Want, the 62nd movie launched by Walt Disney Animation Studios, is a foul film. The movie is supposed to rejoice the studio’s one hundredth anniversary, however as an alternative, 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 large display screen. And the music, all the time a staple in Disney movies, has some actually beautiful components which can be sadly weighed down by horrible lyrics.
Total, Want is a sizzling mess, however for Kingdom Hearts followers, its core premise might have vital implications for Sq. Enix’s Disney and Closing Fantasy crossover—that’s, if Tetsuya Nomura and mates resolve 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 frequent people, hoards needs as magical orbs and refuses to grant ones he doesn’t imagine can be good for the dominion. When a citizen turns 18, they provide Magnifico their want for “safekeeping” in his research till the day he decides to grant it. Whereas he may imagine himself righteous, as protagonist Asha factors out, Magnifico has created a system during 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 riot in opposition to his tyranny.
However what does this need to do with Kingdom Hearts? As Asha learns extra in regards to the needs in Magnifico’s clutches, it turns into clear that a few of these needs need to do with occasions that lead into numerous Disney motion pictures. One Rosas civilian needs to fly, wears a inexperienced tunic, and is called Peter like Peter Pan. Valentino, Asha’s pet goat who positive factors the power to talk due to magical shenanigans, needs for a spot the place all mammals dwell equally, referencing the idyllic imaginative and prescient of 2016’s Zootopia. Asha herself turns into a Fairy Godmother and dons a cloak just like the character from Cinderella.
There are different references, like Asha’s group of mates all dressing and appearing equally to the seven dwarves from Snow White. And when Magnifico is defeated, he’s trapped in a mirror, principally changing into the Magic Mirror from the identical film. There’s even a split-second body during which his face is printed to appear to be 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 rejoice Disney’s historical past—however there’s a bigger implication right here: Rosas is the middle of a linked 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, nevertheless it does suggest characters like Peter Pan, locations like Zootopia, and songs like “When You Want Upon A Star” are the goals 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 collection, protagonist Sora and his mates Donald and Goofy journey to varied 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 a substantial amount of retconning, as Sq. Enix has already been constructing out its personal linked lore for 20 years. It’s unclear if it would even need to reckon with it anytime quickly given Kingdom Hearts IV has been in improvement concurrently alongside the film, and Disney started work on Want in 2018, a 12 months earlier than Kingdom Hearts III launched. Whereas we don’t know what Disney worlds will seem within the subsequent recreation, we are able to moderately 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 foundation of Kingdom Hearts’ Disney crossover is fairly well-established. So it’d simply be simpler for Sq. Enix to disregard Rosas and Want’s Disney cinematic universe totally. Nonetheless, the collection 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 motion pictures 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 your entire recognized Kingdom Hearts universe. Kingdom Hearts III made certain 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 might 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 collection informed earlier than.
Want makes an attempt what Kingdom Hearts pulled off over 20 years in the past
Kingdom Hearts’ interconnected Disney universe was a reasonably novel thought again in 2002 when the primary recreation was launched. However these days, crossovers are so frequent 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 the whole lot 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 likely one of the few examples the place these worlds really feel cleverly woven into one another, reasonably than thrown collectively in a disconnected pocket dimension. Now that Want is a minimum of toying with the concept of Rosas because the supply of characters and concepts seen in earlier Disney movies, Kingdom Hearts is in an fascinating place. It has to both reckon with one of many motion pictures it might characteristic consuming its lunch—albeit with its arms as an alternative of a superbly good fork and knife and simply typically making a multitude of the desk—or discover a approach to wiggle out of the bind it’s put the collection in.
I do surprise if, given Want’s middling reception and field workplace efficiency, Sq. Enix may decide to not contact the film or its characters in any respect, as it will complicate issues in methods which can be most likely not well worth the hassle. However Kingdom Hearts has put some mid-ass Disney motion pictures in its video games in a method or one other, so who is aware of? Sure, I’m taking a look at you, Rooster Little. Within the meantime, let’s hope no matter Disney is cooking for 2024 doesn’t learn prefer it was written by ChatGPT.
