Yesterday, we discovered that Disney was developing a Kingdom Hearts title for iOS and Android in 2013 called Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Keys, which has since been cancelled. Today, we've found out via Philip Cruden's LinkedIn page that the company Go For Launch Productions, also known as GFL Animation Studios, were in charge of creating locations and character designs for Disney Interactive's upcoming Kingdom Hearts online game between September 2011 and March 2013.

 

The official website for GFL Animation Studios has two pages about their work for Disney Interactive and Kingdom Hearts, and these pages contain a huge amount of information, as well as over 100 pieces of concept art for the cancelled title. The two pages are titled "Disney Kingdom Hearts" and "Kingdom Hearts App Game", and together seem to show a very rough, initial concept for GFL's vision of Disney Interactive's Kingdom Hearts game.

 

The game was to have "several Kingdom Hearts heroes" (these seem to be original characters) transported to Disney worlds through a Grand Central like station, where they would join forces with the heroes of those worlds in battle arenas to defeat their enemies. These worlds included ones based on Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Snow White, Wreck It Ralph, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Star Wars, Tron and Tangled, all represented in the concept art for the game. An original town was also created called "New Town". All concept art can be seen below, originally sourced from the GFL Animation Studios website.

 

- Original concept art

- Game Hubs concept art

- Aladdin concept art

- Alice in Wonderland concept art

- Peter Pan concept art

- Snow White concept art

- New Town concept art

- Wreck It Ralph concept art

- Frozen concept art

- Lilo & Stitch concept art

- Star Wars concept art

- Tron concept art

- Tangled concept art

 

It is unclear if all of these worlds made it past the concept/design stage that GFL Animation Studios were working on, but it is clear that Disney Interactive were working with GFL on this concept art for their upcoming Kingdom Hearts app, and that game designers and Disney executives from both the United States and Japan were all involved.

 

Here are the full descriptions for the concept art:

The concepts for this game was to have several Kingdom Hearts heroes transported to the worlds of our favorite Disney Characters. Traveling through a Grand Central like station our heroes could visit any Disney world of their choosing and join forces with the heroes of those worlds to defeat their enemies. Below is a collection of concept and game play design work. We also created “World Tour” video that introduced the Kingdom Hearts characters to the Disney worlds and culminated in a game play simulation battle on the rooftops of Peter Pan’s London, England. The video formed a large part of a video presentation given to Disney US and Disney Japan executives.

Go For Launch Productions, in association with CgMations in Ireland, designed numerous characters and sets for Disney’s new Kingdom Hearts game. The concept was simple; bring the beloved Kingdom Hearts’ characters into the iconic worlds of Disney. The characters of Wreck It Ralph, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Star Wars, Tron, Tangled and more, were all to do battle with the Kingdom Hearts heroes against epic foes! On this project we re-imagined the classic Disney worlds as game play battle arenas and worked with the game designers to create fun and challenging game play scenarios.

 

[Here] is a selection of concept and game play design work.

Update: We've got twenty more concept art images showing battles on London rooftops, most likely from Neverland. You can view them here. Thanks go to KH13 member Roxasman1231 for the tip.

 

Click here to view the article

I'm skeptical this is real, here's why: Frozen is mentioned in the list of worlds. However, the game was in concept art until it was canceled in March 2013. Frozen wasn't released 'till November that year. I don't think this is real anymore.

 

After viewing the art, I further do not believe this to be true. A lot of the "concept art" features renders from the other games simply posed in the sketches (see Genie and the Seven Dwarves, for example). Not to mention, this company doesn't exist outside this "website" (which is actually a blog). Nope, this is very much looking to be fake.

 

And there's two Jasmines and that girl character riding the carpet; one in the front, and one to the left in the background. I don't think an actual game company would make such silly mistakes like that.

And there's two Jasmines and that girl character riding the carpet; one in the front, and one to the left in the background. I don't think an actual game company would make such silly mistakes like that.

Also,the Star Wars world "concept art" has stuff ripped out of the cartoon's concept art. And another thing,one picture had a station of awakening cathedral window,with Chain of Memories Sora on it,in that Grand Central place from Wreck it Ralph.

Ok first of all

that station of awakening thing reeaaallllyyy looks like crappy deviantart fanart.

Either this is fake or Disney really needs to get their game development skills up to par.

Ok first of allthat station of awakening thing reeaaallllyyy looks like crappy deviantart fanart.Either this is fake or Disney really needs to get their game development skills up to par.

Yeah. That really looks like a crappy station of awakening cathedral. And have you SEEN one of the Agrabah "concept arts"? THERE ARE TWO GENIES.

Ok, this has finally made me create an account haha I been looking without posting at this site for quite a long time already, it was about time.

 

But on topic... I cant be the only one who finds this a little fishy... I mean, Im not saying its fake but... (this might sound dumb) isnt there any chance whoever is passing this info is some KH3 dev, leaking info on the game covering it up as a cancelled game? Think about it... Star Wars? Wreck it Ralph (a nomenee for best animated movie)? Frozen (a WINNER of the best animated movie award)? all allowed to be in, not only an IOS game... but a FREE IOS game??? And thats just an example with three movies. This really sounds weird to me.... VERY weird... This is either fake or something bigger being covered up.

some of this actually looks really interesting. pretty neat if Disney Interactive got some input from the Japanese side of things when they were developing this too. most interesting tidbit I see if this is all legit is that Disney was actually planning to put Star Wars in a KH game they were making by themselves. makes it much more likely that we'll see it in KH3 then if the company's so eager to have it included. wouldn't mind seeing the Ralph, Frozen, Stitch, Tangled, and Tron worlds in it too.

WHY WAS THIS CANCELED?! DOES ANYONE KNOW?? THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!! WHAT-BUT-IT WAS SO COOL- JUST-- WHHHHHYYYY?!!?

 

And why are we just finding out about this now??

Is there any info on like what the central plot was going to be, or anything? So many questions!!

I'm sorry, but this whole post is fake. There is no way Square Enix and Disney let this "GFL Animations Studios" work with Kingdom Hearts. Not even sure if its real. Their website is so cheap and looks incredibly, blantantly unprofessional. This is how rumors start. Please don't share this fake concept art and rumored worlds as if its actually officials.

 

I'm actually surprised at how everyone has been swept away by these rumours without doing any research. But even so, a lot of people are believing it. So I understand why the creator of this site would feel the same in doing so. Especially because they might feel obligated to report whatever findings (whether researched or not) by being said creator. In any case, as for Fragmented Keys being real, I hadnt questioned that myself until now. Now that I think about it and have done a bit of surfing for reliable sources, I can't find anything substantial to prove its actual existence.

 

The website is definitely legitimate as far as being an official GFL Animation Studios website, since Philip links to it on all of his social media accounts, including LinkedIn. The only possibility for this to be fake is if GFL and Philip are a completely made up company and person with websites going years back, but based on all of his LinkedIn connections and the huge amount of effort it would have taken to set up all of these fake accomplishments for seemingly no gain (really, the websites go years back, goforlaunchproductions.com for instance was registered in 2006), I (sadly) think this is real.

 

Fragmented Keys is 100% real, if you search on LinkedIn then you can find around 5 or 6 former Disney Interactive employees all talking about a cancelled app.

 

I'm skeptical this is real, here's why: Frozen is mentioned in the list of worlds. However, the game was in concept art until it was canceled in March 2013. Frozen wasn't released 'till November that year. I don't think this is real anymore.

 

After viewing the art, I further do not believe this to be true. A lot of the "concept art" features renders from the other games simply posed in the sketches (see Genie and the Seven Dwarves, for example). Not to mention, this company doesn't exist outside this "website" (which is actually a blog). Nope, this is very much looking to be fake.

 

For the Frozen dilemma, there are two possibilities: either Philip put the wrong end date for the project on his LinkedIn page (ie. his work continued on this past March 2013), which is possible since these concept art pages weren't added to his blog until a couple of months ago. OR it might be that the Frozen world concept art was based on very early Frozen material. Notice that no characters are shown, all that is shown is an icy landscape.

Those two castles, the dark stone one and the crystalline one, look very interesting too me.

 

The website is definitely legitimate as far as being an official GFL Animation Studios website, since Philip links to it on all of his social media accounts, including LinkedIn. The only possibility for this to be fake is if GFL and Philip are a completely made up company and person with websites going years back, but based on all of his LinkedIn connections and the huge amount of effort it would have taken to set up all of these fake accomplishments for seemingly no gain (really, the websites go years back, goforlaunchproductions.com for instance was registered in 2006), I (sadly) think this is real.

 

Fragmented Keys is 100% real, if you search on LinkedIn then you can find around 5 or 6 former Disney Interactive employees all talking about a cancelled app.

 

 

For the Frozen dilemma, there are two possibilities: either Philip put the wrong end date for the project on his LinkedIn page (ie. his work continued on this past March 2013), which is possible since these concept art pages weren't added to his blog until a couple of months ago. OR it might be that the Frozen world concept art was based on very early Frozen material. Notice that no characters are shown, all that is shown is an icy landscape.

 

Nice to see some clarification! Thanks!

 

I still have to ask though... isnt it weird they would decide to use such big and sucessful movies for a free IOS game? That part is what I really find strange, but it really doesnt make it fake at all though.

People actually think the webmaster of this site would post something like this without atleast digging if it's real or not? Come now...

 

OT: Welp, no wonder it go cancelled. It looks so bad. Disney, please stay away...

if no one else will say it i will....these graphics are terrible , Disney leave kingdom hearts to nomura and square 

Look at the concept art, this is the earliest of proofs of concept. Really all this is missing is better lighting.

 

Also, the Star Wars art looks like it shows Clone Wars versions of the characters, which makes me IMMENSELY glad this game didn't get made.

Considering Clone Wars is the best thing to come out of Star Wars in years, I can't see why

Considering Clone Wars is the best thing to come out of Star Wars in years, I can't see why

 

I'm not looking to get into a Star Wars argument on an unrelated forum, but suffice to say I never found Clone Wars to be remotely as good as any of the movies, including the prequels, not to mention how it basically dismisses all the Clone Wars novels, comics and original cartoon that existed years before it that were all much, much better.

 

Plus, a mobile KH game wouldn't keep any of the story of the show, and certainly no voice acting, so all that would have carried over from the show is the utter shit art design. Even if you're a fan, that would be pretty sucky.

Star Wars yesssss

Found this going through the artists website... To be frank, it is quite horrible... Most American artists don't have a good grasp on how Japan draws. I dont want to toot my own horn but if this is the kind of work they allow for people to develop a kingdom hearts app... They should check my deviant art out.. and i`m only 15 http://shieldsrup.deviantart.com/

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 201510 yr by Roxasman1231

So the American version of a keyblade is a sword with a square guard.

So the American version of a keyblade is a sword with a square guard.

I should rephrase this... Most American artists haven't studied modern Japanese anime art, popular video game artwork etc etc. This guys like 30 and probably never played KH. Thats why it looks like some 12 year old girl who just got Paint Tool Sai drew the concept artwork

I should rephrase this... Most American artists haven't studied modern Japanese anime art, popular video game artwork etc etc. This guys like 30 and probably never played KH. Thats why it looks like some 12 year old girl who just got Paint Tool Sai drew the concept artwork

I guess that's right. Since we got swords with square guards,KKK members with Saix heads,and a big nosed weirdo with what can barely be considered a keyblade.

For what looks like rough storyboard art, this looks fine. You're being incredibly critical of something that never made it past the planning stage. (I like that you used this as a plug for your DA page, though. Clever.)

Edited March 14, 201510 yr by HeyMouseSayCheese

...In many ways, I actually prefer this style of artwork. It's fluid, looks more energetic, and the action in the drawings look like they have momentum, rather than being stiff.

...In many ways, I actually prefer this style of artwork. It's fluid, looks more energetic, and the action in the drawings look like they have momentum, rather than being stiff.

a lot of this

it strikes me more as Disney's Kingdom Hearts then the regular KH

a lot of thisit strikes me more as Disney's Kingdom Hearts then the regular KH

The keyblades don't look like keyblades,though. Which is a bummer.

The keyblades don't look like keyblades,though. Which is a bummer.

only the main two

if I had to hazard a guess, they didn't have final keyblade designs yet so they just used swords

or maybe they use swords before getting keyblades, who knows

only the main twoif I had to hazard a guess, they didn't have final keyblade designs yet so they just used swordsor maybe they use swords before getting keyblades, who knows

Well the big nose guy has what barely resembles a keyblade. So why do the good guys get swords and big noses get keyblade sword things?

Yikes.....brag much?

 

 

Anyhoo, this is only one mere example of American concept art. There are many, many, American artists who make fantastic material, so generalizing them all is a little unfair. Sure, this style my not be your taste, or "good" to you, But saying that their art is on par with a child's is a bit rude. If anything, it has the feel of some of the old Disney show cartoons.