The year is 2002. The biggest things in the world right now are theStar Warsprequels,Harry Potter, andThe Lord of the Rings. All epic franchises of grand journeys, all super successful, and allmajor franchises that are still churning out new content to this day. While Fox, Warner Bros, and New Line were set for success in these franchises, every other production at the time was aiming to create something with a similar scope and demographic. For Disney, 10 years away from just outright buyingStar Warsand Lucasfilm, had their answer for filling this gap right in front of them in an IP they already owned. That IP was their recent release,Kingdom Hearts,the first entry in a now long-running game series.
Much like the previously mentioned franchises, this story had all the landmarks of what made those stories successful. It was a crossover between the video game seriesFinal Fantasyand Disney, and it followed an original character named Sora (Haley Joel Osment) as he travels across multiple different Disney “worlds” to save the universe and find his friends. The premise was strong and marketable enough that Disney actually did plan on making a TV show, and it almost happened!
Pre-Production Changed When Seth Kearsley Joined the Project
A pilot was already being pushed forward internally at Disney, a still unknown writer was attached and made a pilot script that was planned to ultimately become the7th episode of the season. It took place in Agrabah, so Sora and the crew were mostly interacting with the cast ofAladdin. But besides the script, no one else was really attached yet. That is until Disney approachedSeth Kearsley, who was in a kind ofcreative rutfollowing the release of his theatrical directorial debut,Adam Sandler’sEight Crazy Nights. He was interested in doing an American anime at the time, anime having a boom of popularity in the 90s and early 00s, so the assignment of doing aKingdom Heartsshow was appealing. Now having the idea in his head, he went to play the first game in the series which ignited a passion. After familiarizing himself with the world, he looked back at the pilot script that was written and realized it didn’t really fit the tone of the games or what he would want out of the series.
But luckily, Kearsley was also granted control over the script and sited that the episode felt like an episode of the 1994Aladdintelevision series instead of an episode of aKingdom Heartsshow. With that note, Kearsley worked with the writer to create a new pilot script that honored the source material a bit more.
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A lot of the storyboards for this pilot were uploaded onto Kearsley’s deviantart accountover a decade later, and can still be viewed now. Being storyboards, the art style isn’t quite finalized yet and Kearsleylater saidthat the art style they would have chosen probably would have been comparable to the one inShiro Amano’sKingdom Heartsmanga that came out in 2005. Also in retrospect, Kearsley has saidthe tone of the show he would have desiredwould be similar to Nickelodeon’sAvatar: The Last Airbender,which is not a bad show to compare yourself to.
The Actual Animatic
The pilot itself followedSora already in the midst of his adventure. Given the nature of children’s television at the time, ongoing stories were still a bit of a no-no behind the scenes.Each episode had to stand on its own, due to being a lot to manage with reruns having to be in chronological order down the line. The previously mentionedAvatar: The Last Airbenderwas sort of a trailblazer in that sense for being successful in an episodic model for a cartoon, and even that show was still three years away from being released at this point. So, the mandate was that the pilot wasn’t allowed to tell an origin story, each episode had to be its own unique thing. Luckily, the format ofKingdom Heartsin the games is that Sora (or any of the other leads down the line) hops from one Disney World to another for each different level, so the formula would actually make a lot of sense in this structure.
But, Kearsley got away with tellinga bit of an originstory by opening the episode with a nightmare Sora has on the Gummi Ship, the spaceship he travels in with Donald (Tony Anselmo) and Goofy (Bill Farmer) to transport them from world to world. The nightmare recaps the opening of the first game where Sora’s home was destroyed, and he was separated from his two friends Riku (David Gallagher) and Kairi (Hayden Panettiere). These brief nightmare sequence served as a great refresher for the context of the story for any existing fans, and functioned as a bit of a bullet point list catching up any new potential viewers to who Sora was. The rest of the episode followed Sora being reunited with Riku in Agrabah,but they clashbecause of Riku being under the influence of the greatest Disney villain, Maleficent (Susanne Blakeslee).
Since the episode was actually made by Disney, Kearsley was even able to access theactual backgroundsmade forAladdinto use in the show. The idea being that the show could both be more authentic and save some money byreusing assetscreated for the actual movie worlds that Sora was visiting. In the games, when a world is visited, the plot of the level will almost always be a truncated version of the original films plot but Sora, Donald, and Goofy happened to be in it. There are exceptions, but it is mostly the case. Kearsley’s description though shows that this show wouldn’t have really followed that and instead tell stories that more closely tie in to Sora’s journey. In the pilot,the Cave of Wonders identifies Sora as a diamond in the rough, granting him permission to enter the cave even if he isn’t Aladdin. This direction fits really well for 22-minute television episodes instead of trying to cram 2 hour long stories that viewers already know into a single episode.
So What Happened to the Kingdom Hearts Pilot?
The pilot actually tested really well. It had a more positive reaction than any of the other shows being tested at the time. The team was perfect too, with the aforementioned reusing of backgrounds making the world feel like the real movies. Except for Osment as Sora,all the original cast came back as well. It seemed like a golden goose for Disney, at a time when they desperately needed one. 2002 was the same year asTreasure Planet, which despite being acult classictoday, was amassive bomb. This is what proved the Disney Renaissance that started withThe Little Mermaidin 1989, had officially ended. If all was well, why didn’t it go forward?
The answer lies mostly with Disney’s relationship with Square Enix and series creator,Tetsuya Nomura. At the time, the Kingdom Hearts series was exploding. The first game was a success, so a spin-off for Gameboy Advance and a full-fledged sequel were in development. The series was on the rise, and even now it still managesbreak sales records. Since the original team was going so strong, and expanding the story into multiple sequels, prequels, and spin-offs, Disney felt it would be a bad look to make their own version. Almost like they are telling their business partners “we can do this better than you” and could’ve potentiallysoured the business relationship. Something that becomes even more clear when Kearsley stated thathe never spoke with anyone from Square Enixwhile making the pilot. The pilot did manage to get to the stage of afull color animatic, which is anuncommon stepin the process for something that ultimately got shelved. Beyond that, the pilot remains lost somewhere in the depths of the Disney Vault.
Kingdom Hearts' TV Future
In 2017, Kearsley actually got back in contact with the good people at Disney to test the waters to see if it was the right time to bring back the show. But, given thatKingdom Hearts IIIwas still deep in production, interest at the company waslow at the time. ButKingdom Heartsis such a charming and dearly beloved franchise, that nothing is impossible. In the meantime the franchise is still going strong, withKingdom Hearts IVand morebeing announced just this year.
