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Could Soul Be A Good Fit For Kingdom Hearts?



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Hello everyone, I hope you all had yourselves a Merry Christmas and that you've had a safe holiday overall!

So then, I watched Soul on Christmas Day, and the film was absolutely stupendous, a beautiful masterpiece and another great hit for Pixar! The film, without spoiling, dealt with the subjects of life, death and purpose in a meaningful and mature way that really resonates, and I feel that anyone that watches this film will come out of it thinking a lot about life. It's truly something.

But anyways, there's many concepts in this film that are intriguing and interesting, and I was thinking of how it could fit Kingdom Hearts. Would Soul's Spirit World be a sort of limbo like the Realm Of Darkness or a final place where hearts end up like The Final World? For you see, the Spirit World houses the Great Beyond, (Which is pretty much the afterlife.) and the Great Before. (Which is basically where newborn souls are given personalities and sparks before they go to Earth.) Would this be a sort of gateway to The Final World? A Station Of Awakening, perhaps? Or would it just be something else entirely different? Because I'd love to see the KH characters tackle the deep themes of Soul. What do you all think?
 

Barrett

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I believe the recent KHUX medals in the JP version can answer that, haha.

Spoiler Spoiler Show


But in all seriousness, I've mentioned before in the Worlds for Kingdom Hearts thread that I wasn't quite sure how Soul could be implemented and while that's still sorta true as of now, I can definitely get behind using The Great Before as an actual world. The big question for me is (without spoiling too much I hope), would Joe and 22 be involved in any part of it? If so, then how? That's what I'm struggling to figure out.
 

Alpha Baymax

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Knowing Pixar and their preference to tell original stories, we could see The Great Before being connected to The Final World just like how Disney Castle was connected to Timeless River. Whether Joe and 22 would be involved is a different story without going into spoilers but let's just say that I support the inclusion of this world in Kingdom Hearts just for the visuals alone.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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The concept of it, sure, but I think it would have to be a wholly original story unrelated to the film’s story which I think would miss what makes Soul so good.

Like if we made it based before the film’s plot, I don’t know how there could be any adventure if it is strictly in the Great Before and the zone?

Base it after and I guess they could have Joe and 22 that way since clearly Joe is some sort of mystic now and 22 is bound to be one when they get old enough. Or forget Joe and 22 and stick with Moonwind? (But then I’d be mad about Joe being cut :< ) But what would the point be? A lost soul hijacking another body in the real world? A lost soul causing chaos in the zone and the Great Before? A Heartless ends up in the zone and hijacks a body??? I think the options here are limited despite how intriguing the world and its concepts are.

I would love to see Sora’s soul form xD

I loved Soul, though. It’s my top favorite now. I just can’t seem to figure out the ideal way to implement this world without it either cheapening the ending or being limited in scope.
 

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Are we sure Pixar won't allow a retelling of the film? Cause I think a retelling of the plot(with a few changes of course) with Sora would bypass most of the issues tied with setting the world after the film
 
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Face My Fears

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YES! They can combine it with The Final World. Maybe have it be Sora's way to get back to the "real world"? I think the world can work really well as a two visit world.

Soul Sora can meet Soul Joe and 22 as they try to figure out how to get Joe back to life. Dream Eaters or Unversed (or even Heartless) can invade The Great Before and the first visit will end with a giant heartless/unversed/dream eater fight in "the zone", maybe on the ship with Moonwind.

Then the second visit can be when Joe returns to "the zone" to find 22. Sora joins him and there's a boss fight with corrupted 22. Then when she is saved, Terry gets infected with darkness and we have a boss fight with Terry. Then the story ends as usual, except Joe and Sora are given a second chance.

I think they can just be creative to skip the real world parts of the story.

I just want Soul to be included in KH somehow. I was kinda thinking Sora would visit worlds that deal with the afterlife back to back, as if trying to find the way home. So he could visit the worlds of Soul and Coco.
 

Idreamaboutcats

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Just finished it. To be honest, I'm not quite sure. The problem isn't if it would be a good world to level in and it having a good story, it's that if it will complement or contradict what is already canon. It's the reason why I'm so put off by the idea of Inside Out being in KH, because emotions being explained away as tiny people in your head isn't a good fit in my opinion.

The context of soul here in the movie seems similar to the heart as the game, and Japanese interpretation at large, calls for it, while in the game the "soul" itself is merely a battery for the body. However, that in itself can be contradicted that Nobodies can usually retain the memories of their original selves, as well as cultivate new hearts. It's such a headache to analyze. Even if we were to surmise that they can be the same thing, the appearance alone is baffling, since souls in the movie are blue-green blobs and hearts in the game are pinkish-white glowing orbs.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Just finished it. To be honest, I'm not quite sure. The problem isn't if it would be a good world to level in and it having a good story, it's that if it will complement or contradict what is already canon. It's the reason why I'm so put off by the idea of Inside Out being in KH, because emotions being explained away as tiny people in your head isn't a good fit in my opinion.

The context of soul here in the movie seems similar to the heart as the game, and Japanese interpretation at large, calls for it, while in the game the "soul" itself is merely a battery for the body. However, that in itself can be contradicted that Nobodies can usually retain the memories of their original selves, as well as cultivate new hearts. It's such a headache to analyze. Even if we were to surmise that they can be the same thing, the appearance alone is baffling, since souls in the movie are blue-green blobs and hearts in the game are pinkish-white glowing orbs.

I don’t think that is too much of an issue. It can just be hand-waved as a function of that world, same with how Hades and the Underworld and the Greek gods are hand-waved off.
 

Idreamaboutcats

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Ehh…I guess. I do get the afterlife thing though, with the underworld and possibly Coco if it ever gets into KH, since souls still need to go somewhere.
 

Face My Fears

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I just assumed that each world had its own "laws" and the ultimate "law" would be ending up in The Final World. I imagine that all the souls in the Underworld would eventually end up in The Final World after Hades is done with them. The fact that The Fairy Godmother is able to teleport straight to The Final World means that some Disney characters have knowledge/access to that world.
 

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It depends on how successful it will be. Disney likes to promote more of their bigger franchises in KH. Also, it really depends on how long it will take until the next KH comes out. Remember the Princess and the Frog? A lot of folks said, that this movie would fit so well in KH, but it took so long for SE and Disney to make KH3 that until then we had so many other, bigger movies from Disney that they could use as promotional material.
 

Alpha Baymax

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Is making a prequel story an option? At least that way we can still have 22.

You know what, I think that's the best idea. I had a theory of implementing Coco by having that world be a prequel story, too. Assuming Vanitas comes back, Unversed would be the perfect foes for The Great Before as there are elements of the movie linked with negative emotions. Likewise, Coco can perfectly implement Nightmare Dream Eaters as The Land of the Dead can be argued to be a Dream-like world especially with the Alebrije being Dream Eaters in all but name.

Both Soul and Coco can have parallel themes in which 22 and Hector realise that they cannot feel complete until the time is right that being the introduction of Miguel and Joe respectively. It can also link back to the Master of Master's obsession about timing everything precisely and that certain events are predestined no matter how aggressively the heroes try to interfere with fate.
 

Face My Fears

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It depends on how successful it will be. Disney likes to promote more of their bigger franchises in KH. Also, it really depends on how long it will take until the next KH comes out. Remember the Princess and the Frog? A lot of folks said, that this movie would fit so well in KH, but it took so long for SE and Disney to make KH3 that until then we had so many other, bigger movies from Disney that they could use as promotional material.
It took eternity for Toy Story to be in KH. I think that Princess and the Frog being a traditionally animated film is what caused it to not show up yet in KH. KH3 clearly favored CGI films (probably due to ease of creating models) over traditionally animated ones, so that may be the trend going forward. They can't keep using Olympus and 100 Acre Wood as the only traditionally animated films.

KH2 wasn't really a marketing machine for any new Disney properties besides maybe Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Anyway, I think that Soul may go under the radar to a lot of people because of its release on Disney+ rather than in cinemas. Which means that it would be a good way to spark interest in the film again by including it - kind of like how Nightmare Before Christmas got a boost in attention from KH1.
 
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Man, all of these discussions have made me excited and hopeful that Soul will be included in Kingdom Hearts someday!

With Sora being adrift who knows where, I'm sure that one of the other trios would probably make their way towards The Great Before and gain some sort of clues as to how they can bring Sora back into existence! I imagine that elements of the film, such as a person's dreams, ambitions and passions being strong tethers to the living world could be a strong link to connect to the overall KH lore. As others have mentioned here, The Great Before could simply be an extension or branch of The Final World! Therefore, it can operate by its own laws, as @Face My Fears explained!

Ugh, I want it so bad! X_X
 
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