The Kingdom Hearts series has been an action RPG staple since the early 2000s, having been a part of the lives of Disney and Square Enix fans for over two decades. My childhood wouldn't be the same if it weren't for Tetsuya Nomura's Kingdom Hearts 2, and it's not hard to see that I'm not the only one. Journeying on the Gummi Ship to countless worlds from beloved classics like Final Fantasy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, nothing comes close to capturing the intertwining nature of bringing Disney movies into a video game franchise quite like Kingdom Hearts. Given the decades-long timeline, it's a bit surprising that there haven't been any Kingdom Hearts movies or TV adaptations. Coincidentally, Kingdom Hearts was set to be an animated television series, and even had a pilot episode, but what happened?
Kingdom Hearts was the first collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company, and was originally pitched to rival Nintendo's Super Mario franchise. While Sora eventually got his chance to fight against Mario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the sales for Kingdom Hearts were a critical and commercial success in 2002, spawning multiple sequels and spin-offs. With the series continuing its decade-long run with Kingdom Hearts 4, there has been little movement in adapting the video game series. However, one individual almost made this happen back in the early 2000s.
Coming off of directing the 2002 adult-animated movie Eight Crazy Nights starring Adam Sandler, former Walt Disney Animator Seth Kearsley wanted to get into the American anime scene. During an interview with The Brotherhood of Gaming, Kearsley noted that his agent told him that Disney was going to do an animated Kingdom Hearts project, which he said was something he wasn't aware of, but gained interest based on the opportunity to bridge the gap between Japanese and American anime storytelling. Kearsley developed a pilot episode to pitch to Disney Channel, focusing on the Kingdom Hearts prologue with Sora, Riku, and Kairi on Destiny Island. The 11-minute episode sees Sora and Riku meeting and collaborating with Donald Duck and Goofy in Aladdin's Agrabah to find Kairi.
The pilot used most of the same voice talent from the game, excluding Sora's long-running voice actor, Haley Joel Osment. Bobby Esner, who was set to voice the Boy in 2003's The Jungle Book 2, voiced the role of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts cartoon series. The director noted that Osment had a scheduling conflict, hence the casting change. The pilot showcases sequences of colored storyboard panels with audio and features characters like King Mickey Mouse, Jiminy Cricket, Maleficent, Jafar, and the Heartless. The director was approved to rewrite the initial script, allowing him creative freedom during production. In an interview with Game Union, Kearsley said he was inspired by the anime Cowboy Bebop for the character interactions.
Unfortunately, Disney Channel rejected the pilot, citing worries that the project was too dark for its audiences. In a social media post, Kearsley divulged that the pilot was well-received during testing, but with the plans to do Kingdom Hearts 2, Disney decided to shelve the project. While the public never saw the project come to fruition, it wasn't until 2013 that Kearsley opened the floodgates to the show's existence.
Early Kingdom Hearts storyboard drafts depicting scenes on Destiny Island, Agrabah, and Hollow Bastion were posted on the internet, which was met with confusion and surprise by many Kingdom Hearts fans. Over the next couple of years, Kearsley continued to bring more proof of the pilot, which ultimately led to his decision to upload the pilot onto YouTube following a life-threatening car accident. While the video has been taken down twice, the pilot has been uploaded to an archive and can be seen on YouTube (attached above).
Over the past few years, there have been rumors regarding Kingdom Hearts coming to Disney+, but there's been no confirmation yet. With Kingdom Hearts 4 still in development, there's a lot we don't know about the franchise's future. For now, grab a sea salt ice cream bar and watch the waves come and go until a bottle shows up on the beaches of the internet.