Seth Kearsley reveals Kingdom Hearts Animated Series Pilot Animatic

[Dandelion]

Your pitch wouldn't have even gotten to the script stage. One of the requirements of this pilot was that it had to show what a typical episode would look like. It's supposed to be episode seven, not episode one.

Yup!
And the reason why countless animatics, pilots, pitches and the like stay behind closed doors is because people who think they know better often take a ball that isn't theirs, and run rampant with it in the wrong direction.

Guys. You were never supposed to see this. This was for half a dozen execs in 2003 to throw away. A lot of you get that, and I'm thankful for it.

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

I've watched this 3 times now (once for the actual video plus 2 reaction vids) and it's interesting to say the least. I can't say I'm broken up about it not happening, but I'm glad that it's finally seen the light of day and it's a nice little piece of Kingdom Hearts history.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I’m going to list the things I like from this pilot:

1. Kairi being spunky and kicking ass
2. Sora and Riku are undoubtably the core relationship of this series and I can’t believe even Seth saw that in 2003 lol
3. Dad Goofy
4. The Gummi Ship having proper ship-like interiors
5. Riku being a sass machine
6. Jafar yeeted

 

[Chie]

Whether it's a pitch, rushed project, one man drawing with a 10 minute deadline or whatever, that doesn't negate the objective fact that some/most of the drawings are not good.

Actually, I think they're good, therefore that's not an objective fact.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

And if we want examples of other pilots that were just long as this one, we have two examples:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Gravity Falls

Both these pilots are roughly as long as the KH one and they all have elements that would be changed later in the final product, be it the animation style, characters and their designs, or even their names and voice actors.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

And if we want examples of other pilots that were just long as this one, we have two examples:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Gravity Falls

Both these pilots are roughly as long as the KH one and they all have elements that would be changed later in the final product, be it the animation style, characters and their designs, or even their names and voice actors.

And the thing about these pilots is that they were done much farther along in the process. These were probably made after the studios picked them up tentatively for a full pilot. But you can still see rough elements present in them.

 

[Dandelion]

Yeah, these things get iterated on a million times before we ever see them, if we ever do. And even then, things can change wildly in the first season....or tbh at any moment if the execs are out of their fucking minds.

We know of other KH cartoon pitches and scripts that we've never seen. It makes you wonder what else is out there behind locked doors.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Seth set the video to private…he had just been hyping how it had gotten a ton of views. Wonder what happened?

 

[Disney Adventurer]

Maybe some suits at Disney (or Square???) didn't know that he had the okay to upload it and told him to pull it down?

 

[Sign]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581025737926070272

 

[2 quid is good]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581025737926070272

Pretty much thought this but nice to know the reason. Anyway, it'll never be *truly* lost now because I'm sure people have archived it somewhere

 

[kirabook]

It'll forever be a memory on my multiple hard drives.
I've seen some KH fans starting to cobble together a more polished version of it so I hope that gets completed one day. It'll be a treat.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1580339150296793088

 

[SuperNova]

Disney may take down the animatic as many times as they like, but the animatic Riku memes will live on forever.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

I wouldn’t be surprised if something like a Reanimated collab happens after how many people have seen the pilot.
Though if that does happen, that’d be awesome

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Disney may take down the animatic as many times as they like, but the animatic Riku memes will live on forever.

Animatic Riku is my new boyfriend.

 

[Launchpad]

Animatic Riku is my new boyfriend.

I'm happy for you two! #supportivepost

 

[Chaser]

Seth Kearsley, known for directing Sony's 2002 animated film Eight Crazy Nights starring comedian Adam Sandler, has released the Kingdom Hearts animated series animatic he had been working on back in 2003.

First it was fun. Then scary. Then fun again. Then spooky...but in a fun way.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

Seth’s enjoyed the positive response and reactions to the pilot it seems, and he took the opportunity to answer a few questions on the animatic in video format.

 

[Perkilator]

Seth just found out about Soriku.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593006339642753024

 

[Absent]

If I understood his tweets correctly he drew soriku accidentally 20 years ago?