Pixar Nearly Didn’t Allow Kingdom Hearts to Have Toy Story
The Kingdom Hearts 3 collaboration of Square Enix and Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios almost failed. A Pixar creative director said that the Toy Story-themed universe initially received some resistance from higher-up executives.
Tasha Sounart, Pixar’s creative chief of the theme parks, explained why she was not keen to lead a team without gaming knowledge in a new minimax interview. Stuart said, “When you pitch Kingdom Hearts’ idea, it sounds strange.” “And so they are like, “I don’t believe we should do that.”
The creative director stated that the studio is constantly seeking ways to appeal to older and younger fans. This presented an opportunity for her to pitch the idea. And, thankfully Sounart’s pitch was successful. This gave rise to the incredible moment when Toy Story’s Woody faces Kingdom Hearts antagonist Xehanort. This scene is easily one of the most memorable in the series. Below is MinnMax’s complete segment on the development story.
This is not the first time we have heard of the Kingdom Hearts partnership. IGN interviewed Tetsuya Namura, Kingdom Hearts director, in 2019. She explained how Pixar and his attention to detail sometimes clashed. Nomura said that he wanted Sora as a canonical part of the Toy Story world but was rebuffed. Pixar eventually agreed to create the Kingdom Hearts universe between the events in Toy Story 2 and 3.
