Summary
- A leak reveals Kingdom Hearts 3 almost included the Cars world.
- This cut content likely would have seen the Kingdom Hearts 3 protagonists turned into anthropomorphic cars.
- The leak contains a variety of early development footage and storyboards.
The Kingdom Hearts franchise is known for merging Square Enix and Disney characters. The games somehow take the serious and often dark designs of Square Enix and seamlessly insert them into the more whimsical worlds created by Disney. A leak from a reputable source indicates that Sora and the gang nearly got transported into the world of a very unexpected Disney creation.
Kingdom Hearts superfan 13th Vessel revealed the information on X (formerly Twitter): "It looks like Cars was originally considered for KINGDOM HEARTS III." According to some leaked footage and files from Kingdom Hearts 3, the world list originally contained the entry カーズ（仮）, which translates to "Cars (Tentative)." This implies that Square Enix was tentatively considering sending the protagonists of KH3 into the world of the Disney/Pixar movie Cars.
Every time the Kingdom Hearts protagonists travel to a different Disney world, they change to resemble the residents of that world. This means, as YouTube windy4566 puts it in a comment on 13th Vessel's video on the leaked footage, "Somewhere deep in Square's [HQ,] there are concept drawings for car Sora and I'm not sure the world is ready for it."
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Leaked Footage Also Shows Kingdom Hearts 3 Development Process
From Storyboarding To Animating
13th Vessel's compilation of pre-production footage is pulled from a leaked Showcase build. The video shows several clips from different points in the development of Kingdom Hearts 3, including several attack and movement animation demos and beta versions of cutscenes. These offer a rare glimpse into what the game's production looked like, from storyboard drawings to actual animations.
One of the longest sections of the video reveals the process of animating the song "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen. The video shows how the still, uncolored concept images from the game's storyboard correspond to the actual moment in the game. A lot of detail also clearly went into faithfully recreating the movie's animation in the world of Kingdom Hearts.
Another part of the compilation shows a rough mock-up of the opening movie from Kingdom Hearts 3. This demo cutscene makes it evident that Final Fantasy 15 models were used as stand-ins for the KH3 characters in the beta and development stage. This has long been rumored to be the case, and the pre-production footage is now confirmation.
It's unlikely Kingdom Hearts fans will ever see their favorite characters as cars, since Disney has since come out with a number of other successful movies. It's not completely out of the question, though: developed in Unreal Engine 5, whether it includes car Sora or not.
Sources: 13th Vessel/X, 13th Vessel/YouTube
Kingdom Hearts 3
- Released
- January 25, 2019
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Franchise
- Kingdom Hearts
After a decade since the last numbered entry in the epic crossover action RPG franchise, the conclusion to the original saga arrives as Kingdom Hearts III. Players again up with Sora, Donald, and Goofy as they set off to stop Xenahort's goal of reaching Kingdom Hearts itself and enacting a new keyblade war. In addition, players will experience several classic Disney & Pixar films, traditional and more contemporary, such as Tangled, Frozen, and Toy Story, as they visit their worlds and interact with these characters on their adventures.
- Platform(s)
- Xbox One
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