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KH13.com's exclusive interview with Seth Kearsley

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I really hope the show gets greenlighted. It do make me worry that he never even played any other games then the first one.

 

That shouldnt be to problematic since the first games stiry can stand on its own if he wants to do the other games than he will have to play them anyway

 

Not to mention that the series and the game will most likely be seperated universes.

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Wow, what an amazing interview! Thanks for sharing this with us, Toom!

 

You know, after reading this interview, I can safely say that if Seth Kearsley is able to make a Kingdom Hearts TV show, it'll be in more than capable hands! Reading about his conviction to ensure he can do the series justice so that it can be true to the source material is a great relief for me! The fact that he himself said that he wanted to change Disney's script of the pilot way back 14 years ago indicates he wants to follow the games, ya know? And his willingness to catch up with the rest of the saga so he can be able to ensure his show would be true to the source material given is admirable! I really hope that Disney greenlights this show! Given the years that Kingdom Hearts has grown in popularity, and the popularity of anime, I'm sure that Disney would let Seth go with his approach! Heck, I could see this becoming the next Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend Of Korra in terms of quality animation and good storytelling! I really hope this show is made a reality!

 

May your heart be your guiding key, Seth! :')

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Instantly lost faith the moment he said he wanted marvel and Star Wars to be in the show, plays one KH game and doesn't even bother with atleast com and 2, at this point the guy sounds like he is just a Hollywood suit cashing in on an established property.

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Instantly lost faith the moment he said he wanted marvel and Star Wars to be in the show, plays one KH game and doesn't even bother with atleast com and 2, at this point the guy sounds like he is just a Hollywood suit cashing in on an established property.

Personally, I would not want Marvel or Star Wars in KH, but there are quite a few people who do, so it's not something to lose faith over. As in the games, it would probably last for a short period of time and that's something to get used to. (I mean, we possibly won't like every world in KH3 either and I can't say I like every episode of every series I watched.)

 

 

However, I also think that it's nothing to boast about to have played KH1 all the way through. Sure, some of the enemies can be hard but depending on the difficulty and ability, the game's story is done in roughly 25 hours. And not particularly difficult on normal.

 

 

Apart from that, it's not like he has to play any other games if he sticks to the first game in terms of characters, story elements, etc. You don't need the other games for that. Still, I can't deny that it doesn't show much of a love for the series if he has only played the first game and didn't look into KH2 at least. He doesn't have to like it or incorporate it, but if I play the first game I'd be interested to know what exactly happens to the characters since the end was very open. Not to mention that the game has been out for such a long time, is widely available, and is not 200 hours long. Not to mention it's a terrible argument to lose interest in a series because they didn't go with the animated series and would only play the other games if there were plans to incorporate the other games. Doesn't make me think that he loves the game or the franchise.

 

 

I'm willing to give it a chance, but my expectations are fairly low on this. It can be good even if it strays far from the original but as long as the characters and the core elements are portrayed correctly, I don't mind. Still, I'm immensely skeptical as to why this was decided to be brought up again after such a long time and if this won't turn out as a disaster in the end that will be everything but Kingdom Hearts.

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Instantly lost faith the moment he said he wanted marvel and Star Wars to be in the show, plays one KH game and doesn't even bother with atleast com and 2, at this point the guy sounds like he is just a Hollywood suit cashing in on an established property.

Uhm... Might wanna take another look:

 

KH13: Many games have come out in the Kingdom Hearts series since your first attempt at greenlighting this show. Do you plan on incorporating more games from the series besides Kingdom Hearts 1?

S: IF…..and that’s an intentionally big if…if something happens with Kingdom Hearts, I’ll be immersing myself in the entire Kingdom Hearts universe before we start writing anything. I felt like I needed to play the game to do it justice the first time around, now there’s this magical thing called YouTube where I can watch walk throughs of the games. I’ll be studying everything. The last thing I want to do is disappoint the fans who have brought my attention back to this project. 

Edited by Master Eraqus

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Very cool interview. Not too sure that I want this too happen though if it happens I would want nomura to keep a heavy eye on it. Was not a fan of Eight Crazy Nights didn't really enjoy it at all.

Not trying to diss on the guy I'll just be more comfortable if more Japanese Developers were on the show I would feel more at ease it's kind of like watching america make godzilla.... it's just... no it's just not right lol. They just could never nail down the same style as the japanese.

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I'd like to see him give it a shot. The worst thing it can do is be bad, y'know? It's not like that affects the overall status of the series or its direction, it just means we wouldn't see an animated series attempted again.

 

I know people yell at Netflix for them to pick up random stuff, but they've recently been more into children's programming for exclusives, so I think they might actually be interested. Would be cool to see.

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Very cool interview. Not too sure that I want this too happen though if it happens I would want nomura to keep a heavy eye on it. Was not a fan of Eight Crazy Nights didn't really enjoy it at all. Not trying to diss on the guy I'll just be more comfortable if more Japanese Developers were on the show I would feel more at ease it's kind of like watching america make godzilla.... it's just... no it's just not right lol. They just could never nail down the same style as the japanese.

 

Kingdom Hearts is a Disney property. He wouldn't have anywhere as much creative freedom as he did for Eight Crazy Nights. You don't have to worry about that.

 

As far as my opinions go, I'll only be invested once it's Greenlit. This is nothing more than a sales pitch and legal negotiations at this point.

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Uhm... Might wanna take another look:

yeah, NOW he wants to play the other 10 games in the series when the two most important ones before the KH renascence happened less than 3 years after 1's release, if he genuinely loved the games he would have atleast played 1-2, but since he is only doing it now after literally 10+ years you have to question how much he actually likes the games, and if he is talking out of his butt just for publicity and to get backing up from The KH fandom. It's just that this is coming out of nowhere especially with the hype train that is KH3 just around the corner so that too would fuel this project if it ever got of he ground, I think the guy is just taking advantage of the resurgence of a A numbered KH title to boost his own work.

I'd like to see him give it a shot. The worst thing it can do is be bad, y'know? It's not like that affects the overall status of the series or its direction, it just means we wouldn't see an animated series attempted again.I know people yell at Netflix for them to pick up random stuff, but they've recently been more into children's programming for exclusives, so I think they might actually be interested. Would be cool to see.

avatar the last airbender live action movie would like to say something about that. Though the only time an adaptation being completely abysmal yet for the best was Dragonball evolution, it got toriyama to get off his buns and make dragonball battle of gods in order to not have that stain be the last dragonball media to be seen.

Personally, I would not want Marvel or Star Wars in KH, but there are quite a few people who do, so it's not something to lose faith over. As in the games, it would probably last for a short period of time and that's something to get used to. (I mean, we possibly won't like every world in KH3 either and I can't say I like every episode of every series I watched.)

However, I also think that it's nothing to boast about to have played KH1 all the way through. Sure, some of the enemies can be hard but depending on the difficulty and ability, the game's story is done in roughly 25 hours. And not particularly difficult on normal.

Apart from that, it's not like he has to play any other games if he sticks to the first game in terms of characters, story elements, etc. You don't need the other games for that. Still, I can't deny that it doesn't show much of a love for the series if he has only played the first game and didn't look into KH2 at least. He doesn't have to like it or incorporate it, but if I play the first game I'd be interested to know what exactly happens to the characters since the end was very open. Not to mention that the game has been out for such a long time, is widely available, and is not 200 hours long. Not to mention it's a terrible argument to lose interest in a series because they didn't go with the animated series and would only play the other games if there were plans to incorporate the other games. Doesn't make me think that he loves the game or the franchise.

I'm willing to give it a chance, but my expectations are fairly low on this. It can be good even if it strays far from the original but as long as the characters and the core elements are portrayed correctly, I don't mind. Still, I'm immensely skeptical as to why this was decided to be brought up again after such a long time and if this won't turn out as a disaster in the end that will be everything but Kingdom Hearts.

yeah, I already know I'm most likely not going to like every KH3 world, we have already used the best worlds imo, but I just can't agree with anyone who wants SW and marvel in KH. KH wouldn't be able to do marvel justice because there is no way they would give marvel more than one world to explore so they would have to jam pack anything and everything into one world, and the characters just wouldn't fit KH's tone. There wouldn't be much room for conversations on "friendship is power" in marvel and i feel that the only genuine interaction Sora would have with these characters are "I've always wanted to be a superhero" it would just feel out of place like PotC was in KH2. As for Star Wars...where do I start, it's just too similar to KH without actually being KH, look up how both KIngdom hearts (the actual being) and the force are described, they are virtually the same thing yet fundamentally different and if Nomura thinks he can finagle some way to explain that the force comes from KH...I would lose my proverbial waste basket. Edited by Zerrick

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yeah, NOW he wants to play the other 10 games in the series when the two most important ones before the KH renascence happened less than 3 years after 1's release, if he genuinely loved the games he would have atleast played 1-2, but since he is only doing it now after literally 10+ years you have to question how much he actually likes the games, and if he is talking out of his butt just for publicity and to get backing up from The KH fandom. It's just that this is coming out of nowhere especially with the hype train that is KH3 just around the corner so that too would fuel this project if it ever got of he ground, I think the guy is just taking advantage of the resurgence of a A numbered KH title to boost his own work.

avatar the last airbender live action movie would like to say something about that. Though the only time an adaptation being completely abysmal yet for the best was Dragonball evolution, it got toriyama to get off his buns and make dragonball battle of gods in order to not have that stain be the last dragonball media to be seen.

OR, he might be doing it now because there's enough traction and interest that Disney would actually listen to the idea of a KH animated series. Can you just think about this for a second? Yes, theoretically he could have attempted this again in any of the 10+ years that followed the initial attempt at making the show, but it was Disney that shut it down later. He hasn't worked on it since because he's been busy working on other projects, making money off that (GASP, making money doing your job!? SO EVIL!!!!). Now he is clearly aware of how much stronger of a presence KH is having due to KH3's presence, so he is to some extent relying on the regenerated mega-hype of the series and the fanbase to give this project another shot. But that doesn't mean he's some kind of money-grubbing Hollywood producer who only cares about making the final profit in the end.

 

Have you even taken a look at his twitter? The guy clearly cares about the craft he's in, he takes animation seriously. And literally every word he is saying in this interview or any other random tweet with KH as the subject expresses his genuine interest in the series, the interest to learn more. He has stated multiple times that he does not, DOES NOT want to disappoint or upset the fans of the franchise. He went out of his way to play the first game, arguably the most important game in the entire franchise, just so he could do the show justice because he cared that much. He even risked getting kicked off the project altogether by just suggesting that they change the pilot to fit with KH's story a little better. What part of that screams "I'm only in this for the money, I'm only pretending to be a fan. GIVE ME MUNNY KH FANS!!"? If that was really what he was, he would have left the pilot as it was originally written, in his own words, "An episode of Aladdin, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in it."

 

It'd be great if he was going to play all the games, but the fact is that he's a working adult, and there realistically isn't enough time for him to play even just CoM/Re:CoM and KH2 in a fast enough time period to fully get the gist and spirit of the story and then be able to write for it with whatever development time Disney would give them. It's not easy committing to a video game when you have a lot of work you have to do on a consistent basis, and if he does get this show greenlit, he's going to be even more busy. Even if they don't start writing, they'll still try to get started on other areas of production, they aren't going to want to pause the whole project just so he can study the series in the way you want him to.

 

It makes much more practical sense for him to experience everything through Let's Plays and Walkthroughs, that way he gets the experience of the story without having to be slowed down by however he figures out controls, navigation, and what to do next. There's plenty of competent players out there, he's in good hands. And just cause he wants to immerse himself in everything doesn't mean that he's not going to go to CoM and KH2 directly after KH1. Really, I'd be more concerned if he only deemed those two titles as anything worth looking at while ignoring everything else like some "fans" do. Yeah it's important for him to see how the next direct chapters go, but I think as a writer it's also important to him to see just where the whole story is going.

 

Don't you get it? He's genuinely curious. He wants to throw himself in, understand the series (as best as we can anyway), and appreciate it even more than he originally did. He had great respect for the first one after he played it and wanted to do it right when it came to the show. He's only avoided the rest of the series for this long because he had mixed feelings about looking back after Disney scrapped the show. He literally described it as recovering from a breakup. Have you ever even been through a breakup before? I have. It's hard. Like, really hard. You want to keep seeing how the other person (KH in this case) is doing so badly, but there's all this baggage and heavy memories attached. He'd just be forcing himself to go "AUUUGH, why didn't Disney let me make this? It's so good!"

 

Granted, maybe he would have felt motivated to try again sooner, but don't forget, he's dealing with a company here, they aren't exactly quick to change their minds, and certainly not that easily. So that's why his approach in reattempting it now is smart. He knows that this is probably going to be KH's biggest release yet, and he's aware of all the hype and attention Square is bringing around it. If there was ever an environment to get Disney to open it's eyes and realize "Oh hey, we could actually make a lot more money off of this franchise if we gave it more outlets", this would be it, and Kearsley realizes that. This might not have gotten as much traction as it is now if this was going on in the middle of the Days, BBS, Coded era, or even the 10th anniversary. This is the best time you could ever try this again.

 

So yes, maybe if you were still stubbornly unconvinced by what I say, you could still argue that he is still doing this at this time in this current environment to "take advantage of a the resurgence of a numbered KH title to boost his own work". But really, is that such a bad thing? In the end, it still benefits all of us. By doing so, he's going to make Disney realize what they really should have realized since as late as 2005, that they should seriously invest in further promoting Kingdom Hearts in more ways than just its video game series. He knows that if he does a piss-poor job at it, there will be little reason for Disney to stay interested in giving it additional seasons, that's why he's going out of his way now to make it clear to fans that he does care about the series and does want to understand more of it before he puts any pen to paper to make sure he does the series justice.

 

This guy has given us very little reason to be suspicious of him, and I'm honestly quite surprised that someone could look at "I want to immerse myself in the rest of the series before writing the show so I actually know what I'm doing, unlike the current Sonic game writers" (okay, I may have paraphrased that part) and interpret it as "Heheh, well I never really cared about this series that much since the show got scrapped so I'm only doing this now so I can line my own pockets by feeding off all of your desperate nostalgia." It's like you're literally making up reasons to distrust the guy, when everything he's been saying so far has give no real reason to be skeptical about him. He doesn't want to inject any foreign ideas like his own original antagonist into the stories, he still wants to mostly follow the plots of each game, and he actually wants to learn and understand more about the series so he can please fans.

 

The difference between Kearsley and Shyamalan is that Shyamalan didn't show nearly as much interest in understanding the Avatar franchise as Kearsley is showing with the KH franchise. Much of that humor and spirit was lost when he only focused on condensing the events into a nearly 2-hour time slot, as well as making the most bizarre casting choices in an adaptation ever. Now Kearsley isn't even close to that stage of development yet, so that kind of comparison is unfair to make, but I will say this, he's going into this with a better frame of mind than Shyamalan or the crew from DB Evolution ever did with their products. And quite frankly, I don't think a DB Evolution/Battle of Gods result is ever going to come out of this, because that would suggest that if this bombs, Nomura would have to step up and make an animated KH series happen, and that guy has too much on his plate already to even entertain the idea of writing and producing for a full animated series, even if it is of his own work.

 

Anyway, the fact is that this isn't anywhere beyond the meeting room desk right now. These kinds of judgments will only have any real merit when the show is greenlit. Then we can be concerned about whether or not he's doing things right, because right now he's not really in a position where he can bother with looking at more anyway. He's not claiming to be a "one of us" fan right now, just a moderate fan of the first game who would like to make something amazing happen, and if it does, he wants to understand the rest of it as much as we do. Can't we just, I don't know, appreciate that a creator is expressing this passion and interest in something we care about? Like, for once?

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OR, he might be doing it now because there's enough traction and interest that Disney would actually listen to the idea of a KH animated series. Can you just think about this for a second? Yes, theoretically he could have attempted this again in any of the 10+ years that followed the initial attempt at making the show, but it was Disney that shut it down later. He hasn't worked on it since because he's been busy working on other projects, making money off that (GASP, making money doing your job!? SO EVIL!!!!). Now he is clearly aware of how much stronger of a presence KH is having due to KH3's presence, so he is to some extent relying on the regenerated mega-hype of the series and the fanbase to give this project another shot. But that doesn't mean he's some kind of money-grubbing Hollywood producer who only cares about making the final profit in the end.

 

Have you even taken a look at his twitter? The guy clearly cares about the craft he's in, he takes animation seriously. And literally every word he is saying in this interview or any other random tweet with KH as the subject expresses his genuine interest in the series, the interest to learn more. He has stated multiple times that he does not, DOES NOT want to disappoint or upset the fans of the franchise. He went out of his way to play the first game, arguably the most important game in the entire franchise, just so he could do the show justice because he cared that much. He even risked getting kicked off the project altogether by just suggesting that they change the pilot to fit with KH's story a little better. What part of that screams "I'm only in this for the money, I'm only pretending to be a fan. GIVE ME MUNNY KH FANS!!"? If that was really what he was, he would have left the pilot as it was originally written, in his own words, "An episode of Aladdin, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in it."

 

It'd be great if he was going to play all the games, but the fact is that he's a working adult, and there realistically isn't enough time for him to play even just CoM/Re:CoM and KH2 in a fast enough time period to fully get the gist and spirit of the story and then be able to write for it with whatever development time Disney would give them. It's not easy committing to a video game when you have a lot of work you have to do on a consistent basis, and if he does get this show greenlit, he's going to be even more busy. Even if they don't start writing, they'll still try to get started on other areas of production, they aren't going to want to pause the whole project just so he can study the series in the way you want him to.

 

It makes much more practical sense for him to experience everything through Let's Plays and Walkthroughs, that way he gets the experience of the story without having to be slowed down by however he figures out controls, navigation, and what to do next. There's plenty of competent players out there, he's in good hands. And just cause he wants to immerse himself in everything doesn't mean that he's not going to go to CoM and KH2 directly after KH1. Really, I'd be more concerned if he only deemed those two titles as anything worth looking at while ignoring everything else like some "fans" do. Yeah it's important for him to see how the next direct chapters go, but I think as a writer it's also important to him to see just where the whole story is going.

 

Don't you get it? He's genuinely curious. He wants to throw himself in, understand the series (as best as we can anyway), and appreciate it even more than he originally did. He had great respect for the first one after he played it and wanted to do it right when it came to the show. He's only avoided the rest of the series for this long because he had mixed feelings about looking back after Disney scrapped the show. He literally described it as recovering from a breakup. Have you ever even been through a breakup before? I have. It's hard. Like, really hard. You want to keep seeing how the other person (KH in this case) is doing so badly, but there's all this baggage and heavy memories attached. He'd just be forcing himself to go "AUUUGH, why didn't Disney let me make this? It's so good!"

 

Granted, maybe he would have felt motivated to try again sooner, but don't forget, he's dealing with a company here, they aren't exactly quick to change their minds, and certainly not that easily. So that's why his approach in reattempting it now is smart. He knows that this is probably going to be KH's biggest release yet, and he's aware of all the hype and attention Square is bringing around it. If there was ever an environment to get Disney to open it's eyes and realize "Oh hey, we could actually make a lot more money off of this franchise if we gave it more outlets", this would be it, and Kearsley realizes that. This might not have gotten as much traction as it is now if this was going on in the middle of the Days, BBS, Coded era, or even the 10th anniversary. This is the best time you could ever try this again.

 

So yes, maybe if you were still stubbornly unconvinced by what I say, you could still argue that he is still doing this at this time in this current environment to "take advantage of a the resurgence of a numbered KH title to boost his own work". But really, is that such a bad thing? In the end, it still benefits all of us. By doing so, he's going to make Disney realize what they really should have realized since as late as 2005, that they should seriously invest in further promoting Kingdom Hearts in more ways than just its video game series. He knows that if he does a piss-poor job at it, there will be little reason for Disney to stay interested in giving it additional seasons, that's why he's going out of his way now to make it clear to fans that he does care about the series and does want to understand more of it before he puts any pen to paper to make sure he does the series justice.

 

This guy has given us very little reason to be suspicious of him, and I'm honestly quite surprised that someone could look at "I want to immerse myself in the rest of the series before writing the show so I actually know what I'm doing, unlike the current Sonic game writers" (okay, I may have paraphrased that part) and interpret it as "Heheh, well I never really cared about this series that much since the show got scrapped so I'm only doing this now so I can line my own pockets by feeding off all of your desperate nostalgia." It's like you're literally making up reasons to distrust the guy, when everything he's been saying so far has give no real reason to be skeptical about him. He doesn't want to inject any foreign ideas like his own original antagonist into the stories, he still wants to mostly follow the plots of each game, and he actually wants to learn and understand more about the series so he can please fans.

 

The difference between Kearsley and Shyamalan is that Shyamalan didn't show nearly as much interest in understanding the Avatar franchise as Kearsley is showing with the KH franchise. Much of that humor and spirit was lost when he only focused on condensing the events into a nearly 2-hour time slot, as well as making the most bizarre casting choices in an adaptation ever. Now Kearsley isn't even close to that stage of development yet, so that kind of comparison is unfair to make, but I will say this, he's going into this with a better frame of mind than Shyamalan or the crew from DB Evolution ever did with their products. And quite frankly, I don't think a DB Evolution/Battle of Gods result is ever going to come out of this, because that would suggest that if this bombs, Nomura would have to step up and make an animated KH series happen, and that guy has too much on his plate already to even entertain the idea of writing and producing for a full animated series, even if it is of his own work.

 

Anyway, the fact is that this isn't anywhere beyond the meeting room desk right now. These kinds of judgments will only have any real merit when the show is greenlit. Then we can be concerned about whether or not he's doing things right, because right now he's not really in a position where he can bother with looking at more anyway. He's not claiming to be a "one of us" fan right now, just a moderate fan of the first game who would like to make something amazing happen, and if it does, he wants to understand the rest of it as much as we do. Can't we just, I don't know, appreciate that a creator is expressing this passion and interest in something we care about? Like, for once?

You can't blame people for being skeptical of his intentions. Looking at someone's Tweets doesn't give you an impression on his sincerity on the subject. I can say a lot to please people and mean nothing of what I'm saying or writing. I am not saying that he is lying, but we can never be sure about him speaking the truth either. There's a difference between being passionate about his animated series and being passionate about KH.

 

And of course he wants to please the fans. Anyone would. If it's successful, he'll receive recognition and the potential for a sequel or other projects. There's nothing wrong with aiming for that or trying to make money out of this. He has to live too after all. But this doesn't mean he genuinely cares about it. Displeasing fans is the worst someone can do since they determine how well something sells.

 

However, saying he abandoned KH because he did not get his way is ridiculous as well as comparing it to heartbreak. If I genuinely care about something, I would not drop it for such petty reasons. That's like saying I would drop the games because people didn't like my fanfiction. You may see this differently and it's his own decision, but waiting over ten years to bring it up again does leave you wondering where his sudden ambition stems from. And I doubt the comments on his deviantart page made him suddenly all eager to try it again.

As I said, we cannot know for sure what he's actually thinking so I won't impose my way of thinking on you but some of his statements make me doubt him. Not because he doesn't care for his craft, he certainly does, but because it doesn't look like he cares all that much about KH. This is not to say that he can't make a good series out of it but I also think it shouldn't be glorified that he made a relatively small amount of effort to play the game. That's called research and any any professional should make themselves familiar with the source material. If I write a book about the 18th century and want to make ot as accurate as possible, I do research. Lots and lots of research.

 

I agree with you that it's good he's considering all games but saying he would only invest time in playing them or watching them if the series goes in that direction simply gives off the impression of him not loving Kingdom Hearts as a franchise but his own impression of it regarding his series. Otherwise he would have wanted to know what happens after KH1 because the ending was terribly open. I do not blame him for caring about his series. Not at all. Having passion is a must. But this can't be confused with an actual love for the series as its own property. And in that regard, I seriously have my doubts after reading the interview.

 

Now, we can't know for sure what he is actually thinking and I won't impose my impression on you or anyone else for that matter. But Kearsley doesn't have to love KH to work on an animated series. And just him saying so doesn't mean a thing. In fact, it would be terribly unwise to state the contrary. But we cannot know.

As for KH2, he had all the time in the world to play it. Let's be real here, the game's been out for over 10 years and I'm a working adult too and still manage to play a game of 25-30 hours once in awhile. I'm not saying it's a must, but it's an argument speaking against his love for the franchise itself.

 

These are all opinions. I will give him a chance, but he does not strike me as someone who is overly excited about Kingdom Hearts or has a profound love for it. Dropping something because they dropped the series doesn't add to that and I honestly think that comparing it to heartbreak and projecting it on the game for nearly 10 years is way too much. He can be sad and disappointed but if it would have been truly such a heartbreak, then he wouldn't bother with bringing it up again. And still claiming he would only get into the series if his series becomes an actual thing.

 

Sorry, but something doesn't add up in my opinion and I can understand the doubt directed toward him as a person in that regard. That has nothing to do with the quality of the series but simply with his relationship toward the franchise. It's fine if you fully trust him though. That doesn't mean everyone has to...

Edited by Merilly

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avatar the last airbender live action movie would like to say something about that. Though the only time an adaptation being completely abysmal yet for the best was Dragonball evolution, it got toriyama to get off his buns and make dragonball battle of gods in order to not have that stain be the last dragonball media to be seen.

The Last Airbender was obviously an atrocious film, but it didn't kill the franchise, it just made people leery of seeing live action versions again. Korra and the various graphic novels, for instance, came out well after that movie. If this animated series bombed, it would just mean we don't get another animated series again. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I say.

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OR, he might be doing it now because there's enough traction and interest that Disney would actually listen to the idea of a KH animated series. Can you just think about this for a second? Yes, theoretically he could have attempted this again in any of the 10+ years that followed the initial attempt at making the show, but it was Disney that shut it down later. He hasn't worked on it since because he's been busy working on other projects, making money off that (GASP, making money doing your job!? SO EVIL!!!!). Now he is clearly aware of how much stronger of a presence KH is having due to KH3's presence, so he is to some extent relying on the regenerated mega-hype of the series and the fanbase to give this project another shot. But that doesn't mean he's some kind of money-grubbing Hollywood producer who only cares about making the final profit in the end.

 

Have you even taken a look at his twitter? The guy clearly cares about the craft he's in, he takes animation seriously. And literally every word he is saying in this interview or any other random tweet with KH as the subject expresses his genuine interest in the series, the interest to learn more. He has stated multiple times that he does not, DOES NOT want to disappoint or upset the fans of the franchise. He went out of his way to play the first game, arguably the most important game in the entire franchise, just so he could do the show justice because he cared that much. He even risked getting kicked off the project altogether by just suggesting that they change the pilot to fit with KH's story a little better. What part of that screams "I'm only in this for the money, I'm only pretending to be a fan. GIVE ME MUNNY KH FANS!!"? If that was really what he was, he would have left the pilot as it was originally written, in his own words, "An episode of Aladdin, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in it."

 

It'd be great if he was going to play all the games, but the fact is that he's a working adult, and there realistically isn't enough time for him to play even just CoM/Re:CoM and KH2 in a fast enough time period to fully get the gist and spirit of the story and then be able to write for it with whatever development time Disney would give them. It's not easy committing to a video game when you have a lot of work you have to do on a consistent basis, and if he does get this show greenlit, he's going to be even more busy. Even if they don't start writing, they'll still try to get started on other areas of production, they aren't going to want to pause the whole project just so he can study the series in the way you want him to.

 

It makes much more practical sense for him to experience everything through Let's Plays and Walkthroughs, that way he gets the experience of the story without having to be slowed down by however he figures out controls, navigation, and what to do next. There's plenty of competent players out there, he's in good hands. And just cause he wants to immerse himself in everything doesn't mean that he's not going to go to CoM and KH2 directly after KH1. Really, I'd be more concerned if he only deemed those two titles as anything worth looking at while ignoring everything else like some "fans" do. Yeah it's important for him to see how the next direct chapters go, but I think as a writer it's also important to him to see just where the whole story is going.

 

Don't you get it? He's genuinely curious. He wants to throw himself in, understand the series (as best as we can anyway), and appreciate it even more than he originally did. He had great respect for the first one after he played it and wanted to do it right when it came to the show. He's only avoided the rest of the series for this long because he had mixed feelings about looking back after Disney scrapped the show. He literally described it as recovering from a breakup. Have you ever even been through a breakup before? I have. It's hard. Like, really hard. You want to keep seeing how the other person (KH in this case) is doing so badly, but there's all this baggage and heavy memories attached. He'd just be forcing himself to go "AUUUGH, why didn't Disney let me make this? It's so good!"

 

Granted, maybe he would have felt motivated to try again sooner, but don't forget, he's dealing with a company here, they aren't exactly quick to change their minds, and certainly not that easily. So that's why his approach in reattempting it now is smart. He knows that this is probably going to be KH's biggest release yet, and he's aware of all the hype and attention Square is bringing around it. If there was ever an environment to get Disney to open it's eyes and realize "Oh hey, we could actually make a lot more money off of this franchise if we gave it more outlets", this would be it, and Kearsley realizes that. This might not have gotten as much traction as it is now if this was going on in the middle of the Days, BBS, Coded era, or even the 10th anniversary. This is the best time you could ever try this again.

 

So yes, maybe if you were still stubbornly unconvinced by what I say, you could still argue that he is still doing this at this time in this current environment to "take advantage of a the resurgence of a numbered KH title to boost his own work". But really, is that such a bad thing? In the end, it still benefits all of us. By doing so, he's going to make Disney realize what they really should have realized since as late as 2005, that they should seriously invest in further promoting Kingdom Hearts in more ways than just its video game series. He knows that if he does a piss-poor job at it, there will be little reason for Disney to stay interested in giving it additional seasons, that's why he's going out of his way now to make it clear to fans that he does care about the series and does want to understand more of it before he puts any pen to paper to make sure he does the series justice.

 

This guy has given us very little reason to be suspicious of him, and I'm honestly quite surprised that someone could look at "I want to immerse myself in the rest of the series before writing the show so I actually know what I'm doing, unlike the current Sonic game writers" (okay, I may have paraphrased that part) and interpret it as "Heheh, well I never really cared about this series that much since the show got scrapped so I'm only doing this now so I can line my own pockets by feeding off all of your desperate nostalgia." It's like you're literally making up reasons to distrust the guy, when everything he's been saying so far has give no real reason to be skeptical about him. He doesn't want to inject any foreign ideas like his own original antagonist into the stories, he still wants to mostly follow the plots of each game, and he actually wants to learn and understand more about the series so he can please fans.

 

The difference between Kearsley and Shyamalan is that Shyamalan didn't show nearly as much interest in understanding the Avatar franchise as Kearsley is showing with the KH franchise. Much of that humor and spirit was lost when he only focused on condensing the events into a nearly 2-hour time slot, as well as making the most bizarre casting choices in an adaptation ever. Now Kearsley isn't even close to that stage of development yet, so that kind of comparison is unfair to make, but I will say this, he's going into this with a better frame of mind than Shyamalan or the crew from DB Evolution ever did with their products. And quite frankly, I don't think a DB Evolution/Battle of Gods result is ever going to come out of this, because that would suggest that if this bombs, Nomura would have to step up and make an animated KH series happen, and that guy has too much on his plate already to even entertain the idea of writing and producing for a full animated series, even if it is of his own work.

 

Anyway, the fact is that this isn't anywhere beyond the meeting room desk right now. These kinds of judgments will only have any real merit when the show is greenlit. Then we can be concerned about whether or not he's doing things right, because right now he's not really in a position where he can bother with looking at more anyway. He's not claiming to be a "one of us" fan right now, just a moderate fan of the first game who would like to make something amazing happen, and if it does, he wants to understand the rest of it as much as we do. Can't we just, I don't know, appreciate that a creator is expressing this passion and interest in something we care about? Like, for once?

Merrily stated most of my concerns already, but I'm going to add to that and say that this guy "genuine interest" in a series that has existed for 10+ years yet has only played one game, and the "he doesn't have time" excuse doesn't fly with me, you make time for whatever you genuinely enjoy, unless your job is to literally stare at a button in a bunker and press it ever 2 hours, there is no way you can't make time.

 

And your stating the "he doesn't want to make fans disappointed" as a matter of fact ...No one wakes up in the morning and says "I'm going to make a crappy adaptation that's going to piss off all of the fans" (unless you're uwe boll) that's such a generic comment to make nowadays when it comes to adapting media into another form. There's really no way at this point he can show me he genuinely cares about the franchise, because he doesn't, gets told no one time and never touches the franchise again until its prevelant. It screams sketchyniss to me. Like merrily said that "breakup" analogy is so out of place and meaningless,it's a false equivalency, if he was genuinely interested with the franchise he would have kept with it. And honestly it's the fact that alllllll of the games are presented in such a neat little bow now with the remasters yet he still hasn't played them and seems like he would only play (or watch let's plays) only if the project gets off the ground, that's just silly to me.

overall, I'd rather an actual anime studio take over this just because Americans tend to ruin adaptations of Japanese works or even anime inspired works yet the Japanese can adapt American works and actually do them justice and since KH is a mix of both it would just be better for the Japanese to handle it, only time Americans have proved me wrong was with edge of tomorrow, now that was a director/screenwriter combo that understood the source material.

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You can't blame people for being skeptical of his intentions. Looking at someone's Tweets doesn't give you an impression on his sincerity on the subject. I can say a lot to please people and mean nothing of what I'm saying or writing. I am not saying that he is lying, but we can never be sure about him speaking the truth either. There's a difference between being passionate about his animated series and being passionate about KH.

 

And of course he wants to please the fans. Anyone would. If it's successful, he'll receive recognition and the potential for a sequel or other projects. There's nothing wrong with aiming for that or trying to make money out of this. He has to live too after all. But this doesn't mean he genuinely cares about it. Displeasing fans is the worst someone can do since they determine how well something sells.

 

However, saying he abandoned KH because he did not get his way is ridiculous as well as comparing it to heartbreak. If I genuinely care about something, I would not drop it for such petty reasons. That's like saying I would drop the games because people didn't like my fanfiction. You may see this differently and it's his own decision, but waiting over ten years to bring it up again does leave you wondering where his sudden ambition stems from. And I doubt the comments on his deviantart page made him suddenly all eager to try it again.

As I said, we cannot know for sure what he's actually thinking so I won't impose my way of thinking on you but some of his statements make me doubt him. Not because he doesn't care for his craft, he certainly does, but because it doesn't look like he cares all that much about KH. This is not to say that he can't make a good series out of it but I also think it shouldn't be glorified that he made a relatively small amount of effort to play the game. That's called research and any any professional should make themselves familiar with the source material. If I write a book about the 18th century and want to make ot as accurate as possible, I do research. Lots and lots of research.

 

I agree with you that it's good he's considering all games but saying he would only invest time in playing them or watching them if the series goes in that direction simply gives off the impression of him not loving Kingdom Hearts as a franchise but his own impression of it regarding his series. Otherwise he would have wanted to know what happens after KH1 because the ending was terribly open. I do not blame him for caring about his series. Not at all. Having passion is a must. But this can't be confused with an actual love for the series as its own property. And in that regard, I seriously have my doubts after reading the interview.

 

Now, we can't know for sure what he is actually thinking and I won't impose my impression on you or anyone else for that matter. But Kearsley doesn't have to love KH to work on an animated series. And just him saying so doesn't mean a thing. In fact, it would be terribly unwise to state the contrary. But we cannot know.

As for KH2, he had all the time in the world to play it. Let's be real here, the game's been out for over 10 years and I'm a working adult too and still manage to play a game of 25-30 hours once in awhile. I'm not saying it's a must, but it's an argument speaking against his love for the franchise itself.

 

These are all opinions. I will give him a chance, but he does not strike me as someone who is overly excited about Kingdom Hearts or has a profound love for it. Dropping something because they dropped the series doesn't add to that and I honestly think that comparing it to heartbreak and projecting it on the game for nearly 10 years is way too much. He can be sad and disappointed but if it would have been truly such a heartbreak, then he wouldn't bother with bringing it up again. And still claiming he would only get into the series if his series becomes an actual thing.

 

Sorry, but something doesn't add up in my opinion and I can understand the doubt directed toward him as a person in that regard. That has nothing to do with the quality of the series but simply with his relationship toward the franchise. It's fine if you fully trust him though. That doesn't mean everyone has to...

I was making a longer response to this, but my computer did a thing and I lost all that, so I'll just keep it short.

 

Essentially I feel we don't know enough about the guy to really doubt him that much. Likewise, you could also argue we don't know enough about him to really take his words to heart either. We're coming from pretty level ground, so at this point how you look at it really depends on who you are as a person. So while some who are more sensible like you are are probably going to be looking at this with skepticism, those who are cautiously optimistic like me are going to be looking at this with consistently renewed hope. Maybe it just says something about who I am as a person, but everything he's had to say about this so far has been consistently making me more excited and hopeful that this get's greenlit. I mean it, I don't object with anything he's said, and that's pretty rare for me, even if I don't feel one way or the other on something I'll still have some thoughts about it beyond "Yeah, I could work with that". I personally don't feel any reason to doubt, let alone distrust the guy. Maybe I'm being a touch over-optimistic, but I'm not really getting any bad vibes off of this, I honestly feel really good about what he might do for the show.

 

Of course, none of this will mean a damn thing if Disney says no, so I guess we'll have to wait for those results before we learn anything for sure. But I think Kingdom Hearts needs this, so I hope this does come to happen after all.

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I was making a longer response to this, but my computer did a thing and I lost all that, so I'll just keep it short.

 

Essentially I feel we don't know enough about the guy to really doubt him that much. Likewise, you could also argue we don't know enough about him to really take his words to heart either. We're coming from pretty level ground, so at this point how you look at it really depends on who you are as a person. So while some who are more sensible like you are are probably going to be looking at this with skepticism, those who are cautiously optimistic like me are going to be looking at this with consistently renewed hope. Maybe it just says something about who I am as a person, but everything he's had to say about this so far has been consistently making me more excited and hopeful that this get's greenlit. I mean it, I don't object with anything he's said, and that's pretty rare for me, even if I don't feel one way or the other on something I'll still have some thoughts about it beyond "Yeah, I could work with that". I personally don't feel any reason to doubt, let alone distrust the guy. Maybe I'm being a touch over-optimistic, but I'm not really getting any bad vibes off of this, I honestly feel really good about what he might do for the show.

 

Of course, none of this will mean a damn thing if Disney says no, so I guess we'll have to wait for those results before we learn anything for sure. But I think Kingdom Hearts needs this, so I hope this does come to happen after all.

You're right about this. And honestly, I really do hope my concerns are invalid. And even if not, as long as it turns out alright he can be who he wants to be. In the end, I won't object the animated series being made because there's really nothing to lose. Since it won't be canon, it won't destroy anything and if it turns out well, even better. Giving him a chance is the least one can do, doubts or not.

 

I guess it's not a bad thing to be optimistic about this. I generally am a bit more cautious to not be severely disappointed, but I don't mind it being given a shot, even though I don't like most of Kearsley's works. Or rather the ones he worked on.

 

Still, you are right that series itself cannot be regarded as doomed and an impression cannot be taken as fact. He can always prove me wrong in the end.

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Merrily stated most of my concerns already, but I'm going to add to that and say that this guy "genuine interest" in a series that has existed for 10+ years yet has only played one game, and the "he doesn't have time" excuse doesn't fly with me, you make time for whatever you genuinely enjoy, unless your job is to literally stare at a button in a bunker and press it ever 2 hours, there is no way you can't make time.

 

And your stating the "he doesn't want to make fans disappointed" as a matter of fact ...No one wakes up in the morning and says "I'm going to make a crappy adaptation that's going to piss off all of the fans" (unless you're uwe boll) that's such a generic comment to make nowadays when it comes to adapting media into another form. There's really no way at this point he can show me he genuinely cares about the franchise, because he doesn't, gets told no one time and never touches the franchise again until its prevelant. It screams sketchyniss to me. Like merrily said that "breakup" analogy is so out of place and meaningless,it's a false equivalency, if he was genuinely interested with the franchise he would have kept with it. And honestly it's the fact that alllllll of the games are presented in such a neat little bow now with the remasters yet he still hasn't played them and seems like he would only play (or watch let's plays) only if the project gets off the ground, that's just silly to me.

overall, I'd rather an actual anime studio take over this just because Americans tend to ruin adaptations of Japanese works or even anime inspired works yet the Japanese can adapt American works and actually do them justice and since KH is a mix of both it would just be better for the Japanese to handle it, only time Americans have proved me wrong was with edge of tomorrow, now that was a director/screenwriter combo that understood the source material.

Did you miss the part in previous tweets where he said his plan would be to have a Japanese studio animate the human characters while a separate studio would animate the Disney ones? Because that's more or less what you're asking for. Also, you're making a false equivalency yourself, just because something is made in Japan or America doesn't necessarily determine it's quality, not even if it's an adaptation from one or the other. If a Japanese studio was put in charge of making an anime adaptation of Legend of Korra, it would have the same chance of being worse than the original as it would being better, it just depends on who you get to do it. Need I remind you that Japan is just as bad at adapting their animes into live action movies as we are with adapting our cartoons into live action movies? Quality and lack-thereof is not something you can put on a map, there's a lot more complex circumstances involved than "Japan can just adapt things better than we can".

 

And as I said before, how you approach this really depends on who you are, since we don't know enough to really objectively say he's genuine or not from either angle. For one thing, I can totally follow that heartbreak analogy, and it's funny how no one is going after other creators Tartakovsky for taking a similar length of time to fight for Samurai Jack being completed on Toonami, when theoretically he also could have fought for that action a lot sooner (you think he may have had similar feelings? You know, considering he had to stop before it was even finished? I think so.) But perhaps that's just me, maybe I'm the only guy who would relate to that. Maybe I was being a bit over-optimistic in coating my words how we should trust him, but do you even know the guy well enough yourself to rationalize such a pessimistic view of what his motives and future actions are? The fact is we don't know enough to definitively say that he's either going to make or break this, not in an objective manner anyway. From where I'm standing, there's just as equal a chance that he means what he says as there is that he's just feeding us pretty words to artificially build up more support for it.

 

But at this point, does that even matter? The fact is someone is trying to get a KH show greenlit from Disney, which would result in Disney putting much more effort into promoting Kingdom Hearts than it ever has in it's 15 years of existence. Nothing has been confirmed yet, no solid plans have been put into action beyond negotiations and industry connections, nothing but nice what-ifs if the project does get to go through (I'm personally thankful he's saying this much now since he'd have to be mostly silent if it where greenlit later). So until the show is greenlit, I don't see much point in being cynical towards a guy we barely know anything about (I mean it sounds to me like you've already decided you hate the guy, but maybe I'm misreading your words). It's only when it becomes a thing that I feel any concerns we have are more relevant and worth reflecting on.

 

On a personal note though, I will say this, I really want this to happen. Disney barely acknowledges KH as much as it's other products and a TV show would be the best excuse to change all that. I've seen so many other promising and deserving show pitches get the shaft just because the networks foolishly think that not enough people would want to see them become a thing (Still praying for G:KND someday being a thing). This guy shows up with a pretty decent idea from the past, takes action to try and revive that idea when it is most needed, and gives me plenty of reasons to feel excited and secure about what he would do with it. I'm pretty much going to have a positive bias, no matter what you tell me. But I still understand if you feel you've been burned too many times before by similar words from other producers and creators and what not, and I get it, there's a lot of disappointing stuff out there that had similar promising starts. But I really can't shake the good feeling I'm getting from this, so until I feel I have a real reason to be worried...yeah I'm not going to be worried.

 

 

You're right about this. And honestly, I really do hope my concerns are invalid. And even if not, as long as it turns out alright he can be who he wants to be. In the end, I won't object the animated series being made because there's really nothing to lose. Since it won't be canon, it won't destroy anything and if it turns out well, even better. Giving him a chance is the least one can do, doubts or not.

 

I guess it's not a bad thing to be optimistic about this. I generally am a bit more cautious to not be severely disappointed, but I don't mind it being given a shot, even though I don't like most of Kearsley's works. Or rather the ones he worked on.

 

Still, you are right that series itself cannot be regarded as doomed and an impression cannot be taken as fact. He can always prove me wrong in the end.

 

 

Well although you're skeptical, you're at least being sensible about it. I feel it's easier to understand your concerns and reflect on them myself when you put it in a neutral passive way that makes sense. I mean, yeah I hope the guy is on the up and up, but I guess I'm too excited about the idea of this show being real to really be skeptical right now. I just want to know Disney's answer first, then I can start speculating and stuff. 

Edited by Hero of Light XIV

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