Former director and writer of the cancelled Kingdom Hearts cartoon, Seth Kearlsey, has stated that he is attempting to gain legal permission to reveal the pilot animatic. You can view his tweets below.

 

In addition, Seth was interviewed on February 2nd and during the 1:15:24 mark he begins to discuss the cancelled cartoon of Kingdom Hearts.

 

Originally Seth pitched the concept of an animated show (not specifically Kingdom Hearts) rather than making a movie due to it having a longer shelf life and a better opportunity for marketing. Seth's agent suggested Kingdom Hearts as it would mix both American cartoons and Japanese anime together. After completing the original Kingdom Hearts in a week he read the pilot for an Aladdin episode, Seth disliked this idea as Aladdin was already it's own animated TV show. Moreover, Seth took inspiration from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop due it airing on Cartoon Network at the same time he was writing the script for the Kingdom Hearts cartoon.

 

Around the 1:24:00 mark Seth discusses his attempt to gain legal permissions for the release of the pilot animatic. You can hear the full interview below.

 

 

Credit goes to twitter user @KorgerKor for the tip!

 

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"throws money at the screen" Why is nothing happening?

Yes please. I would like to see how the anime will do.

I want to see it, too! OwO

Please, no. Those storyboards looking boring af and I personally don't like the art style they choosed.

Edited February 5, 20178 yr by Taco Lea

hmm that's ok Seth.

 

unless it was some really high quality animation like that of a Disney movie i feel like it just would be lacking something. 

"throws money at the screen" Why is nothing happening?

wait a second I just looked up on IMDB how this guy actually is he is the same man who made that god awful adam sandler animated movie...... now I am a little less excited

Hmm, if the pilot is released, it could lead to the entire project being restarted. That be cool, especially now that they have so much to work with. If they do a season for each game, thought they'd probably have to join Re:coded and DDD into one season because of the small number of worlds, if they decided to go for one world=one episode, and the same for 0.2 and BC because of the short length of each. That'd still be a long show and KH3 would definitely be out before the project reached its end, leading to yet another season.

On top of that, current technology would allow them to make it a computer-animated series. Being in GCI would make it look closer to the games, although then they couldn't use the backrounds from the original movies like they planned. 

Regardless of it's quality, I'd still love to see how it got to the point it got to. Plus, as an animation student, I have to admit, seeing a KH animatic sounds pretty juicy... O3O""

 

Besides, who knows? If it garners enough community support and interest, either somebody could do the same thing someone did with the Galactic KND animatic and make a convincing animation out of it, or even better, Disney might actually consider reviving the idea of an animated KH series that combines american animation and Japanese anime. Granted, it'd probably be a whole lot different from what this would have been, now that the series has had enough time to actually become a series, but I'd actually be more comfortable because of that, it'd have a clearer direction of where it's going instead of having to rely on generating a lot of filler to give the games time to run ahead.

 

I'm not going to judge Kearsley on his work for Eight Crazy Nights. The animation for that was pretty impressive, it was just the writing and performances that left a lot to be desired. Besides, he's had a variety of work, and that was just one of the few times he was directing. And to be fair, Sandler based movies are kind of tricky to turn into gold, I feel like he lost the moment he stepped in. In any case, he's worked on lots of other great projects in various capacities, like Phineous and Ferb, so I'd definitely trust him with a revived animated KH show if Disney was willing to be awesome. I'd still like him to play the other games of course, but I guess not to the degree where he feels pressured to reference BBS early into writing for KH1 or something like that. It'd be best to make the process feel organic, maybe spending most of the time writing with the ending in mind, then checking out the next title about mid-way through.

 

In any case, he was certainly getting the right kinds of inspiration for this series, and again, as an ani student, I really would have loved to have seen KH take life in the original backdrops that really made those animated movies so memorable. I would only ever see this being a tricky thing when they start touching upon the more live action stuff like Tron and Pirates, but that's a pretty small thing to fret about when over 90% of the material you're working with is still based on traditional animation. I'd definitely throw money at this and I really hope that the Disney of today would be eager to greenlight another avenue to make money out of Kingdom Hearts. I for one would be thrilled to see the series getting more promotion like that, it really feels like there should already be merchandise at all of the parks these days to be honest.

Hmm, if the pilot is released, it could lead to the entire project being restarted. That be cool, especially now that they have so much to work with. If they do a season for each game, that'd be a long show and KH3 would definitely be out before the project reached its end, leading to yet another season

I mean, in my own mind, I always kind of categorized parts of Kingdom Hearts as if it were it's own anime to begin with. The Heart of All Worlds arc (KH), the Lost Memories arc (Re:CoM), the Hidden Darkness arc (Reverse/Rebirth), the End of Summer arc (Roxas prologue, either a short season, or one or several specials), the New Journey arc (KH2 pt 1), the Search for Nothing arc (KH2 pt 2, kind of hard to make a name for), the Power of Hearts arc (KH2 pt 3, Twilight Town 3 to Final Xemnas. Pretty much a season of epic battles ala Soul Society), the Forgotten Year arc (358/2 Days), the Fate of Tragedy arc (BBS, depending on how organize it, it could be split into two), the Mysterious Message arc (Re:Coded), the Connected Dreams arc (DDD), the Ancient War arc (X, Unchained X, X Back Cover. It's episodic nature would easily lend itself to season and arc divisions), the Dark World arc (BBS FP secret episode, 0.2 BBS FP, due to it's content it could either be a short season, or one or a series of specials), and the Guiding Key arc (KH3, likely to get multiple arcs like KH2).

 

Plus, certain aspects of KH kind of feel like they're heavily anime influenced, from the Organization and Disney Villains being your organized groups of baddies with unique powers and personalities (made me think a lot of Bleach), it's in-between stories that served to connect the previous arc to the next, the grandiose nature of the stories, the general art direction and style of expression from a lot of the human characters, etc. This is easily something that could work as an animated show, if handled properly.

Regardless of it's quality, I'd still love to see how it got to the point it got to. Plus, as an animation student, I have to admit, seeing a KH animatic sounds pretty juicy... O3O""

 

Besides, who knows? If it garners enough community support and interest, either somebody could do the same thing someone did with the Galactic KND animatic and make a convincing animation out of it, or even better, Disney might actually consider reviving the idea of an animated KH series that combines american animation and Japanese anime. Granted, it'd probably be a whole lot different from what this would have been, now that the series has had enough time to actually become a series, but I'd actually be more comfortable because of that, it'd have a clearer direction of where it's going instead of having to rely on generating a lot of filler to give the games time to run ahead.

 

I'm not going to judge Kearsley on his work for Eight Crazy Nights. The animation for that was pretty impressive, it was just the writing and performances that left a lot to be desired. Besides, he's had a variety of work, and that was just one of the few times he was directing. And to be fair, Sandler based movies are kind of tricky to turn into gold, I feel like he lost the moment he stepped in. In any case, he's worked on lots of other great projects in various capacities, like Phineous and Ferb, so I'd definitely trust him with a revived animated KH show if Disney was willing to be awesome. I'd still like him to play the other games of course, but I guess not to the degree where he feels pressured to reference BBS early into writing for KH1 or something like that. It'd be best to make the process feel organic, maybe spending most of the time writing with the ending in mind, then checking out the next title about mid-way through.

 

In any case, he was certainly getting the right kinds of inspiration for this series, and again, as an ani student, I really would have loved to have seen KH take life in the original backdrops that really made those animated movies so memorable. I would only ever see this being a tricky thing when they start touching upon the more live action stuff like Tron and Pirates, but that's a pretty small thing to fret about when over 90% of the material you're working with is still based on traditional animation. I'd definitely throw money at this and I really hope that the Disney of today would be eager to greenlight another avenue to make money out of Kingdom Hearts. I for one would be thrilled to see the series getting more promotion like that, it really feels like there should already be merchandise at all of the parks these days to be honest.

I mean, in my own mind, I always kind of categorized parts of Kingdom Hearts as if it were it's own anime to begin with. The Heart of All Worlds arc (KH), the Lost Memories arc (Re:CoM), the Hidden Darkness arc (Reverse/Rebirth), the End of Summer arc (Roxas prologue, either a short season, or one or several specials), the New Journey arc (KH2 pt 1), the Search for Nothing arc (KH2 pt 2, kind of hard to make a name for), the Power of Hearts arc (KH2 pt 3, Twilight Town 3 to Final Xemnas. Pretty much a season of epic battles ala Soul Society), the Forgotten Year arc (358/2 Days), the Fate of Tragedy arc (BBS, depending on how organize it, it could be split into two), the Mysterious Message arc (Re:Coded), the Connected Dreams arc (DDD), the Ancient War arc (X, Unchained X, X Back Cover. It's episodic nature would easily lend itself to season and arc divisions), the Dark World arc (BBS FP secret episode, 0.2 BBS FP, due to it's content it could either be a short season, or one or a series of specials), and the Guiding Key arc (KH3, likely to get multiple arcs like KH2).

 

Plus, certain aspects of KH kind of feel like they're heavily anime influenced, from the Organization and Disney Villains being your organized groups of baddies with unique powers and personalities (made me think a lot of Bleach), it's in-between stories that served to connect the previous arc to the next, the grandiose nature of the stories, the general art direction and style of expression from a lot of the human characters, etc. This is easily something that could work as an animated show, if handled properly.

I heard Bleach and I had to say something

 

 The Organisation 13 reminds me a lot of the Akatsuki from Naruto. Also the Sora, Kairi and Riku dynamic is similar to Team 7 from Naruto

 

Sora=Naruto, the happy go lucky kid who is loved by everyone

Riku=Sasuke. Both fall into darkness and are rivals of the MC

Kairi=Sakura since they are the only female of the group, but Sakura is way more useful than Kairi lol.

 

I feel a serious KH anime would work-like an adaptation of the KH manga, in the shounen genre of course. A cartoon like the one Seth was working on may not cut it for me personally unless it takes itself seriously. 

Edited February 4, 20178 yr by The 13th Kenpachi

I heard Bleach and I had to say something

 

 The Organisation 13 reminds me a lot of the Akatsuki from Naruto. Also the Sora, Kairi and Riku dynamic is similar to Team 7 from Naruto

 

Sora=Naruto, the happy go lucky kid who is loved by everyone

Riku=Sasuke. Both fall into darkness and are rivals of the MC

Kairi=Sakura since they are the only female of the group, but Sakura is way more useful than Kairi lol.

Yeah, except Riku gets a clue a whole lot quicker than Sasuke does. I don't even watch Naruto and I still know this, lol. And to be fair, the plots didn't allow enough involvement from Kairi, so looks like KH3 will be the true test of that. X)"

I mean, there's a lot that could have gone wrong with it, but I feel like the basic conceit is totally TV-ready. A new world every episode, little kids beating dark monsters... why not? I'd like to see the direction they were going to take it in.

Edited February 4, 20178 yr by BlankShell

I heard Bleach and I had to say something

 

 The Organisation 13 reminds me a lot of the Akatsuki from Naruto. Also the Sora, Kairi and Riku dynamic is similar to Team 7 from Naruto

 

Sora=Naruto, the happy go lucky kid who is loved by everyone

Riku=Sasuke. Both fall into darkness and are rivals of the MC

Kairi=Sakura since they are the only female of the group, but Sakura is way more useful than Kairi lol.

 

I feel a serious KH anime would work-like an adaptation of the KH manga, in the shounen genre of course. A cartoon like the one Seth was working on may not cut it for me personally unless it takes itself seriously.

 

Yeah, except Riku gets a clue a whole lot quicker than Sasuke does. I don't even watch Naruto and I still know this, lol. And to be fair, the plots didn't allow enough involvement from Kairi, so looks like KH3 will be the true test of that. X)"

Not really, kairi is way more helpful than Sakura. While kairi hasn't done a lot the quality of the things she's done are greater. Saving Sora, killing some heartless, reuniting Sora and Riku, Saving Sora and Riku from the realm of darkness.

I want to see that Pilot, I can´t judge his concept of his Kingdom Hearts adaptation.

It's a good that the pilot never came to fruition considering the fact that the plot of the Kingdom Hearts franchise is so well established. 

 

However, I'd love for this to be re-considered (especially considering the amount of lore and Disney content you can work with. Take inspiration from The Legend of Korra).

Ah, so this untold story is something this Seth person wants to show to the world, eh? Very interesting! I bet that it'd make for an interesting prospect, getting to see my prophecy play out in animated form! If handled properly, the story could be handled with great grandiose and spectacular execution!

To be honest, I couldn't care less. To me, it feels pretty redundant to have an animated series which won't be canon. Sure, the manga and the novels aren't exactly canon either since they add and change a few concepts here and there but I feel they were directed more toward giving a quick overview of the franchise. And the comedy is fairly entertaining.

 

 

That's not to say the series can't be great but I cannot shake the feeling that this would have become anything but Kingdom Hearts. Like Kingdom Hearts V Cast. Since KH belongs to Disney they don't need Square's permission or any guidance from people who are deeply familiar with the series. They can basically do their own thing. It could turn out great too but the storyboards didn't look promising to me. Who knows?

In the end, I think there's a reason that mobile game was dropped along with that animated series. Lack of interest, financial reasons, that it just wasn't good,... could be anything.

I do not know how to treat this.

On the one hand funny look at the franchise as a cartoon, and the other series ...

  "Kingdom hearts" myself as a cartoon, with one exception that's where you control the main character.

If there would have been shown the original events that behind the scenes the main game then maybe it would be interesting, but if the same thing as in the games that make sense? To paraphrase games have already manga novels and what still needs to do a cartoon?

No thank you, this project needs to stay buried in a castle far away from this plane of existence. The "only" thing this project had going for it that was even remotely interesting was using the original backgrounds from the movies, other than that this would have been a train wreck.

I've been fascinated by this project for years, and would love to see what could have been 

If he has to gain legal permission, then we likely won't get it. Also good lord I'm so disappointed in all the people who say they don't wanna see it. Lost Media is so fun to unearth, even if it's terrible. If the pilot is terrible it'll just be fun to watch!