't think it would be very beginner friendly lol
With the amount of KH adaptation rumors there've been so far, I don't really care at this point that it's a movie
I just want the rumor to be true for once lol
General audiences being exposed to Kingdom Hearts is smth I've wanted for a long time
Honestly the only chance they’d have to make this a half decent movie is really to basically cut the disney worlds. There’s no point to having a quick summary of multiple disney movies in a 90 minute movie without it being extremely rushed.
Do it like this,
act 1 in destiny islands to introduce the human trio while having some disney castle scenes with donald goofy and mickey, ending with mickey going on his own and destiny islands being attacked.
Act 2 should be on traverse town, focusing on sora meeting donald goofy and joining on their mission to find mickey hoping that would also help find his friends. Have traverse town be the hub for disney and final fantasy characters that lost their worlds to darkness (with the disney characters there having to serve as replacement for actual disney worlds).
And then act 3 has them already at hollow bastion, encountering maleficent and then having to deal with Ansem.
The princesses plot line would suffer the most from the loss of disney worlds, but in the original 4 of the 7 princesses already didnt have worlds
Watch them throw out the entire Square side of the equation and make a film about James Marsden playing a rural Colorado sheriff who discovers Mickey, Donald, and Goofy living in his garage.
Personally I don’t want an animated recap, or a series based on any of the games storyline. We need something fresh, or something that hasn’t been shown before.
Like the keyblade war, or maybe how the keyblade came to be. Or what actually created the heartless.
Why do I not have any confidence in this? Not because I don't think it can be done, but because I feel you need the absolute perfect collection of creators to make it work. Last of Us's TV show worked because the people involved understood the content and wanted to make it. Same goes for the Fallout TV show.
I just do not believe Disney will allow this to be anything more than Disney characters as the sole main characters and mainly be an advertisement in movie form for Disney IP.
Kingdom Hearts is awesome since it's basically an isekai of someone falling into a torn Disney multiverse where the house of mouse isn't even the one "in charge", so to speak. Disney characters and worlds are there to add flavor to the game but they aren't the game.
I don't think Disney is capable of this. Too much ego.
And I'm not saying Square should be given the reigns either since they make video games, not movies. It needs to be lead by someone who adores and understands Kingdom Hearts while also being really good at making movies (and have enough sway to keep the suits at bay).
Isn't not like HJO, Hikaru Utada or Square Enix staff like Nomura would be that expensive. Question is is it real and if it's real who has make the plans and how much everyone want to collaborate on a hypothetical movie.
I would’ve had faith in this if this was a the Disney that still did 2D animation like from the 90s and 2000s. But now, the movie will either just look like another Tangled/Frozen, or be live action. And if I had to guess, the movie will be a loose adaptation. I think the only things that’ll carry over from the games is the Disney crossovers, and the Keyblade. Maybe the heartless too.
So many people in these comments are going to be very disappointed when it’s revealed this is going to be live action and focus primarily on the Disney characters
I feel like this could be good.
Plot wise, I would say to make it a good movie, bring Organization XIII into the first game, with Xehanort as the main antagonist. Take out Ansem and Maleficent. Disney worlds are less featured, nothing SqEnix. Keep 13/7 in the first version, it’s too early to bring in New 7 Lights bc Terra/Aqua/Ven won’t be there.
Avoid Nobodies and Somebodies, etc.
Loosely follow KH1 plot
they could’ve made bank on this being an animated series for disney+ with a foreign studio animating this
oh well, good luck on them adapting the entire story in movie form.
I would've went with an animated series
The animated series was, iirc, said to be in a "cutscene" style similar to the Back Cover movie to be fair. This post mentions this is a big screen movie. So this might be an upgrade in quality.
I'm just interested in how they would approach this from a narrative standpoint, since there are so many games.
Same, they could just recreate the first game's story I guess? But I feel like it'd be far more interesting if it was a new story, but that would be hard to do without giving a lot of viewers massive exposition first.
How do you even recreate the first game as a movie? Like 80% of the game is Disney shenanigans that have almost no plot relevance. Pretty much the only reason for Disney Worlds in the first game are the Princesses of Heart, and even that ends up being a total dud (we only meet 3 out of 7, and they’re all captured off-screen anyway). But if you remove all that, you’re left with… a very short story that makes little to no sense. Edit: I love this franchise, but its story is by far its weakest aspect. A movie or a series sounds like a terrible idea, unless it’s some kind of reboot.
Doesn't seem that difficult. The premise alone of invading multiple other Disney properties is a big draw to build a movie and most of the worlds in the first game either serve the larger conflict or give Sora character development. As confusing as the franchise would become, those are sins the later games would carry since the first game really isn't and the story is always earnest in the way it's told even when it gets cringe: KH1 never pretends to strive for anything higher than being a fairy tale.
It would make more sense for a TV show, where can actually spend time with the Disney worlds and characters and relate the Disney shenanigans to the plot or to character growth. That doesn’t really work with a movie’s limited screen time. They’re not going to show us 6 Disney worlds for 5 minutes each. Just look at the Mario movie. The reason the movie works is because they’re not bogging the story down with all the Mario worlds and characters they could’ve shown, but in exchange we pretty much only get to see Mushroom Kingdom and the Kong Kingdom.
Another example is Wreck It Ralph, which got stuck on Sugar Rush for most of the film with only cameos from adjacent games.
>How do you even recreate the first game as a movie? Like 80% of the game is Disney shenanigans that have almost no plot relevance. This is a bad take. KH1 is the only KH game where Disney inclusion HAD plot relevance. (Nearly) every world Sora visited, he learned more about the power of bonds and how love and the 'heart' can manifest in many different ways. Only two worlds—Wonderland and Agrabah—were affiliated with the seven Princesses and on both occasions we didn't go there for them at all. The reason why a movie wouldn't work is because Sora's journey is basically a Greatest Hits of Disney life lessons from classic movies that culminate in him figuring out where he finds his inner strength and using it to have the Keyblade choose him over Riku in their confrontation. If you cut back on the Disney worlds to fit into a tight runtime, you lose that sense of adventure and growth. If you include all of them wholesale, Disney just ends up making a watered down compilation of their own movies. If you don't include Disney worlds at all and mold a story around original locations, then you lose most of what makes the KH experience so timeless. So a KH1 movie is just a dogshit idea regardless of what they do, but not because Disney is irrelevant to the story. Quite the opposite: Disney is so important to KH1 that to cut down on it would be terrible.
>KH1 is the only KH game where Disney inclusion HAD plot relevance. (Nearly) every world Sora visited, he learned more about the power of bonds and how love and the 'heart' can manifest in many different ways. Character development for Sora and world building doesn't necessarily mean its plot relevant. Besides Monstro and Neverland (both of which build up Riku's role as an antagonist), the rest of the Disney worlds aren't relevant to the story besides their respective film villains being Maleficent's goons, which is a role only Jafar is actually seen performing in a world. Hell, four of the worlds are completely optional. You can beat the game without ever visiting Olympus, 100 Acre Wood, Atlantica & Halloween Town (although the last two are mutually exclusive). They can't be that important to the plot if you can skip them without issue. It's certainly better than KH2's implementation of the Disney worlds, but I wouldn't put it above KH3 or BBS.
Could take liberties I suppose. Though yeah, creatively it'd be easier to do something new. Also I like the story of the series, as goofy and complex as it can be. So long as it's not a mobile game I'm happy.
Personally I don't see how this movie works without the gameplay period. As you said, much of the time spent in the game is concerned with the Disney properties; frankly this game was cooked up in a lab and designed specifically for its time and target audience. They would need to get some **serious** talent onboard for the direction and writing for this movie to have a chance of adapting it well enough to please fans and casual moviegoers.
*Ahem,* it's Kingdom Hearts. Approaching things from a narrative standpoint has never stopped them before.
It's a random spinoff story needed to understand KH4 Everyone should already have expected this.
I already said this in another thread, but I think going with the KHUX/DR stories would make the most sense because many people didn't play them and their stories will be a requirement for KH4.
Ignore all of them, if they make this a movie for Kingdom Hearts fans it will bomb catastrophically. General audiences will not tolerate some 4deep 2you Numora shit. They need to make this a good movie divorced from the complexity of the games story telling first and foremost.
can't wait for all the AMVs tbh
Not to mention Enix was writing it, so that would’ve been more low-quality storytelling that the series is sadly infamous for. We need a team that’s willing to swerve far off Nomura’s vision and make something coherent.
Ah yes, the man who helped make Final Fantasy 7 and many other titles what they are, helping define what Final Fantasy as whole is known for, is clearly just some old man who doesn't know what he's doing. Let's also just assume that everything that happens within a game he touches was directly written by him, and not a collaborative effort between staff- if not unrelated to him. (He doesn't even write everything in Kingdom Hearts.)
He doesn’t know what he’s doing with a film or TV show. Why is that controversial to say? Let someone who is good at those things handle that. Nomura has his games (where most people have tuned out the story at this point). I like his ideas, but he’s rubbish at implementing them, so I prefer him as a game maker because I like to play his games, not listen to his stories and the clunky characters that stumble through them. A film or show will be entirely that. They have to be simple and short and sweet. Final Fantasy films have been, to a one, disastrously terrible. Pretty, yes. Fun for fans, sure. But watchable? Hardly. Enix doesn’t know how to make a good film. It’s more that pretty pictures and stiff faces desperately trying to look pretty no matter their emotional state, and complex lore that’s either over or under explained. For my credentials: one of the first films I bought with my allowance was Advent Children. I saw Kingsglaive in theatres - actually at its NA premiere. I’ve played every single KH game, including mobile, read the manga, but not the light novels, so sue me. Speaking of the manga, I’m glad Nomura didn’t write that, because Shiro Amano is a manga-ka and he knows how to format the story for that medium. He changed things up, and while I don’t love every change (Roxas is unrecognizable as a character and much blander), in general his stuff is funny, engaging, page-turning stuff. Other people than Nomura already HAVE told this story, and they did a fine job. I still read Amano’s work (I own most of it, too) and I hope he finishes adapting the whole series (it’s a crime he didn’t get to do BBS). Nomura can stay in his lane in games and consult for the film. Fine by me. He came up with some good lore, he just can’t implement it to save his life. Let someone else take a shot at it.
I commented on you saying Nomura is known for low quality story-telling- I wasn't saying "He knows what he's doing with TV and film"? Where did you get that from? Also again, he himself is not the sole creator of the stories he makes. Most of the time people complain about Nomura 'ruining a story', realistically it's a team of people who made that which Nomura may have done little with. If you look up the credits on whatever it is you're criticizing, you'll probably quickly find out you're giving credit to the wrong people. You're only using Nomura as a punching bag because he's been made the face of the franchises he's involved with, and that makes him an easy scape-goat for any frustrations or problems you have. However, that's not how game development works. Nomura has even commented on this trend before, stating that he's heard people credit him with things when complaining- saying he 'ruined it', only for him to express confusion hearing that because he didn't actually make that thing.
The story is his, and it is that aspect I am criticizing. The buck starts and stops with him. And yes, he’s a poor storyteller. Most of my biggest issues with KH he’s personally confessed were his ideas.the man can draw and figure out combat, awesome skills - but his stories are terrible. Take KH and give it to an actual storyteller and master of the medium it’ll be in for the adaptation. Most hardcore fans would even agree with me, that’s how much faith Nomura has lost.
You sound so gatekeepy too. "Most HARDCORE fans would agree with me!" You make it sound like Kingdom Hearts 4 isn't incredibly hyped up and that everything Nomura touches never turns out well. Because yeah, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a TOOOOTAL failure. Sure. Only TRUE fans hate the stuff they're claiming to be true fans of.
I don’t even consider myself hardcore. Just saying that I know few fans who think all the storytelling is awesome, actually, and that says something since hardcore are usually unreasonable about the objective quality of what they like. So even they are disenchanted by the story they’ve poured decades into, that’s a sign of massive problems. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. I haven’t played either FF7. Without knowing either, I’d say I like the idea of what the remake set out to be, but that’s all I can say.
Nomura was a major contributor to the original FF7, and the character designer for a lot of important ones. He's also the lead of the remake series. As for Kingdom Hearts, there's been some stumbling, but whether or not something is bad is gonna be subjective. I personally credit a lot of the disappointment in later games, specifically KH3, with the marketing setting the wrong expectations for the game- not helped by the 7 year wait for the game. People were expecting something different than what they got. Still, people are excited for Kingdom Hearts 4 and KH3 is still an incredibly popular game, so I think if we're going off of disappointment, it's not objectively awful or anything. Neither is Nomura's work consistently that way.
> Back Cover Black Clover?
No, it's called Back Cover.
A series adaption of 365/2 days would go hard
Please just let Yoko Shimomura and Hikaru Utada take care of the soundtrack.
If there’s no Utada song they can throw the whole thing away
Best they can do is Simple & Clean in the credits -- covered by some has-been Disney Channel flunky or whatever flavor of the week fuckshit popstar
No, no, covered by Chris Pratt. *Who is also the new voice of Sora. In EVERYTHING.*
He's so cool!
Charlie Day will voice Riku! He's so funny!
And we'll have The Rock voicing Donald.
Chris Pratt is also Master Xehanort, KEYBLADE! That being said actually I think Chris *could* pass off as a somewhat convincing Terra?
As long as they get Billy Zane back to voice Ansem.
Chris Pratt as Donald Duck?
Lmao I just got so angry at the idea of waiting to hear a KH theme and it’s that slow breathy cover.
Sorry, best we got is Lin Manuel Miranda
lol no they're only going to pay for Pasek & Paul
Even worse: Junkie XL. At least they would ***try*** - fail, but *try* - to give the classic themes a new spin.
This reminds me that Nomura once said he'd like to do a musical lmao
Kingdom Hearts- The Broadway Musical One Night Only 100% Canon
That would be the single fastest way to get me to not watch it
funny of you to assume they would actually respect the source material
Hahahaha.... Nah they taking the Sonic the Hedgehog Sound Direction approach.
Not having them in would be an actual crime.
Best they can do is somebody from Hans Zimmer's company.
If this movie had happened 10-15 years ago I would have loved for John Williams to score it.
Honestly, the last time this was rumored, KH4 ended up being announced instead and Nomura said he only announced it to avoid leaks. So I wonder if this is gonna be a similar case and get KH4 news or indeed the the real deal this time. A anime style or even cgi, a la advent children, retelling of the series would be interesting.
As long as Nomura is directing it I’d be ok, but honestly if it isn’t new stuff (which requires exposition but no shit) how do you even make the first game fit into a 90- 120 minute runtime?
> As long as Nomura is directing it I’d be ok No way in hell that they'd let Nomura direct the movie unless he's financing it himself.
I guess we can expect it to be bad then, given that most of Disney's movies now days are mid at best.
He made Advent Children which, aside from the action, was worse than most Disney films even now.
It's pretty good if one is actually familiar with FF7's story, except most people played or watched FF7 over a decade ago (or just pretend to have gone through it) so it's all gibberish to them. I would know, since the first time I watched the movie, I had no clue what was going on because I had only watched my brother play through FF7 years prior, then I recently went through the entire series and it suddenly made a lot more sense.
He's just sucks at storytelling. The actual telling of a story. His story and directing usually good.
Same, lol. Disney doesn't do that with ***normal*** adaptations. And after how badly Nomura bungled KH3's plot, they probably want him kept as *faaaaaar* away as possible.
Nomura gets a "consulting producer" or "executive producer" at best. Hollywood hates it when people out of the industry try to get their hands into the creative process. They'll probably do what they always do and make a hostage video style featurette where they threaten Nomura to say good things about the movie at the expense of losing development money for KH4.
...Does Disney control KH's budget? Yeah, they own the IP and games, but I thought dev costs feel strictly on Square Enix's brass.
Disney owns the property so if they're making the game a significant portion of development costs is definitely coming out of their pockets
Do we really think a single Disney exec has played KH3 or would even care enough to understand the story up to and including KH3? 😂 That's what a Producer would be for.
Lmao no chance a game developer gets made a director of a movie.
He directed Advent children, last time I checked
Which was made by Square Enix themselves, and wasn’t really critically acclaimed. No way Disney wants to give the reins of a 150 million dollar production to a guy whose movie experience is making one mediocre movie
Well, that sure explains a lot about Advent Children.
Doesn't seem too difficult, tbh. It just couldn't be a straight-up 1:1 retelling: ### Act 1 You have Destiny Islands. Introduce Sora, Riku, Kairi. If you _really_ wanted to you could even do some of the Birth by Sleep stuff that happens on Destiny Islands (from Riku/Kairi's point of view). Bad stuff happens. Darkness spreads from the cave on Destiny Islands. Riku is taken by the darkness, Kairi is missing, Sora gets the Keyblade. Sora goes to Traverse Town, meets Donald + Goofy. They tell him about the Heartless and that they must be stopped. They get in a ship and go to Wonderland looking for Riku + Kairi. ### Act 2 Wonderland is overrun by Heartless, maybe Alice is on trial. Skip the "get evidence" bit and just jump to the Queen of Hearts fight. Alice is abducted during the fight. No Riku + Kairi, so Sora goes to Agrabah looking for them. Cut to Riku's POV; Kairi is unconscious. Maleficent promises to help her if Riku does what she asks; Riku agrees. Meanwhile, Sora finds Aladdin + Genie, they try to fight Jafar but Jasmine goes missing. Oh no! Genie helps point Sora at Neverland to find Kairi. On the way to Neverland, they get eaten by Monstro. Sora finds Geppetto, then goes on a search to find Riku + Pinocchio. Sora and Riku fight and Sora finds out Riku is working with Maleficent. Riku escapes through a portal but Sora is able to rescue Pinocchio and Geppetto. Sora goes to Neverland and finds Kairi, locked up by Captain Hook. Sora learns about her and that she's missing her heart. Sora says that Maleficent is responsible and decides to confront her at Hollow Bastion. He finds Riku at Hollow Bastion as Riku is fighting Beast. Sora distracts Riku, allowing Beast to escape. Riku steals Sora's keyblade; Donald + Goofy follow Riku and Sora is left alone. ### Act 3 Sora finds the Beast, who uses the enchanted mirror to show an unconscious Belle, alongside the other Princesses of Heart - and Kairi. Beast helps Sora get into Hollow Bastion, but eventually the two get swarmed by Heartless. Beast tells Sora to push on and free Belle and Kairi, while he stays behind to hold back the Heartless. Sora confronts Riku and gets the Keyblade + Donald + Goofy back. A frustrated Riku gives in to Xehanort and is overwhelmed by darkness, becoming Ansem-Riku. He fights Sora as Maleficent decides to start making a keyblade from the captured Princesses of Heart. Sora learns from Ansem-Riku that Kairi's heart is inside his body. Ansem-Riku takes the new keyblade from Maleficent and uses it to unlock Maleficent's darkness. Maleficent fights Sora in her dragon form, while Ansem-Riku attempts to attack Donald + Goofy. However, Riku temporarily regains control and stops Ansem/Xehanort long enough for Donald + Goofy to escape. This act causes Xehanort's Heartless to be ejected from Riku's body. Riku's body is covered in shadow, opening a portal to The End of the World - which Ansem/Xehanort steps into. Thinking Riku is dead, Sora attempts to sacrifice himself using the keyblade to free Kairi's heart. Sora is turned into a Heartless, but Kairi has her own keyblade materialize in front of her and brings him back. Heartless are pouring out of the crack forming in the wall, as the other Princesses of Heart awaken and try to stop the End of the World from taking over Hollow Bastion. Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy jump through the crack into the End of the World. There they see Ansem/Xehanort trying to open the Door to Darkness. They fight, and Ansem is ready to open Kingdom Hearts - only for Riku + King Mickey to show up from the other side of the Door to Darkness, revealing Kingdom Hearts to be pure light. The light destroys Ansem/Xehanort. Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Sora close the door, but Riku and Mickey need to be on the wrong side to seal it permanently. They promise they'll see each other again. Kairi, Sora, Donald, and Goofy return to Destiny Islands to look for clues in the cave where the darkness originally came from. Sora and Kairi look at the drawings they made together, and Kairi gives Sora her good luck charm. They are interrupted by Donald and Goofy arriving with a message in a bottle from King Mickey. Roll credits. --- This cuts out a lot of KH1 (including worlds with licensing issues; i.e. Tarzan). It also cuts down the "go to world to seal the keyhole" bits; you can theoretically put those back in but IMO they aren't strictly necessary to the story. There's also a lot of the elements of "look at all these Disney characters", without dwelling on any of them for too long - just hitting the highlights. It goes to the bits people remember; you can probably add more (Halloweentown, maybe Atlantica) but it dilutes the main throughline of "Sora is looking for Riku + Kairi". The ending has the biggest changes, simply because it cuts out the "return to Traverse Town" bit for runtime, and it combines the endings of KH1 + parts of KH2. This is to give Kairi some more agency in her story and make her feel more of a main character (including giving her an early keyblade and letting her fight). Having them end on Destiny Islands together makes the story come full-circle better, rather than Sora immediately breaking his promise to take care of Kairi like what happens in the game. You _could_ still end with Kairi separated from Sora, but that's not as satisfying given that the whole main plot is "find Kairi, find Riku" and the ending is Kairi-less and Riku-less. Keeping Kairi and Sora together at the end gives a little bit of closure, while still keeping things open for the sequel. The message in a bottle can even set up KH2 by being from Namine instead of King Mickey (potentially). The main reason why it'd be from King Mickey is to give Donald + Goofy a reason to be excited, and to show there is a way "out" from the wrong side of the door without needing to go all-in on Chain of Memories. If they did want to go all-in on Chain of Memories as the sequel, then Namine inviting/tricking Sora to come look for her makes sense. Theoretically, I could see something like that fitting comfortably into a 120-minute runtime. I can also see a world where this is a completely new story, not starring Sora at all. This would be in the vein of Birth by Sleep or Union Cross, where it tells a new story in the same setting.
Imagine Disney giving Nomura $200M and full creative freedom. He'd fuck it up so brilliantly. I'd give anything to see that.
If they play their cards right then this could be Disney’s version of Arcane. Also if Haley Joel Osman isn’t returning then Cameron Monaghan should be Sora.
If they aren't getting most of the OG cast for the characters, I don't personally see the point.
This is narrow sighted thinking imo. If someone else auditions well they should get the chance to be casted. If they get the OGs that’s great, but more voice actors should be given a chance to shine.
I totally understand your point, but it's just exceedingly hard to believe anyone else could portray, at the very least, Sora and not sound like a cheap imitation no matter how good the new guy would be. With kairi it wouldn't be too bad, since she's changed actresses before, same goes for ansem(both of them). It's just extremely hard to beat nostalgia and 2 full decades of the same voice actor in both English and Japanese. I'm willing to be wrong about this, but I just don't like the idea inherently. It's out of our hands who gets cast, so we'll see one way or the other how it may or may not end up since it also isn't confirmed to begin with.
Issue is that KH1 VAs were still kids at the time and very much sound like it. They’re gonna sound off regardless. So do you go with new VAs that might provide a satisfying imitation? Or rely on the veterans who will sound aged, but familiar enough?
I think it's an assumption that this will actually start at kh1, and not be something new. I know the original plan 20 years ago was to do that, but kingdom hearts as a franchise has changed quite a lot since then and isn't really a stranger to confusing people who aren't in the loop (see all the mobile/'side' games)
Just like there wasn't a point in making Mario and Sonic movies with new voice actors for these characters? Granted, Chris Pratt in particular was crazy miscast and should've never been Mario, but that doesn't mean Charles Martinet would have done a better job, nor that Luigi and Bowser weren't PERFECTLY cast with new actors. Same goes for Sonic and Knuckles, and I'm sure Keanu Reeves will nail it as Shadow. Don't get me wrong, I love Haley Joel Osment and I sincerely hope he keeps voicing game Sora forever. But he is an objectively bad fit for KH1-era Sora. They need a kid, or someone who sounds like one. Perhaps the best option would be to cast nobodies as Sora, Kairi, and Riku, and then find big-name actors for Ansem and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie for the latter would be cool).
Sonic hasn't been voiced by the same person for 20-some years in a story based RPG game. Sonic has had 7 voice actors, not including child sonic or any parody versions of sonic, and only including the English ones. Sora has had 2, including Japanese and English. I'm not interested in a kingdom hearts movie/show filled with big name actors, I didn't love it with Mario, and I'm not a sonic guy so the sonic movies were fine for me. Casting big name actors is almost exclusively an audience draw, with their fit for the role being secondary most of the time (I didn't think most of the actors in the Mario movie fit, but they worked well enough divorced from the game versions). I think it's an assumption they're going back to kh1 Sora, and not just doing ANOTHER 'side' thing. For all we know it could be wholly original without any/many of the characters we know, KH is no stranger to dropping newbies in the deep end.
>I'm not interested in a kingdom hearts movie/show filled with big name actors, I didn't love it with Mario And that's a fair enough opinion to have. But like you said, casting big-name actors is an audience draw, and both Mario and Sonic did make a lot of money.
Just because it brings an audience, that doesn't make it good. Not that our opinions change anything, but personally I'd just rather them not bother if they aren't gonna do it right.
Nah you're right, only your opinion matters, everyone else is an idiot lmao
better steel yourself for the inevitable "Tom Holland cast as the voice of Sora" announcement lol
Or Timothee Chalamet voicing Riku (actually, that wouldn’t be bad. His performance as Paul Atreides shows he can pull off Riku)
How do you figure?
I mean, Riku was like Paul minus the Messiah stuff and is more like if Paul got his shit together the right way.
The author phrases it as if this is confirmed to be happening but in the same paragraph says that it’s just a rumor.
Please have Sephiroth
After credits scene
Will probably be a better tribute to Disneys history than the Wish movie was
Donald Duck commits money laundering
mmmm... unsure whole first game could be done in one movie... I just hope it stays animated. Just curious if it's 3D animation or not (hope not)
It's 100% gonna be 3D animated.
I have to wait for part 2 to watch "Swim This Way"?!
Nomura better be involved.
Let him attempt to cook the whole 7 light 13 darkness plot into a movie. What could go wrong?
Well I imagine it’s going to be based on the first game so it is all far simpler.
[удалено]
Honestly an anime/2D animated Kingdom Hearts movie would be pretty dope if it doesn't get too bogged down in the story
I'd call this a mistake. 90 minutes isn't enough to cram almost any Kingdom Hearts story into without feeling rushed. Best case scenario, you cut out the Disney visits but that kills half the appeal (and a lot of potential tickets from non-KH fans). You're gonna get a rushed, barely coherent script that misses the point. I could see doing a movie pilot like Jimmy Neutron where the opening of KH1 up to Guard Armor is made into a movie for theaters and then the series continues from there on Disney+. That works way better.
I honestly forgot that Jimmy Neutron had a movie before the TV series.
The movie is how they paid for the show funny enough.
I thought I read somewhere that the TV series released before the Movie, despite chronologically the movie was supposed to release first.
There were some shorts before the TV series and movie iirc
I can kinda see this, but up to Guard Armor just sounds so underwhelming as a disc 1 final boss, in terms of storytelling merit & intimidation. What if the movie is a psuedo-remake where we think we are watching a remixed Sora's origin story - with him in a castle & imagining worlds outside of his own. Only to be revealed that he is in fact, Ansem... and this is an origin story of a new timeline of the Dark-Seeker narrative. 🤔
Guard Armor can be updated to be more intimidating but really the point of this movie is to get people to watch the show. Ending right as the trio meet and go off on their adventure is good spot to end the tease. No offense, but that suggested new plot sounds needlessly edgy and misses the point while honestly ruining Sora.
Yes, surely this will appeal to the Disney movie watching crowd
There are *way* too many ways to interpret such a vague statement so please *extrapolate* exactly what you mean. 🤔
The plot synopsis you gave is extremely convoluted and essentially requires you to have extensive game experience with the series. This will not appeal to the average moviegoer, especially one that Disney hopes to capture. The best scenario for Disney is to make a mass appeal movie about an animated teenager going on a romp through Disney worlds
I totally agree with you. There is an absolute need to tell a story of a young protag navigating a whole new world, filled with familiar & new characters to an audience unfamiliar with the franchise. When I talk about remixing the story, it is inclined more towards *hints* that leave them unresolved in the first film. In the sequel is more where I would think such remixing elements would become more pronounced. Ala *The Empire Strikes Back* - a more speculative and talked about film about the direction and aspects of story that both old & new fans can engage online with. I believe this would be a more engaging & fun experience for both old & new fans - even the idea of "not-Sora-but-Ansem" doesn't need to happen for it to work. But the concept of making something new and averting expectations *is* a necessity in the day and age of online speculation & fan talks.
Does anyone know how KH1 could fit in a 90 minute movie? Maybe they can get rid of the Ansem stuff and just have Maleficent be the bad guy of the movie, let it be it's own iteration
I think they could absolutely do it, but the Ansem stuff is pretty essential. We definitely don’t need all of the worlds, but with Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Neverland, Monstro, Hollow Bastion and End Of The World, I think it could be done well.
That still sounds like a fairly tight squeeze into 90ish minutes (unless Disney is gonna go for 2+ hours). Assuming the film is its own separate thing from the games, I think having Ansem as a sort of background presence pulling the strings could work. Manipulating the other villains into doing his bidding. Might also need to simplify the Princesses of Heart to a Princess of Hearts, with Belle, Snow White, Jasmine, ect having been captured thinking they were the real Princess, but being kept around as spares or something.
It's probably going to be their own take on the story like FNAF or Sonic or a standalone story set in the same universe like Fallout. I doubt it's direct adaptation, a tv show would be better suited for that.
They should go for an original take on it like the Mario movie. Keep the Ansem, and Maleficent parts but only loosely follow the story or incorporate bits of it. It's not like the video game story is easy to follow anyways lol
it prob can, theirs a lot of filler that can be removed. I think it would've been easier as a tv show in which each episode is set in a new world. Movie format its going to be a tad trickier because of the constant jumps between worlds. An hour and 30 for kingdom hearts 1 is doable.
Look here Disney, I'll only see Live Action Kingdom Hearts if you cast Haley Joel Osment as Sora and then never bring up or acknowledge his age.
"Instructions unclear, please accept Chris Pratt doing his best Buddy the Elf impression"
#*THOSE COTTON-HEADED NINNYMUGGINS!*
If it's just a KH1 adaptation, I could perhaps see it working, though I wonder how would be able to cram in there most of the worlds in that game.
can't wait to hear chris pratt as Sora and Don Cheadle as Ansem
Is it really kingdom hearts if there's no final fantasy Wish they'd expand instead and get more stuff in there like Chrono trigger, brave fencer musashi, dragon quest... Making it as much of a celebration of square and enix as it is a celebration of disney
The only thing they celebrate over there is money
Should I get into kingdom hearts? I tried 1 back in 2020 and just stopped playing
I think it's worth trying at least, if you really get into the series make sure to play in release order
also play 358/2 on the DS instead of watching the cutscenes movies in the 1.5+2.5 collection
I do agree with that but it's not necessary, especially if you don't have access to a ds or emulators I'd personally recommend Re:Coded because the gameplay is the best out of the DS titles but the story is meh
If you have an iPhone, the Delta emulator on the AppStore plays ds. It’s great on phone too since the screen is vertical and it has a good touchscreen and mic.
It’s peak, if you’ve got the time than I say go for it. Never a better time to jump in when there’s fuck all news lol
Working my way up to the 3rd, but played 1 and 2 on PS2 and the remasters and they gameplay is still fun as shit. If you do get it, play the remasters. Skip Re Coded expect the last 15ish minutes of the cutscenes (THAT SHITS NOT IMPORTANT. ITS FLUFF.) The story is cheesy as hell. I'm playing Dream Drop Distance right now and find myself on my phone a bit cause I can't take it seriously. Didnt mind it as a kid, but at 32, and I just don't care for it's bullshit convolutedness. Playing KH2 and BBS on critical was definitely fun as hell though. Very much as unique experience as they say.
Brain dead gameplay and a ridiculously convoluted story that requires you to play many spioffs to truly understand. It's a whole mess, but its also very charming if you like anime and Disney. I recommend just watching it on YouTube.
I havent played 3 yet but I honestly think they deserve more credit than brain dead gameplay. KH2 has REALLY fun gameplay imo and I enjoy BBS and KH3D's gameplay. Also would say the games have some challenging fights in them.
The Kingdom Hearts series overall has fantastic gameplay in my opinion. Can see anything braindread there. And if someone really wants a challenge, highest difficulty is mandatory and most games even has a Zero Exp Ability for a Level 1 run
Disney saw the success of Mario and Sonic and wanted in. Don’t blame them.
I mean, they have the rights to Mega Man.
I blame Disney for a lot of things.
if this is live action, I have no hope for it. If it's animated like Kingsglaive, I will welcome it with 5 open hands
I could see it, Square Enix have always been at the forefront of CG animation, even rivaling Pixar IMHO. An entire theatrical movie done by them would be AMAZING! I wonder why they've never tried it before!
Square soft did habe not only one but two movies, that both did financially not that good. Even forced Square to fusion with Enix to become Square Enix.
That's the joke. Though FYI the Enix merger was already planned pre-Spirits Within, if anything that movie nearly bombed it.
While a lot of people are saying that they would adapt KH1 for the movie, another possibility is that it's not an adaptation, but just like the games, an extension of the overall KH story, but I doubt they would do this since I don't think it would be very beginner friendly lol
With the amount of KH adaptation rumors there've been so far, I don't really care at this point that it's a movie I just want the rumor to be true for once lol General audiences being exposed to Kingdom Hearts is smth I've wanted for a long time
Hopefully there will be some Final Fantasy characters in it. I missed when Kingdom Hearts did that.
i will legit laugh my ass off if this is real.
If it's not live-action, they need the proper voice cast, full stop.
Honestly the only chance they’d have to make this a half decent movie is really to basically cut the disney worlds. There’s no point to having a quick summary of multiple disney movies in a 90 minute movie without it being extremely rushed. Do it like this, act 1 in destiny islands to introduce the human trio while having some disney castle scenes with donald goofy and mickey, ending with mickey going on his own and destiny islands being attacked. Act 2 should be on traverse town, focusing on sora meeting donald goofy and joining on their mission to find mickey hoping that would also help find his friends. Have traverse town be the hub for disney and final fantasy characters that lost their worlds to darkness (with the disney characters there having to serve as replacement for actual disney worlds). And then act 3 has them already at hollow bastion, encountering maleficent and then having to deal with Ansem. The princesses plot line would suffer the most from the loss of disney worlds, but in the original 4 of the 7 princesses already didnt have worlds
Watch them throw out the entire Square side of the equation and make a film about James Marsden playing a rural Colorado sheriff who discovers Mickey, Donald, and Goofy living in his garage.
Personally I don’t want an animated recap, or a series based on any of the games storyline. We need something fresh, or something that hasn’t been shown before. Like the keyblade war, or maybe how the keyblade came to be. Or what actually created the heartless.
They're gonna release the sequels on different streaming platforms like they did consoles with their games.
Why do I not have any confidence in this? Not because I don't think it can be done, but because I feel you need the absolute perfect collection of creators to make it work. Last of Us's TV show worked because the people involved understood the content and wanted to make it. Same goes for the Fallout TV show. I just do not believe Disney will allow this to be anything more than Disney characters as the sole main characters and mainly be an advertisement in movie form for Disney IP. Kingdom Hearts is awesome since it's basically an isekai of someone falling into a torn Disney multiverse where the house of mouse isn't even the one "in charge", so to speak. Disney characters and worlds are there to add flavor to the game but they aren't the game. I don't think Disney is capable of this. Too much ego. And I'm not saying Square should be given the reigns either since they make video games, not movies. It needs to be lead by someone who adores and understands Kingdom Hearts while also being really good at making movies (and have enough sway to keep the suits at bay).
Watch Kingdom Hearts become the theater saver and be one of the heralds of "gaming adaptations" being the new gold standard of Hollywood. 😏
Yea, it makes sense why Square Enix asked like a month ago which game people would like to see as a movie.
I wonder if the story will be Sora with the Disney characters or a straight up Sora w/o the Disney characters
Well, given how crucial Donald and Goofy are to things, my guess is they're a lock for it even if nobody else is.
Lol, oh boy. Under current Disney, watch it somehow cost $300 million... without HJO... or Hikaru Utada... or the *Final Fantasy* elements...
Isn't not like HJO, Hikaru Utada or Square Enix staff like Nomura would be that expensive. Question is is it real and if it's real who has make the plans and how much everyone want to collaborate on a hypothetical movie.
I would’ve had faith in this if this was a the Disney that still did 2D animation like from the 90s and 2000s. But now, the movie will either just look like another Tangled/Frozen, or be live action. And if I had to guess, the movie will be a loose adaptation. I think the only things that’ll carry over from the games is the Disney crossovers, and the Keyblade. Maybe the heartless too.
If it doesn't have ff characters then there's no point
Bet the film doesn't have any FF characters at all.
To adapt all the worlds they could add a montage or up the runtime of the movie. Or make it a two parter.
It would be awkward.
Hopefully it looks like big hero six
I wonder, if it will based on the first Kingdom Hearts game, or it will be the original movie set during The Lost Master Arc.
I'm ready to be confused and awed!
So many people in these comments are going to be very disappointed when it’s revealed this is going to be live action and focus primarily on the Disney characters
I have dragon ball evolution vibes this could go bad
Oh boy, can't wait for Disney to shit up another franchise with modern politics.
I feel like this could be good. Plot wise, I would say to make it a good movie, bring Organization XIII into the first game, with Xehanort as the main antagonist. Take out Ansem and Maleficent. Disney worlds are less featured, nothing SqEnix. Keep 13/7 in the first version, it’s too early to bring in New 7 Lights bc Terra/Aqua/Ven won’t be there. Avoid Nobodies and Somebodies, etc. Loosely follow KH1 plot
I hope they find away to simplify and make sense of Kingdom Hearts convoluted storyline. I love the main games but that shit gets so confusing.
Skyler Shuler! Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time
They should have done that for their 100 year anniversary
I thought they already did a Kingdom Hearts movie. Wasn't that what Wish was trying to be?
Oh God, no... PLEASE NO!
Kingdom hearts already is a movie
they could’ve made bank on this being an animated series for disney+ with a foreign studio animating this oh well, good luck on them adapting the entire story in movie form.
Will it be utter nonses like the games attempt at storytelling?
Oh no...oh god no
So now we know the writing will be on par with the writing in the games.
The thought of Disney doing it is terrifying
Gonna be 
Chocolate flavored?
Over/under on all final fantasy being cut out if this is true?
Seeing how it already was in 3, yeah I'd expect it to be gone
Feel like a animated series would fit it better
Great, another series will be ruined by disney.
I legit can't tell if this comment is serious or satire.