Summary
Kingdom Heartsis popular for a multitude of reasons, with its collection ofDisney Worldsbeing one of the biggest in any medium. Players are enchanted with the idea of visitinglevels based on their favorite Disney moviesthrough the eyes of Sora, Donald, & Goofy.
However,just like any other successful video game franchise,Kingdom Heartshas a lot of unused content, and some of it is related toDisney Worlds that were left on the cutting room floor.Over the years, fans have uncovered many of these scrapped levels, and the following seven are the most fascinating ones that they wish had been implemented in one way or another.
Series’ director Tetsuya Nomura has stated multiple times that he wished to create worlds based on Pixar movies for a long time, but he didn’t have the chance to do it untilrecently. However, most fans may be unaware of the fact thathe has planned on doing so since the very beginning.
Fans discovered a design document forKingdom Heartsin 2015and, inside of it, there was old concept art for aToy Storyworld, which included iconic locations like Andy’s House, Pizza Planet, and Al’s Toy Barn. It’s most likely Disney ended up scrapping this level because they didn’t fully own Pixar back in 2001. However, Nomura finally got his wish when he created aToy Storyworld forKingdom Hearts 3, seeing as Disney has owned Pixar since 2006.
SomeKingdom Heartsgames, likeChain of MemoriesorCoded, constantly reuse worlds that were featured in the first entry, with the only exception being Deep Jungle, the world based onTarzan. This is apparently because Disney lost the license to use Edgar Rice Burroughs’ IP in the early 2000s.
However,old concept art for the original Game Boy Advance version ofChain of Memoriesrevealed that Sora was supposed to revisit Deep Jungle at some point in his journey through Castle Oblivion. If that wasn’t already enough proof, a card for this world’s Keyblade, Jungle King, can be found within the game’s files. It’s highly likely that Square Enix planned to reuse this world until the higher ups at Disney told them that they were not legally allowed to. Because of this fascinating story, Deep Jungle is a major stand out in the franchise;a Disney World that was featured in one game, but was immediately scrapped from the next one.
Monsters Inc.is actually Pixar’s second-biggest movie behindToy Story,so it makes a lot of sense that Nomura also wanted to include it in aKingdom Heartstitle as soon as possible. Way back in 2008, a dedicated group of fans discovered text files for an unused world based onMonsters Inc.inside the data ofKingdom Hearts 2.
This caused a lot of commotion & speculation among the fan base for years, untilTetsuya Nomura eventually confirmed it in an interviewforKingdom Hearts 3 Ultimania. He claimed that his team created some models ofMonsters Inc. andToy Storycharactersin order to add them toKingdom Hearts 2, and even began some negotiations with Disney. Unfortunately, they had to scrap them, but this rejection is what made him prioritize the inclusion of both IPs inKingdom Hearts 3years later, in which he succeeded.
InKingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Roxas visits several worlds that players have already experienced in previous games. However, it seems that a brand-new world was going to make its debut in this game: one based off ofPinnochio. Of course, the first game already featured Monstro, but this would’ve been an entire level set in the actual amusement park featured in the movie.
In a 2010 Q&A, Nomura revealed his plans to include aPinocchioworld in the game, and even revealed that the main plot was going to be centered on Roxas and Xion meeting Pinocchio himself, who is a puppet with a heart,and how this would’ve reflected their current situation. This world was later implemented inDream Drop Distance, with the name Prankster’s Paradise, but fans still wonder how different the scrapped version from358/2 Dayswould’ve been. Especially since character portraits of Honest John and Gideoncan be found in the game’s data, and neither of them appeared later in Prankster’s Paradise.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleepwas the first handheld release in the franchiseto feature new Disney Worlds players had never visited before, although they were all related to characters that already appeared in previous games, like Cinderella, Snow White or Stitch. However, some fans discovered that an entirely new Disney property was going to make its debut in this beloved prequel:The Jungle Book.
Unlike other unused Disney Worlds in the franchise, it seems that this one was very far along in development when it was cut,as fans have found entire modeled areasin the files of the original PSP version ofBirth by Sleep. They can even be accessed via cheat codes, in order to explore them with Terra, Aqua, or Ventus, and it’s all really fascinating. It’s a shame that this world was removed, becauseThe Jungle Bookwas never featured in any subsequentKingdom Heartsgames either.
The collection of worlds inKingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distanceis unique,as it features some unconventional properties that most players wouldn’t expect to visit in this franchise, likeTron: LegacyorMickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers. Because of this, it shouldn’t really be a surprise that a world based onTreasure Planet, one of Disney’s most underappreciated movies, was planned to be included at some point.
In 2016,fans found a huge, texture-less model of the RSL Legacy–\— the main spaceship fromTreasure Planet— in the files for the Nintendo 3DS version of the game. Similarly toThe Jungle BookinBirth by Sleep, this environment can be accessed via hacking, and explored with Sora or Riku. It’s interesting, because the fact that this vessel was modeled in its entirety implies that this world was worked on for quite some time, but Nomura never gave an official explanation as to why it ultimately went unused.
Tetsuya Nomura finally got his wish to use Pixar properties inKingdom Hearts 3.Not only did he and his team create the worlds of Toy Box and Monstropolis, but Remy fromRatatouilleeven starred in his own mini-game set within Twilight Town. This has already caused much speculation among fans, who wonder what other Pixar movies may be featured in future installments. However, what may be the most unexpected and unconventional Pixar IP was almost included inKingdom Hearts 3.
Very recently,Kingdom Heartsfans discovered pre-production material of the game, known as the “KH3 Premium Showcase Files”. Among these files, a text list of worlds can be found, which reveals that aCarsWorld was in the plans at some point. The fact that it’s only mentioned in the text and no 3D models were found implies that it didn’t last too far into development. However, this revelation confused fans for weeks, and many of them were left wondering about the details. Sora, Donald, & Goofy might have been transformed into vehicles, which would have been extremely bizarre.
