Honestly, I would've watched the hell out of this show as a kid

I would have never watched this show as a kid. If it wasn't at the level of Batman or Gargoyles, it wasn't on my radar.

Definately more of a proof-of-concept pitch than a real first episode. Unless the intention was to make the series a 2-shorts per episode format.

For sure. This was never going to be the full episode. Disney gave Seth access to the archives and the voice cast and told him to make something with what was available to him. The intention was, if Disney approved the pilot, to actually properly do it with a proper script and animation team.

Funnily enough, it reminds me of the Dark Road plot. Like, not including a bunch of Disney character cameos and mostly focusing on the important object/places instead? To be honest, pretty interesting.

Full series would for sure have more Disney. Maybe even take creative liberties with worlds that weren't in KH1 depending on the final episode count.

I really liked it. Definitely would have watched it as a kid if it actually became a series. Bobby Edner did a great job voicing Sora

I can't believe I've been blessed by Bleach and cursed by this in just a two day period.

Oh no doubt. But I think I kinda prefer if they didn't include a bunch of cameos and kept it simple like this. Find the objects and/or princesses to destabilize the worlds.

It's alright I guess. I wouldn't have watched it myself but fans seem to be responding well. I know someone won't though lol

why does Riku want to go back to the islands please make it make sense

I really wanna see what a full series of this would've been like now. I'm absolutely living for the early 2000s cheesiness this gives off.

I interviewed Seth years ago. On this very site. I feel like, if I recall correctly, he said he WASN'T going to inundate it with disney cameos because he didn't want to replicate the movies. So, like, Aladdin and the like wouldn't have appeared as more than a background character.

Wow, it's cool that we finally got to see this. It's not bad. I have to wonder why Haley wasn't Sora in this, but Bobby Edner did a surprisingly good job. That means Sora shares his voice with Vaan, at least for this version. I do have to say, the interactions between the characters was better here. Sora, Riku, and Kairi actually feel like proper friends here, and stuff like Goofy acting as the dad of the group was quite endearing as well. If nothing else, it does make one wonder what a finished version of this series would have been. Would maybe have made for a interesting alternate version of the story anyway.

hello I've circled around from "I hate this" to "I hate this so much but its funny"

All of my bad commentary aside, I hope that Disney, SE, Nomura, or whoever else matters in the chain of command sees that fans are interested in an animated series. The interest has always been there.

Essentially what I am saying is where tf is the Disney+ series?

Haley was busy at the time.

Sora and Vaan are rather similar sorts. They are both thrust out into an adventure they never expected, are hopeful, care about their friends, and mostly serve as the player's avatar despite having a distinct personality.

Not including Aladdin was a surprise, but considering that this was already pretty packed it makes sense. This pilot had to be both an origin story and episode seven and only had eleven minutes to cover the concept.

Interesting detail: it assumes that the Gummi Ship is a full-sized spaceship with enough room for Sora to have a bunk instead of the bubble on top of an engine the games went with.

I always assumed the gummi ship worked like hammerspace. xD

It's a long shot, but fans can let Disney know they're interested in a series officially by
sending feedback to Disney+'s "Give Feedback" button:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://help.disneyplus.com/csp?id=csp_article_content&sys_kb_id=6b5b36d4db4d40d03c0cf158bf961918[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]https://help.disneyplus.com/csp[/URL]

Now that I think about it there's another reason to limit Disney character involvement: even assuming you have full-length episodes taking the time to introduce characters that audiences are already familiar with takes a chunk of time out of the still limited twenty minute timeslot. Best to pare it down to the essentials.

If they plan it right, they can take their time introducing major characters across the span of multiple episodes/revisits rather than trying to stuff it all in one visit like the games typically do. The first visit involves discovering the lamp and its importance to the world. The second visit, they run into Aladdin the for the first time who now has the lamp and Genie.

Eh, I dunno. I don't think this potential show past or future would be canon. But I definitely do not mind a careful retelling of the existing games as long as it doesn't stray too far from the themes, character motivations, and end result.

I don't know if I'd trust anyone to do a good job with it, but it could be fun if done right.

Wtaf did I just watch tbh

Distilled Kingdom Hearts

Broooo I just finished watching this and it legit gave me 2002 Saturday Morning Cartoon vibes. In retrospect Its such a fkn shame Disney didn't pick this up.

In an alternate universe where this got off the ground, I can only imagine how it might have changed the course of the games had it been a success. If the series ended up failing, it could have had a negative impact on the games, potentially ending the franchise as a whole. If it had been a success, it may have changed the course of the games had It surpassed them in popularity.

All in all, I’m glad that it didn’t happen at the time. I think a series would be better now that the franchise has more solid footing than it did back then.

I like it.

It seemed fine. My only nitpick would've been Sora and co. not befriending Disney characters as they do in the games, but who knows, maybe Seth didn't understand that was one of the core elements about the franchise. He said the original pilot script was basically "an Aladdin crossover with Sora and his friends" but he rewrote it to become this pilot.

Lol'd at Kairi kicking the Shadow in the face.

He intentionally did not want to do that as to differentiate it from the games and also keep the core cast as the focus.


Same, not just because this could have gone either way but because I think KH needs an animated series now more than ever to introduce it to a new generation of fans and not having one already in existence means they can do anything they please with it without the baggage of an old one to use as an example.

I'm surprised at how well this was written. While not a 1-to-1 recreation of the story from KH1, it sticks to the source materials very well and characterizes Sora, Donald, and Goofy fairly well. Glad this finally saw the light of day despite how rough it looks.

Clearly the star of such mega hits as Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 & Jungle Book 2 was too expensive for this show.

Wow, it’s cool to finally see this.

I say good for Seth, I’m happy he’s sharing this with us.

It’s honestly pretty good. I was expecting something much different.

I went out of my way to buy the Kingdom Hearts mangas when I was a kid so I feel like I would have watched too.

There is so much material to work with here for avatar pictures. My goodness.

This was a very joyful thing to watch, even moreso to listen to. It was nice to return to a time where David Gallagher had a more youthful tone, where Jiminy's old voice was still around, and to experience the franchise at a time where only KH1 existed.

Bonus points for a lot of the dialogue-- they didn't push it too far at all, it feels very Disney Afternoon, in a good way. Sora and Riku having a more playful rivalry, the comedy feels right without being mean spirited, and I love Goofy acting parental. Riku calling Maleficent "my queen" was a bridge too far, but it was still a great pitch given the time constraints.

This very much feels like the early 2000s. Like, if you want something to capture what 2003 cartoons were like on the whole that'd probably it. I enjoyed it!

The funniest part was the battle music which made me honestly think of Beyblade, I mean, it kinda worked but also, this is KH man.

I've seen some people saying it would rival ATLA in property, I definitely disagree but I think there's enough quality in there to give it cult classic status, and the dialogue was very fun. That gag with Goofy and the large body had me splitting a grin.

Also, you can really see why Bobby Edner doubled up for Haley on other projects, but it's trippy to still hear a bit of Vaan there too. Makes me wish Haley was allowed to give Sora's voice more of a lower pitch like in KH2 but oh well. It was WONDERFUL hearing Hayden and competent David Gallagher again.

Listening to the beat of "Simple and Clean" when Sora and Riku find and run to the lamp felt weird and nostalgic.

Thanks for sharing this, I completed the first Kingdom Hearts multiple times, read the manga and the novel, I would have watched the cartoon too (even if the drawings were terrible)!

Haha the art wouldn’t have been like this. Seth intended to have a proper team come to do work if the pilot actually got picked up. This was Seth working on his 0 dollars budget. Animatics always look rough, anyways.


You joke but Haley was actually busy considering he was an Academy nominated child actor trying to get into his next projects. It’s like y’all forget he was a huge star in the late 90s and early 2000s. He was also a professional child athlete golfer.

The overworked child star to schlubby filmbro pipeline continues

Yeah based on the 9/30/03 date on the pilot, I suspect he was busy with Secondhand Lions which released a couple weeks before.

I like how we're all just ignoring the fact that Maleficent straight yeeted Jafar out of a space door.

All in all, I think this would have made for a cute little TV adaptation, but I don't think it would have been a great show. First of all, it seems like the pacing of the story that they're going for here is way too sped up (and yes, I know it's just a pilot proof-of-concept, but even still, the fact that they go straight from Destiny Islands to Agrabah and have Riku's transformation happen so fast is still weird).
Second, the problem with doing a TV adaptation of a game like KH is that you have so many degrees of replication. You're already recreating the events of pre-existing Disney animated films for the game, but now you're also going to reverse translate that back into a TV adaptation of a game that adapts movies? Maybe most people wouldn't mind, but that would just feel pretty off to me.

I'm ultimately glad this didn't get made, partly because it looks kinda mediocre especially compared to other 2000's cartoon shows of the time (and yes, I'm taking into account the 0-budget pilot status of this footage). But also because, I'm glad it didn't screw up the production of the game series in any way. Having this tank would have been a major blow to the game's longevity, while having it succeed would have pressured Nomura to follow the storyline of the series more than the absolutely batshit crazy ride we've actually gotten over the years.

Really neat piece of KH history though. Glad we finally got to see it and know that it was real.

I know its an animatic but its hilarious to me how animatic Sora looks okay and animatic Riku is going to be the new fandom meme.

I mean, you are heavily underplaying the fact it was a pilot. That is exactly why it behaves the way it does and makes certain choices. It was about selling the idea of the show to Disney. Actual proper plotting and pacing would have come once staff could have been brought on board for it.

This would have never been how the actual show would have played out. And as noted by Seth himself, he was assisting other people with their own pilots unrelated to this, so he didn’t have a ton of time to work on it.

This was one dude working on a 11 min pitch for free. You’d be shocked to see some proof of concept pilots that existed back then for some of the best shows.

It’s like having no knowledge of KH at all, pointing at the weird lion boy Sora with a chainsaw and some of those weird concept worlds like vague barn world and going “probably wouldn’t make a good game.” Well, yeah. It’s proof of concept. We don’t know how it would have ACTUALLY been.

But it is all we can go off of. I don’t think we need to speak about the merits of if this particular rendition would have worked or not because we’ll never know. We can’t even speak to if this would have prematurely hurt the series or helped it. There isn’t enough info for that.

I watched 8 minutes of it, I still need to watch the last 3 minutes, but it was interesting that only David Gallagher was back of the original trio. TBH, I wish this had happened now that I've seen what they were going to do with it, just because they deviated and gave us more stuff with Sora and Riku together.

The stuff with Donald and Goofy was pretty good, too. I love how Maleficent threw Jafar out, it took me by surprise since she seemed to get along with him better than the others in the game.

? Hayden was back, too. The only one who didn’t reprise their role was Haley because he wasn’t available.

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Some of my favourite faces/poses.

The face are pretty funny ? And the gags and action feel in line with how the characters would act in the game. Plus Riku interacting with Donald and Goofy was nice to see, as was Goofy being something like a father figure in the SDG trio. Also, Jiminy narrating like it’s an entry in his journal is a very nice touch ?

I can see why in hindsight it wouldn’t have been picked up, but I genuinely hope this can lead to a series happening later down the line.

First Saban's Sailor Moon pilot and now this??? The exhuming of archival material has made my year. Now we just need the final pieces of V-Cast. lol

I honestly thought I was going to cringe the whole time, but I didn't! Maybe it's because I already know this won't be a thing? I mean, the animatics are rough (and of course they are), but I still pause whenever I see that type of animation involved with Disney animation. Not that hey haven't produced crap over the years, especially with the mountain of '90s & '00s direct-to-home video material under their name. It was surprisingly charming to watch though. Some of the interactions were great. Goofy's gags when "accidentally" defeating the Heartless. Gold.

I'm wondering how manipulated or straight up controlled (a la Terra) Riku is by this version of Maleficent.

"You're not a hero Sora, you're just a kid." For a hot second, I thought Sora was going to pop off about being the child of Destiny. Still odd that he's pretty cocky about being a hero?

Anywhoozles, Bobby Edner mimicked a convincing HJO. It was good to hear Hayden and David as usual. Though Hayden sounds a bit more mature than KH1!Kairi. This was made, what 1-2 years after they recorded the first game? Which makes sense. Her voice deepened quite a bit between 1 and 2.

The best part, tbh. I had to digest that a bit.

- - -

Truly though, more excited to see this instead of KHIV news. I mean, I never thought we'd see this thing. So cool. <3

Yeah, about 1 year after KH1 would have been recorded. Also I don’t think they were given much direction for these scenes really so I think she was just doing a basic read?

Bobby was great! Kind of makes me wish that he’d play a character in the series one day. (Or just add Vaan idk)

I think Seth said, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Riku was supposed to be full-on possessed by Maleficent once he got his hands on the lamp, with initial plan to have her voice layered over his until the folks up top said it was too scary.

So she definitely had some degree of mental control over him, on top of manipulation.

Also, can I say how crazy it is that it’s only been a day, and the pilot already has over 200K views?
This was a good day for KH fans?

It’s sort of interesting that I haven’t seen any reaction by Japanese fans about this. Just browsing Twitter and it’s been maybe a handful of people who have seen and reacted to this.

And of the few it’s just “oh wow neat!”

Watching again and I keep cracking up at the face Riku makes after he picks up the lamp. He’s supposed to be possessed in this moment, but it comes across more as a standard anime “oh crap” face.

One day.... one day...

Interesting. I need to look for that interview. I read it back when I'm sure, but need refreshing. I always thought it a little bizarre that she would have this power and not use it more often.

I wish David Gallagher (and Riku) was allowed to exude this sort of playful cockiness in the games, more often! I hate the idea that for one to mature, they must sink deeper and deeper into monk-like stoicism in perpetuity. Was nice to get a cumulative minute of our precious cocky Riku back.

The problem is having Japanese staff sitting in on the dubbing. They don’t let them go for it because they want to match the cadence of the Japanese dub. It’s stupid and leads to all of the stilted dubbing we get. Riku sounds very playful in Japanese.

I def miss jerk Riku, though. He doesn’t need to be a total jerk, just snarky. They even took Repliku’s snark away.. Why wouldn’t they make him them snarky? It’s a good combo with awkward.

“Kingdom Hearts: A story of the battle between light and snark.”

Seriously though, it seems like every character except Axel/Lea loses their edge when they turn “good.”

Even Kairi, who was much more spunky in the original game is... well what we have now. Donald remains the king of sass.

I miss spunky KH1 Kairi, and jerkface Riku. I feel like the only one of the OG trio who is allowed to be snarky and sassy is Sora and even he got nerfed a bit in the later games..

What I liked:
[LIST]
[*]Kairi kicking the heartless. Why didn't Nomura have her do this in KH2 instead of running into battle and then doing nothing!?
[*]Jafar calling Maleficent "queen" then shooting him out of the Hollow Bastion penthouse.
[*]Maleficent wanting to use the lamp from Agrabah OUTSIDE of Agrabah. I never understood why no one attempted that OR took objects from DISNEY worlds out of them (like Triton's trident).
[/LIST]
What I didn't like:
[LIST=1]
[*]WASTING "SIMPLE & CLEAN (REMIX)" ON A STUPID/RANDOM RACE UP THE STAIRS IN THE CAVE OF WONDERS!? WTF!?
[*]The fight music in Agrabah being some generic crap instead of using the actual Agrabah fight theme.
[*]The animation was a complete trainwreck.
[*]The idea of Sora "being a hero" and having him come to that realization in the span off 11 minutes is weird.
[*]Sora having the keyblade on Destiny Islands.
[*]Erasing Riku being the actual keyblade wielder and opening the door to darkness (this takes away most of Riku's character in KH1 and future games).
[*]Kairi did nothing as per usual (except kicking a heartless, which I feel like if she only did that in the actual game series, she would be more well received).
[*]The whole premise of what is going on is completely ignored. It's just random dark creatures (heartless) appear from "nobody knows" and Sora and friends get taken from their world. Maleficent's goal isn't even explained.
[*]Sora just knows how to fight... ugh. I actually liked Leon sparring with him, it makes Sora more credible going into other worlds.
[/LIST]
There's probably more that I could include, but honestly I'm just glad to actually see it after being a rumour for years. It definitely did not deserve to be made. They need someone that understands adaptation and the KH series to work on the DISNEY+ show.

People are speculating how this show could have changed the course of the games if it had been picked up, but just imagine the impact on the fandom.

In one corner you have the show-only fanatics. In the other you have the game purists. And in the middle you have the people who enjoy both and others who just want the flame wars to die down.

Not sure it would've panned out that way. KH does have a pretty popular manga that pretty much everyone enjoys (though I think there are some detractors). You don't really see any fandom wars over what the manga did vs the game except people wanting more humor and Kairi from the manga in the game.

I feel like the show would've resulted in the same relationship. Maybe. But I guess that entirely depends on exactly how much it deviates from the game, which the manga doesn't do TOO much.

It was an animatic for a pilot, not a finished product. It was made by one guy who had to draw everything and had deadlines to meet-- pilots are often constrained to 11 minutes or less, they're meant to pitch the concept, and that involves hastened exposition many times. Your critique is the only thing that's a trainwreck, sorry.

Fun fact!!!

Animatic =/= animation. Animatics are often static and only there for blocking/storyboarding purposes.

AKA business as usual for the Sonic fandom.

Believe me, if the story of the TV show was even a fraction as unfaithful to the games as this pilot is it would be divisive among fans of the games, even if it was great in its own right. Like how FMA 2003 was considered one of the greatest anime of all time until a second adaptation that was closer to the manga came out, then suddenly people were claiming that it was bad and citing its unfaithfulness to the source material as one of their main reasons. Or how fans of the ASOIAF books were nitpicking even the smallest changes the show made long before the divisive ending.

The existing KH manga and novels aren't comparable for a few reasons. One, they're relatively faithful with all divergences being minor. More humor and Kairi being better written doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. And two, they're obscure enough that only dedicated fans hungry for more are seeking them out. A TV show would be prominent enough that you'd have viewers who never so much as glanced at a PS2 entering the fandom through it.

The only times I've seen an adaption that took liberties not lead to friction with fans of the original is either when the source material was obscure enough (such as short stories) that there weren't enough huge fans to kick up a fuss, or things like comic books, mythology, and old classic books that have been adapted over, where you have to accept that there are a ton of variations instead of One True Version. And even then...

"Hastened exposition"? OK, but going off of what was shown, there was basically no story except dark creatures called heartless came from "no one knows" and somehow Riku works for Maleficent and wants to go back home. Oh and Sora has the keyblade from the start with no explanation, except that he's "destined to wield it"... yet has it already. Also, the two most egregious things were the music which he had access to all: 1) he wasted "Simple & Clean (Remix)" and 2) he wasted time looking for a generic anime fight song than just use the Agrabah fight theme.

Just because it's a pitch concept doesn't mean that the story being told had to be so messy. It had 11 minutes, but if this wasn't based on a game that we all know, there wouldn't have been anything special about it and honestly very forgettable. So honestly, I can tell why DISNEY executives passed on this. There just wasn't anything special about it that really stood out. The KH1 intro was about 3 minutes long and that catches your attention right off the bat without a single word of exposition.

So I'm sorry if you didn't like my critique, the animation was the least of my concerns with this. And yes, even though I know it was one guy that had to draw everything, that doesn't negate that I think the animation in this is bad. 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. My main problem really was that the magic and mystique of the KH1 story was lost and/or not even captured in this pitch.

If it were me pitching this in 11 minutes, I would have done the following:
A-Plot: Sora on Destiny Islands | B-Plot: Donald and Goofy getting Mickey's instructions to "find the key"
[LIST=1]
[*]DISNEY Castle - Donald and Goofy find Mickey's note - emphasis on "finding the key".
[*]Sora, Riku and Kairi hang out on the island. Sora/Riku fight - build the rivalry.
[*]Riku expresses his desperation to leave the island. Sora/Kairi show concern that he is too obsessed.
[*]Riku mentions a rumour of "a door" hidden on the island and leaves. Mentions that he "may have to find a key".
[*]Donald and Goofy become frantic and rummage all over the castle to prepare. They wonder about where to look first or who might have the key. Donald suggests Traverse Town, as it's a place where "lost things end up", so if the key's lost they can find it there and Goofy can say "like your pants, Donald?" Then Donald throws a fit.
[*]Sora/Kairi talk about leaving the island together or staying on the island together - but whatever they do, it will be together.
[*]Riku finds the door and opens it.
[*]Donald and Goofy look up at the sky. They notice a star flickering. Donald comments that darkness is taking over another world.
[*]The storm hits the island. Sora goes to make sure Kairi and Riku are safe.
[*]Sora finds Kairi dazed, then she merges with him. Sora is confused.
[*]Sora finds Riku - who makes his speech about the door being open. While Sora tries to grab Riku from the darkness, a heartless attacks him, Sora goes to defend himself and the keyblade appears. Riku notices and gets jealous.
[*]Darkness swallows them both and Destiny Islands.
[*]Donald and Goofy load up the Gummi Ship - its sensors inform them that another world has been submerged completely by darkness. Goofy wonders who is behind this.
[*]Cut to: DISNEY villain silhouettes and then pan up Maleficent's body up to just her smirk. The end.
[/LIST]

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.

Good fanfic!

Part of me wonders if this was picked up if it would have gotten the inevitable Lilo & Stitch: The Series crossover. iirc it happened with American Dragon, Kim Possible, the Proud Family, and Recess of all things

Yeah actually that's exactly what that means.
It's a quickly-put-together vertical slice meant to represent the breadth of the prospective series.
You don't show this to the general audience, you show it to studio execs. Had this series been picked up, this pilot would never have aired because it's not written to be placed within a longer narrative.
Seth needed to establish the world of KH, the main heroes and villains, their respective goals and character arcs, and wrap it all up in the formula of a typical episode. And he was rewriting from a script that had already been prepared by someone else.

That's not gonna come out polished to a mirror sheen. And frankly, with the amount of stuff he had to cover, it went pretty damn smooth.

Also, the art/animation is literal storyboard sketches. So cool your jets on the art. This video is like step 1 of 500 before a proper episode is made.

But fact of the matter is that this critique is conpletely unnecessary and has no merit because no part of thos was about the "animation" or the art at all. That‘s like critiquing a storyboard for an anime for not looking good and having off-model characters

Anyway, I actually thought it was okay enough. If the Disney+ series is real, I don‘t know if I want it to be 2D or cgi, but probably 2D to distinguish it more from the series - maybe true to Nomura‘s art?

This whole post would be amazing if you later came forward admitting it was satire.

This. And. Even though I know it's a natural part of the process, it's still bizarre to see something of this quality (again, standard for animatic) when it is associated with Disney Animation. I'm loving all the meme-producing stills coming from it though. ?

Jokes aside, I do appreciate the work that went into this, especially to make the KH series it's own thing.

Face My Fears, didn't someone link you in a previous thread on what an animatic is and its purpose? I remember you apologizing for jumping to conclusions about the art style. What has changed since then?

Here's some other Disney projects where they use animatics to sketch out scenes/concepts, but even these are technically in a more advanced stage than this KH animatic since they're for actual scenes and not just a concept.



As someone mentioned, you'd be hard pressed to find the initial animatic/storyboards originally pitched to show what an entire show/movie will be like. They're rough, just like this one, only shown to a board room hoping to get thumbs up to continue and make a real pilot episode next. You'll find a lot of completed pilot episodes though whether they made it or not, (which this is technically not)

They all gotta start somewhere.

I never thought this would see the light of day. Honestly, it's better than I expected.

That's an unusual choice to make especially when House of Mouse was a thing back when this was a pitch.

Yeah but House of Mouse operated in a fairly unique way. It was just a collection of shorts that were unified by having them being watched in a comedy club by Disney characters.

Seth wasn’t wrong for deciding to keep Disney characters in the background. It allows him to focus more on the core cast. We already have the films and the games to experience the film plots, anyways.

That has been my whole feeling since the beginning of the series. It feels weird to retell the stories. It seems better to continue where they ended. The worlds that did that in kh3 where the ones that felt the most organic.

I believe they said in their last post that the look of the animatic was the least of their concerns.

Personally, I thought it looked bad like most American TV animated series, like W.I.T.C.H., Big Hero 6, etc. As for what its animation may have looked like in a finished product, it's actually the exception rather than the rule that Western animated series aren't eyesores (Avatar: The Last Airbender and two or three of the Disney-based series are all that come to mind as being exceptions), and I wouldn't have expected this to be different. The only reason this would've had for existing in my view is gifting the world more David Gallagher as Riku and Maleficent's interaction with the other characters. :D I wonder if they would've even included Ansem SOD at the end?

I wouldn't have expected this to last more than one season of, what, around 25-30 episodes if it had been made. What was interesting is they wouldn't have used much of the basic Disney characters, really only the villains--maybe one world-related character might appear once in a while? I always assumed this would've been a straight re-creation of 1's story and didn't see the point.

I feel like the only entry friendly TV story that COULD be told would be a re-hash of KH1. Since creating a show based on Union or Foretellers would push away new and casual fans.

Damn, the last thing I expected walking into this thread was W.I.T.C.H catching strays ?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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

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 ?

Animatic Riku is my new boyfriend.

I'm happy for you two! #supportivepost

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

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.

Seth just found out about Soriku.

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

I mean.. if you count the hug as a shipping moment, then technically yes?

He meant that he drew a fusion of the two and called it Soriku, not knowing that the term was a shipping term.

Ahhhh okay

Looks like the animatic is set back to Public. I wonder if Kearsley got the okay from Disney to bring it back?