In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film

[Efflictim]

Now, this is a shot in the dark, but with how Disney loves milking their franchises - and has succeeded in doing so - anything is possible, right? So, with the release of the Maleficent film yesterday and the announcement of the Little Mermaid live-action film in March, it's likely the live-action adaptions of Disney's beloved films of old won't stop there. Disney has seen the success of the Marvel Universe that has set up two more Avengers films, and they're gearing up for an expanded Star Wars universe with their one-shot films every other year starting in 2016. Maleficent and Little Mermaid might as well be the beginning of something much bigger, and that something could be an Avengers-esque film, bringing all of the classic Disney characters into one giant motion picture.

Haven't caught on yet? Well, what I'm implying is that Kingdom Hearts could very well be the franchise that is able to successfully bring all these characters together and have it make sense. Kingdom Hearts has grasped the Disney fanbase for 12 years now and has overachieved success with compiling these beloved characters into one product in such a brilliant and bold way.

Spoiler Show

Obviously the story of the Maleficent film hinders this theory a tad as Maleficent is more-so portrayed as a friend rather than foe. However, this can be an easy plot fix if a Kingdom Hearts, or Disney Universe, film is conceived.

If such a film is created, it would generate a huge amount of buzz and revenue. Yes, Kingdom Hearts isn't necessarily a "mainstream" video game and wouldn't turn your casual movie-goer's head at first glance, but promotion will. Even if they see a spiky-haired teenager whacking black blobs of evil with a giant key, they will be drawn in once their favorite Disney characters appear.

Disney loves making money, but they also love putting out a good product. A Kingdom Hearts film gives them a way to please fans of the series, as well as put out a compilation of all their iconic characters with a brilliant story that allows it to not be such a mess as it could be on its own. With the promotion that Disney can pull off, this film would attract millions and post great numbers because of the classic Disney characters involved.

 

[Ulti]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Disney has little want with the KH franchise. Basic merchandise is as far as they are willing to go. I am not entirely sure the rights they have with it, considering the main cast is not their creation.

That said, a movie is a horrible idea. The game was not made for a 2-3 hour experience. The plot is not in the least bit digestible for a movie audience.

 

[Gram]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

No just no .

 

[Efflictim]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Disney has little want with the KH franchise. Basic merchandise is as far as they are willing to go. I am not entirely sure the rights they have with it, considering the main cast is not their creation.

That said, a movie is a horrible idea. The game was not made for a 2-3 hour experience. The plot is not in the least bit digestible for a movie audience.

The KH franchise presents an opportunity to execute such an idea, so it could intrigue the execs. As for rights, I'm sure Square would be all for gaining more publicity for one of their biggest titles in the library.

I agree with you, but Disney can, and probably would, make changes to attract the casual audience. I'm sure they would recognize that KH's story is way over-the-top but would see the opportunity and try to make it work. Basically, dumb it down to just the friendship, love, and happiness bullshit for the families who go see it and focus on the Disney characters and action-packed moments the first Kingdom Hearts game had. Now, would Square go for a change? Who knows. Probably not. But, I felt like bringing this up because I do see an possibility of them figuring it out and putting out something at least decent.

It's honestly simply a money-making idea to me. As a fan of the series, a movie obviously wouldn't attract me. But to Disney? $$$$ everywhere with the characters they would include in this film.

 

[Ulti]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

The KH franchise presents an opportunity to execute such an idea, so it could intrigue the execs. As for rights, I'm sure Square would be all for gaining more publicity for one of their biggest titles in the library.

I agree with you, but Disney can, and probably would, make changes to attract the casual audience. I'm sure they would recognize that KH's story is way over-the-top but would see the opportunity and try to make it work. Basically, dumb it down to just the friendship, love, and happiness bullshit for the families who go see it and focus on the Disney characters and action-packed moments the first Kingdom Hearts game had. Now, would Square go for a change? Who knows. Probably not. But, I felt like bringing this up because I do see an possibility of them figuring it out and putting out something at least decent.

It's honestly simply a money-making idea to me. As a fan of the series, a movie obviously wouldn't attract me.. But to Disney? $$$$ everywhere with the characters they would include in this film.

Yes because SE would be all willing to try a video game movie. Not like their last movie almost destroyed them or something...

It is not a money making idea. Video game movies rarely work and when they do, it is mediocre. You really don't have an audience for this movie.

 

[Dandelion]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Mm, probably not. The Little Mermaid live action film has nothing to do with Disney. It's being made by Universal.
I mean, lately Disney hasn't been above mixing their toys together. With the success of Once Upon a Time, maybe a franchise like this is a little more possible, but you'd be asking them to cover a lot of ground even if they'd be reworking the plot.

Disney has little want with the KH franchise. Basic merchandise is as far as they are willing to go. I am not entirely sure the rights they have with it, considering the main cast is not their creation.

Every time I say this someone always disagrees but Nomura has said that it doesn't matter who made the original characters. Disney owns almost everything, they are the king of copyright so that is to be expected.

 

[Efflictim]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Yes because SE would be all willing to try a video game movie. Not like their last movie almost destroyed them or something...

It is not a money making idea. Video game movies rarely work and when they do, it is mediocre. You really don't have an audience for this movie.

I get that, but the average person (the target market for these types of motion pictures) doesn't know what the hell Kingdom Hearts is. But, with promotion, they are shown all these iconic characters and you're telling me no one will be at the very least intrigued to see that film? It would be big for children and families. I'm not saying this is gonna be a classic, not by a long shot, but for first day sales and hype? It could drawn in big numbers with these characters.

 

[Efflictim]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

The Little Mermaid live action film has nothing to do with Disney. It's being made by Universal.

Really? I read a couple tweets the other day that said Disney was doing it. I guess it was poor information. Welp, this theory is completely flawed then lel

out

edit: oops double post

assumed someone would've posted by the time i made my reply

 

[Mason Stark]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Although they have very little to do with Kingdom Hearts (though, as it's becoming more popular, they are marketing it themselves a bit more, so that's cool), I can actually see Disney doing a Kingdom Hearts movie. Video game movies usually don't work, but it's not that they can't. They did VERY well with Wreck-It Ralph, although that wasn't a 100% video game movie, so if they approached a Kingdom Hearts movie in a similar manner and put a strong emphasis on the storyline, it could definitely work. (Live action was be a TERRIBLE idea, for this; the games are too "animated" for that.)

Big Hero 6 is a great example of Disney taking another work and approaching it in their own way. From the looks of the trailer and backstory, Disney is using the Big Hero 6 comics as a springboard (for lack of a better word?) into their own movie, rather than page-for-page adaptation. If that's successful and executed well, then there's definitely a possibility of creating a good Kingdom Hearts movie.

But, if they ever create a movie, there's no way to condense any Kingdom Hearts game into movie form, especially since their animated movies are only about 90 minutes each. Doing so would also alienate anyone who hasn't played the game. They'd have to create an original or "inspired by" storyline, like Big Hero 6.

Also, I'm honestly not sure if mixing in other Disney characters would go well for a KH movie. It's a cool idea, but might get a bit crazy, unless it's like small cameos like in Wreck-It Ralph. The focus would have to be on the original Kingdom Hearts characters.

 

[Shogo-Kun]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Don't we already have a thread like this?

 

[Gray Aria]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

A Kingdom Hearts film doesn't have to be an adaptation. It could just be a cg tie-in like Advent Children. A sequel, prequel, pre-sequel (whatever that means), or midquel. That way instead of trying to stuff the entire story of one of the games into a movie, they can create a new story just for the movie.

KH would obviously not work as a live action film. People just need to realize that not everything needs to be live action. So much more can be done with animation. Action can be way more intense without having to have a huge crazy budget for special effects. Not to mention all the training for stunts and what-not. For a series like this that has lots of fast-paced, stylized fantasy action, it would be extremely difficult to replicate in live action and the inevitable failed attempt would only disappoint fans.

 

[Blackdrazon]

I wouldn't mind a midquel film, I know it would disappoint some folks (and I agree that I would rather have a game) but it might be a better way to tell some of the missing stories, like Riku and Mickey's activities between CoM and KH2, or the big one, BBS volume 2.

 

[Elysium]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Every time I say this someone always disagrees but Nomura has said that it doesn't matter who made the original characters. Disney owns almost everything, they are the king of copyright so that is to be expected.[/COLOR]

I was going to post that before I saw your reply. I thought it had been said that Disney owns all original characters created for the series.

I wouldn't mind a film, but I've got over the desire for one. I do think it's more likely now than it was before KH2 was released.

 

[QuintusKing]

The biggest challenge to make such film is Disney's rights. If such film is made, of course it will be a great hit, with Disney and Square Enix combined. But who will be the boss? Disney will not just sit and watch, but SE will have to take care of the story too, since it's their story! If they are to make a film regarding Kingdom Hearts, Disney has to move aside, unless they merge. I guess that's the only downside for having Disney as part of the game. And, I really want a KH film, but will that catch my eyes? All the stories have been shown in the games, and making them into the film is kind of a waste.

I think the closest thing they can do is having KH characters cross over with the FF universe. This means that they make a Final Fantasy film, but the theme will be Kingdom Hearts. For example, FF's villains set their eyes on Kingdom Hearts, and FF characters call KH characters for help. This introduces new storyline. I admit I prefer CG films over live actions. It's hard to find actors who look and sound like KH characters, and I agree with Juggernaut, the special effects will be difficult to make.

 

[Gram]

KH would obviously not work as a live action film. People just need to realize that not everything needs to be live action.

I too dont understand why most feel everything needs to be live action. Nearly everything adapted that way is a disappointment and a half. (some of the Marvel and Dark Knight movies being cases of things done right)
Plus there's no way a movie could be done and did well, no video game movie can.
The series and most games alone has hours of story, detail and character development that they'd have to squeeze into two hours.
It would just butcher everything.

The only way I could see it work is if they done it in an animated format that was drawn out like an anime series. The numbers of spread out episodes would give room for such a thing to be done decent. (like how the mangas are actually decent)

Then there is also the licensing issues mentioned. Given Disney owns it all any movie they'd make would lack the FF characters, some of which, are very important to story such as Leon and gang who find and help Sora.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Re: In regards to a Kingdom Hearts film.

Don't we already have a thread like this?

It's old.

Yes because SE would be all willing to try a video game movie. Not like their last movie almost destroyed them or something...

Actually, when The Spirits Within failed, SquareSoft was not so bad off. Their plans for having a dedicated movie department were killed, of course, but the company itself wasn't in as terrible of a spot than people like to believe especially since Sony bought like 18% of their shares to help aid them and were probably going to buy more. They also had plenty of money in reserves and did return to profitability in 2002 before the merger.

Wada's plans for merging with Enix were falling apart because of the film's commercial failure, though, but he turned it around by pinning blame on Sakaguchi and convincing Enix that by merging they'd be stronger for it.

And their last movie was Advent Children/Advent Children Complete, which was a pretty solid success for Square Enix (and continues to be successful). Visual Works has expressed interest in working on another film some years back, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself and I doubt Square Enix, even in their current (probably fleeting) success, is willing to pour millions into making a new film until they get that one money sinkhole (FFXV) out of the oven. Also if they keep throwing CG work at Visual Works, I doubt they will ever find the free time to make a movie.

It is not a money making idea. Video game movies rarely work and when they do, it is mediocre. You really don't have an audience for this movie.

I don't think it isn't the fact there isn't an audience. Most video game movies tend to be live-action films, not to mention low budget. It turns off fans because they tend to be heartless adaptions of their favorite series, and it turns off mainstream viewers because it looks like a dumb B-movie. Resident Evil has done well, but it isn't a true adaption but it is a good example of a video game film franchise that managed to hit the mainstream market right on the head (the earlier films, at least).

I'd use the Prince of Persia film as another example but haha that had mixed reception and I personally took issue to the distinct lack of brown people in a film that was supposed to take place in Persia...I'm straying off my thought...

My point is that the lack of enough good video game films doesn't mean they aren't viable or always bad. It takes a studio that actually gives a damn to make them, and the fact is that most studios haven't given a damn because the VG medium isn't as respected by people as books or plays are. I think we'll have to see what happens with stuff like Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us, Sly Cooper, and even that Halo TV show to get an idea of how viable they are in 2014 and beyond.

People used to say films about lesser-known superheroes wouldn't sell well but look at where we are right now. We've got Big Hero 6 coming out by Disney, Guardians of the Galaxy & Ant-Man by Marvel, a series of new comic-based TV series like Daredevil, Arrow, Constantine, Flash...

And that is just live action (except Big Hero 6). The potential of a CG film is both high and low. High because it'd most likely be made by the company or made by another company with a lot of handholding by the original company, and made with the fans of the game in mind. Low because it could easily alienate those who don't watch animated films or don't give a damn about said series, but it entirely depends on how the film is approached and how they market it.

If done by Visual Works, it'd probably be a tie-in to the series but there would be the issue of Square Enix being allowed to work with Disney characters in a film format. Disney is very protective of who uses their characters in films and shows (aka they dominate the medium and don't really let anybody touch their property), and their leniency with video games is mostly because they don't have a strong foothold in the industry and it is cheaper for them to license games than to have their own dev teams to work on projects. Kingdom Hearts as a video game is one thing, but as a

If done by Disney, it'd most likely be a reboot of some kind. Disney wouldn't even have to ask permission to do it since they own the characters and the worlds. It's how they got away with making Kingdom Hearts V-Cast (then the mysterious Kingdom Hearts Online) and I'm not sure if Nomura would appreciate a reboot of his series unless he had a big hand in it. Of course, with Disney's name alone the film would automatically have a higher rate of success with the mainstream. If Nomura was involved and it looked good and faithful to the original series, it'd be a huge hit with the fans.

The problem I see is that there would be waaaaay too many Disney characters to balance out in a film adaption. A regular Disney animated film doesn't usually run past 1hr40min because they like to keep them short so children don't lose interest. I'm not sure how much they could do in that time period. FF/TWEWY characters would have to be cut.

They could get away with making Kingdom Hearts film only feature classic Disney characters (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Pete, Oswald 8D) plus Sora, Kairi, Riku, and a villain and not have any world travel besides to original worlds with the classic Disney characters as they try to thwart some villain's plans to take over the universe (Xehanort, a new villain...whatever). It might not be so bad, but it wouldn't be the Kingdom Hearts we know.

In a perfect world, Disney and Visual Works would team up and make a film together. Nomura (and Yasue, I suppose) would serve as a producer while one of Disney's directors handles the directorial work. Nomura contributes the base story, have a Disney writer do the script...And in this perfect world, it'd be a blockbuster hit.

But to be quite honest, a Kingdom Hearts film is never going to happen without it being completely different from the source material.

 

[Efflictim]

I feel like most who have posted in here didn't actually read what I said in the OP. This discussion isn't really about whether a Kingdom Hearts film should be made or not, and its pros and cons. It's been turned into every other "Kingdom Hearts movie" thread. This was solely to discuss the possibility of Disney using Kingdom Hearts to bring their most famous characters together in a compilation film due to their success with The Avengers so it's not completely random. For all I care, it could be its own original film, picking up somewhere in the Kingdom Hearts timeline. Let's just say that lol

Obviously feel free to discuss all aspects of a film, but I feel like my main point of making this thread was ignored lol

 

[Dandelion]

Obviously feel free to discuss all aspects of a film, but I feel like my main point of making this thread was ignored lol

Because, as you stated yourself, your original point got shot to hell.

 

[maleficentfan123]

Now, this is a shot in the dark, but with how Disney loves milking their franchises - and has succeeded in doing so - anything is possible, right? So, with the release of the Maleficent film yesterday and the announcement of the Little Mermaid live-action film in March, it's likely the live-action adaptions of Disney's beloved films of old won't stop there. Disney has seen the success of the Marvel Universe that has set up two more Avengers films, and they're gearing up for an expanded Star Wars universe with their one-shot films every other year starting in 2016. Maleficent and Little Mermaid might as well be the beginning of something much bigger, and that something could be an Avengers-esque film, bringing all of the classic Disney characters into one giant motion picture.

Haven't caught on yet? Well, what I'm implying is that Kingdom Hearts could very well be the franchise that is able to successfully bring all these characters together and have it make sense. Kingdom Hearts has grasped the Disney fanbase for 12 years now and has overachieved success with compiling these beloved characters into one product in such a brilliant and bold way.

Spoiler Show

Obviously the story of the Maleficent film hinders this theory a tad as Maleficent is more-so portrayed as a friend rather than foe. However, this can be an easy plot fix if a Kingdom Hearts, or Disney Universe, film is conceived.

If such a film is created, it would generate a huge amount of buzz and revenue. Yes, Kingdom Hearts isn't necessarily a "mainstream" video game and wouldn't turn your casual movie-goer's head at first glance, but promotion will. Even if they see a spiky-haired teenager whacking black blobs of evil with a giant key, they will be drawn in once their favorite Disney characters appear.

Disney loves making money, but they also love putting out a good product. A Kingdom Hearts film gives them a way to please fans of the series, as well as put out a compilation of all their iconic characters with a brilliant story that allows it to not be such a mess as it could be on its own. With the promotion that Disney can pull off, this film would attract millions and post great numbers because of the classic Disney characters involved.

I think it's certainly plausible for Disney and Square Enix to do this, but I'm not sure they actually will. For one, unless it's absolutely outstanding/mind blowing/out of this world epic, I don't think it would be popular among the KH "die hard" fans, for one (look at other posts in this thread for evidence.) Second, the amount of characters and content within the series would make a film version extremely difficult to make. You would essentially have Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Namine, Axel, Xion, Ventus, Aqua, Terra, Xehanort, Xemnas, Ansem SOD, Maleficent, Pete, Mickey, and Ansem the Wise, at the very least, as main characters. Just this list alone is 19 main characters. Plus, they'd have to juggle all of the Disney characters within each of the different worlds plus the Final Fantasy characters. You can't really cut out any of the 19 aforementioned characters without losing a chunk of the KH plot (with the POSSIBLE exception of Maleficent and Pete, but if they cut them out they are not only cutting out a substantial bit of the KH plot they are also cutting out 2 of the 5 main characters who are actually associated with Disney.) Most, if not all, of these characters bring something substantial to the overarching plot of the KH universe so they would have to be expanded upon, in great detail.

To summarize, I think Disney might do it one day and it'd certainly be something I'd expect but there's so much going on in the KH series that for them to make a film version it would literally almost be a) cutting out multiple substantial plot points or b) approximately 16 hours long.

I agree with the poster who said earlier that it'd be better to do an anime series or something along those lines. I think anime is something most KH fans like (just based off of what I see on this site) and it would allow them multiple episodes/chances to expand on essential plot points.

 

[Efflictim]

Because, as you stated yourself, your original point got shot to hell.

"tru" - 2 chainz