TV Lost Kingdom Hearts Pilot Animatic

[VolcanicDynamo]

Back in the early 2000's, there were early plans to make a cartoon show based on Kingdom Hearts that did not progress very far. There was little information on the show for years, and work done on the project was thought lost. Now, the director of the pilot, Seth Kearsley, has uploaded the pilot animatic for all of us to enjoy.

From the video description:

I don't own this. I claim no rights to any part of this except that this is my work. I'm not profiting from it. I want to show my work. It's been 20 years.

This is not without it's flaws, which I have not doubt will be pointed out, but I was really proud of the story we were able to tell in the time we had. Setting up the entire premise of a series, and doing a 'typical episode' is a tall order. I feel like we pulled that off, and when they tested it with kids, it tested better than anything else they were testing in that round.

Talking about the pilot itself, I feel like I would've gotten a kick outta the show as a kid. It did a good job of introducing and setting up the KH world while still being what could have been a typical episode - in other words, it succeeded at being a pilot. It would have been interesting to see this western rendition of Kingdom Hearts move forward, as well as a take on sequential storytelling when that wasn't very common in American TV animation at the time. Of course, it wasn't meant to be - while the pilot was well received, the plan was more Kingdom Hearts games, and a cartoon that could have diverged from the game's story was not part of those plans.

For more background, Kearsley made a separate video discussing the pilot:

 

[xghost777]

I would have been very into that with obvious tweaks of course. Thanks for sharing!

Also some of those faces would make excellent forum avatars lol.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

They uh, sure didn't want to make it look like anime

 

[VolcanicDynamo]

They uh, sure didn't want to make it look like anime

If Seth Kearsley is to be believed, he's just really bad at doing an "anime" style. I imagine getting someone else on staff to do the art while he served as a more directorial/writer role could have lead to a more game-accurate look, but it's hard to say when the only real production here was the pilot and no set details like a staff or showrunner were ever decided. Maybe it would have stayed really "western," for lack of a better term!

 

[blondkayvon]

There are so many good freeze frames in this. This is absolutely incredible. So happy that this and the Toon Makers' Sailor Moon were both unearthed in the same year.

 

[aus89]

If Seth Kearsley is to be believed, he's just really bad at doing an "anime" style. I imagine getting someone else on staff to do the art while he served as a more directorial/writer role could have lead to a more game-accurate look, but it's hard to say when the only real production here was the pilot and no set details like a staff or showrunner were ever decided. Maybe it would have stayed really "western," for lack of a better term!

It's an animatic for starters, it doesn't look particularly different esp given the probably limited time/budget he had to do the art in. I think it captures the middle ground/intertwining of anime and Disney pretty well considering.