Kingdom Hearts TV Series (2003)

[MagiChar]

It's been confirmed that a Kingdom Hearts TV show is already in production.
http://www.ansemreport.com/news.php

[Loomis]

Have not played the game (don't own a console that was made in the last 7 years), but that could be a really interesting TV show.

If that info is reliable, of course. It seems all very "this is a guy we can't reveal, who was told by another person we can't reveal, that a third guy we can't reveal is recording for KH TV".

Even so, could be cool!

Doubt we'll ever see it out here though...

[Sotiris]

There was going to be a Kingdom Hearts animated series back in 2002. Seth Kearsley wrote and directed the pilot animatic for the proposed show. He talks about it in detail in this interview. You can find more info and artwork in this video and in this video. He posted a few storyboard panels along with commentary on his Deviant Art account.

These are select panels from THE COOLEST project I ever had the pleasure of working on, which never saw the light of day. This goes back to about 2002. Only the first game had come out at this point. I was hired by Disney TV animation to develop and direct an animatic for a possible Kingdom Hearts animated series. I played the first game from beginning to end and was so excited to get this opportunity. This would have been the perfect thing for me, especially because of my action/comedy background with Mummies. It was dark. It combined anime and classic Disney characters. Are you kidding me? This was awesome. I also had control of the script on this so it was INCREDIBLY DARK...but then so is the game. The darkest moment in the pilot was when Maleficent possessed Riku after he snatched the lamp. That's the very last panel here.

You'll notice a series lack of backgrounds in these boards. There was a pretty good reason for that. As part of the project, I was able to go to the Disney Animation Archives. The episode took place in Agrabah, so I pulled actual production BGs from Aladdin and boarded with it in mind that I would use this backgrounds.

This is one of those projects I really wish I could go back and have another crack at. Especially with the technology now. Looking back at these drawings, I can't believe how small some of them are. I also can't believe I inked them and did marker tones on all of them. I must have been temporarily insane.

At any rate, the pilot animatic tested exceptionally well but it was decided there wouldn't be an animated series because they planned on making many more games. WHO KNOWS...there could be a Kingdom Hearts animated series at some point.

Source: http://sethkearsley.deviantart.com/art/ ... -415016339

It was about 2002 that I did it. It was a color animatic so if anyone saw just a still it would have looked like a finished episode. For the most part. I actually played the entire game myself to the end and tossed the script they originally had because it read more like an episode of Aladdin guest starring the characters from Kingdom Hearts. I wanted to be very true to the game without just copying the game. The episode took place in Agrabah and centered around Sora and Riku trying to get the lamp, which was the key to Argrabah. It started on the island the way the game starts so we could meet Sora, Riku and Kiri then it turns into a bit of a nightmare and Sora wakes up on the ship with Donald and Goofy as they're approaching Agrabah. We see Riku with Maleficent and Jafar. Riku and Sora meet up in a fight against the heartless in the streets. They both go for the lamp. As soon as Riku touches the lamp it's as though Maleficent has control of him and ultimately Sora gets the lamp away from Riku before a giant heartless hand pulls him through a portal. SOOO....quite a lot of information to get through in a 7 minute pilot presentation.

Ultimately, it tested very well but there was so much respect for the Japanese director who was doing the games and there were still so many games in the works that they didn't want to muddy the water with a series. Who knows. Maybe they'll still do one down the road. When I see Disney acquiring Marvel and then LucasFilms, all I think is, "Those would be awesome worlds to battle heartless."

It would have been such an amazing show. With the pilot, I actually went to the Disney Archive and pulled production backgrounds from Aladdin to use as backgrounds for the pilot and then did the board with those backgrounds in mind. So when Sora and Riku were fighting in the streets, it was the actual backgrounds from the movie. When Riku grabs the lamp, it was the background from when Aladdin grabbed the lamp. My plan was to do that for all of the lands they would visit in the series. I felt that using the actual backgrounds would not only save a bunch of money it would keep us from recreating the wheel for each of those lands and it would have a visceral effect and make you feel like you had seen this before. I thought it would do an interesting thing to the brain of any hardcore fans.

So...yeah...it was the coolest project that never got off the ground for reasons that had nothing to do with the project itself but more company wide strategizing.

Source: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/415016339/3511259696

I want to find the animatic I made for it. Totally had music from Gladiator as Riku is grabbed by a heartless and pulled back through a portal just as Sora is about to save him. SUPER DRAMATIC. Lots of fun. Had a lot of awesome designs to draw from...plus...got to raid the archives and grab scans of actual production BGs from Aladdin to use as Backgrounds in the animatic...and of course music from the game to put as score for the animatic. Was pretty cool. Probably the coolest pilot I've been involved with that didn't go.

Source: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/415016339/3366807410

The animatic had music from Gladiator, both for the intense parts, and the sorrowful end where Riku is pulled back through a portal by a giant heartless hand controlled by Maleficent. Trying to establish, in 7 minutes, that Sora's quest was to save his two best friends, while constantly having to battle one of them. Pretty good stuff. All inspired by a week where I played the first game from start to finish.

Source: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/415016339/3899225173

Looking back, I wish I could fix every single one of these drawings, but I still think this would have been bad ass. When they get to Agrabah, I boarded it so I could use original backgrounds from Aladdin that I was able to get copies of from the Disney Archive. So...when Riku grabs the lamp and suddenly becomes possessed by Maleficent, it's the same background as when Aladdin first grabs the lamp in the movie.

Source: http://sethkearsley.deviantart.com/art/ ... -574374836

Q: Out of curiosity, how many episodes do you think would have been necessary to adapt the first game?

Seth Kearsley: To be honest, it's been so long, I couldn't give you a number off the top of my head. 1-3 episode per world. From a production standpoint, most of the worlds in that first game already had animated series set there, Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Aladdin, Winnie the Pooh, Etc., so a lot of the production art could have been used from the libraries of those shows. The overall production costs would have been much lower than a show that used all new content. I used this to my advantage in the pilot by digging through the Disney Archives and pulling actual backgrounds from Aladdin to be used in the story we were doing.

Source: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/415016339/3921204901

At the time, we weren't even really allowed to do sequential story, like every episode had to stand on its own and also with the pilot, it had to stand on its own, it had to be 'episode seven'. I couldn't do the origin story... so I said, I like it, I wanna do it and then they gave me a script and I read the script and the script read like an episode of Aladdin co-starring the characters from Kingdom Hearts. And I was like, 'I don't wanna do that', I said, 'I don't like the script, I wanna do a rewrite,' and they said, 'You're fired,'... I was like, 'It's not that I hate the script, it's that this reads like an episode of Aladdin co-starring Kingdom Hearts characters and I really think that this should be like an episode of Kingdom Hearts that happens to take place in the world of Aladdin.' So I got to do a rewrite. I spent a lot of time with a writer and we came up with a new version that definitely felt like Kingdom Hearts.

Source: https://screenrant.com/kingdom-hearts-s ... -kearsley/

[Disney's Divinity]

There was a lot of rumors about a show after the first game. Interesting that they actually were based on something and not just gossip. I would've liked a show, still would, but it doesn't bother me either way if it never happens. To be honest, I'd enjoy a more straight adaptation than a new spin.

[ajmrowland]

Interesting to hear about the KH tv series. reusing the backgrounds would have been interesting.

[Sotiris]

The full pilot presentation/proof of concept has been released by the director. He has also released the cast list for it. Only Sora had to be recast because of a scheduling conflict.

Watch it quickly before Disney has it deleted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Iyg6gQZFhc

[Disney's Divinity]

It's not very good, but I almost wish it had happened for novelty's sake. At least Maleficent and RIku would've got a lot of scenes.