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Want, the 62nd movie launched by Walt Disney Animation Studios, is a nasty film. The movie is supposed to have fun the studio’s a centesimal anniversary, however as a substitute, its incoherent story and reliance on millennial cliches for affordable jokes come off prefer it was fed into an AI generator and spat out onto the massive display. And the music, all the time a staple in Disney movies, has some actually pretty elements which might be sadly weighed down by horrible lyrics.
Total, Want is a scorching mess, however for Kingdom Hearts followers, its core premise may have vital implications for Sq. Enix’s Disney and Remaining Fantasy crossover—that’s, if Tetsuya Nomura and associates determine to include it into future Kingdom Hearts video games.
What’s Want about?
Want is ready within the kingdom of Rosas, the place King Magnifico, a sorcerer with the facility to grant needs given to him by the widespread people, hoards needs as magical orbs and refuses to grant ones he doesn’t imagine will probably be good for the dominion. When a citizen turns 18, they offer Magnifico their want for “safekeeping” in his examine till the day he decides to grant it. Whereas he may imagine himself righteous, as protagonist Asha factors out, Magnifico has created a system through which he controls the destiny of everybody in Rosas, rendering the townsfolk hopeless as they wait for his or her needs to be granted. Because the movie progresses, the king’s true nature as an egomaniacal bastard turns into obvious and Asha leads a revolt in opposition to his tyranny.
However what does this should do with Kingdom Hearts? As Asha learns extra concerning the needs in Magnifico’s clutches, it turns into clear that a few of these needs should do with occasions that lead into varied Disney films. One Rosas civilian desires to fly, wears a inexperienced tunic, and is known as Peter like Peter Pan. Valentino, Asha’s pet goat who beneficial properties the flexibility to talk due to magical shenanigans, needs for a spot the place all mammals stay equally, referencing the idyllic imaginative and prescient of 2016’s Zootopia. Asha herself turns into a Fairy Godmother and dons a cloak much like the character from Cinderella.
There are different references, like Asha’s group of associates all dressing and appearing equally to the seven dwarves from Snow White. And when Magnifico is defeated, he’s trapped in a mirror, mainly turning into the Magic Mirror from the identical film. There’s even a split-second body through which his face is printed to seem like the masks that inhabits the mirror within the 1937 movie.
What does Want imply for Kingdom Hearts’ Disney universe?
All of this (and the 90 minutes of different Disney film references) is a part of the aim of Want—to have fun Disney’s historical past—however there’s a bigger implication right here: Rosas is the middle of a related Disney universe. In keeping with co-directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, in addition to co-writer Jennifer Lee, Want isn’t hardwired as a multiverse launch pad, but it surely does indicate characters like Peter Pan, locations like Zootopia, and songs like “When You Want Upon A Star” are the desires of the residents of Rosas. Previous to this, Disney has featured the occasional crossover element earlier than, like Frozen that includes characters from Tangled in a crowd shot, which Disney has largely acknowledged as cute nods. However Want makes a whole plot level out of Disney’s most beloved characters and worlds having an inception inside its kingdom.
This raises questions as to how that world would perform in a possible Kingdom Hearts’ crossover. Will Kingdom Hearts play with the summary concepts Want hints at? In Sq. Enix’s RPG sequence, protagonist Sora and his associates Donald and Goofy journey to numerous Disney worlds on a spaceship. However earlier than these worlds had been separated, they originated from Scala advert Caelum, which featured closely in Kingdom Hearts Union χ and within the ultimate part of Kingdom Hearts III.
Incorporating Want and Rosas into Kingdom Hearts’ world would require quite a lot of retconning, as Sq. Enix has already been constructing out its personal related lore for 20 years. It’s unclear if it can even should reckon with it anytime quickly given Kingdom Hearts IV has been in growth concurrently alongside the film, and Disney started work on Want in 2018, a yr earlier than Kingdom Hearts III launched. Whereas we don’t know what Disney worlds will seem within the subsequent Recreation, we will fairly assume Disney and Sq. have been speaking about Kingdom Hearts IV whereas Want was in manufacturing.
Kingdom Hearts has launched loads of prequels and midquels in between its numbered entries that assist recontextualize story beats or fill in gaps, however Scala advert Caelum’s place as the basis of Kingdom Hearts’ Disney crossover is fairly well-established. So it would simply be simpler for Sq. Enix to disregard Rosas and Want’s Disney cinematic universe completely. Nonetheless, the sequence isn’t any stranger to tweaking characters, worlds, and relationships to suit its personal narrative. On high of weaving the existence of the shadow-like enemy Heartless into Disney film plots, Kingdom Hearts has continued to fold new films into its storytelling.
The primary Recreation made the Seven Princesses of Coronary heart (which included Alice, Snow White, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora) right into a unified, magical drive that affected all the recognized Kingdom Hearts universe. Kingdom Hearts III made positive so as to add newcomers Rapunzel, Anna, and Elsa as a part of the New Seven Hearts meant to take up the mantle. So Rosas may realistically be molded to suit the wants of a brand new story arc—maybe it may very well be the origin level of the brand new worlds Sora will discover in Kingdom Hearts IV, additional explaining the increasing lore with out stepping on the toes of the story the sequence advised earlier than.
Want makes an attempt what Kingdom Hearts pulled off over 20 years in the past
Kingdom Hearts’ interconnected Disney universe was a fairly novel concept again in 2002 when the primary Recreation was launched. However these days, crossovers are so widespread they’re having diminishing returns. Check out current Marvel Cinematic Universe field workplace numbers and also you’ll see individuals are much less infatuated with the idea of all the things they watch and play weaving into each other. A shared Disney universe is a core theme in newer video games like Disney Dreamlight Valley and Disney Mirrorverse, however Kingdom Hearts is without doubt one of the few examples the place these worlds really feel cleverly woven into one another, moderately than thrown collectively in a disconnected pocket dimension. Now that Want is at the least toying with the concept of Rosas because the supply of characters and concepts seen in earlier Disney movies, Kingdom Hearts is in an attention-grabbing place. It has to both reckon with one of many films it might function consuming its lunch—albeit with its fingers as a substitute of a wonderfully good fork and knife and simply usually making a multitude of the desk—or discover a approach to wiggle out of the bind it’s put the sequence in.
I do surprise if, given Want’s middling reception and field workplace efficiency, Sq. Enix may choose to not contact the film or its characters in any respect, as it could complicate issues in methods which might be most likely not well worth the bother. However Kingdom Hearts has put some mid-ass Disney films in its video games in a technique or one other, so who is aware of? Sure, I’m you, Hen Little. Within the meantime, let’s hope no matter Disney is cooking for 2024 doesn’t learn prefer it was written by ChatGPT.
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