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Square and Disney Team Up for Kingdom Hearts
jaredcat writes "Ever wonder what would happen if the incredibly creative talents of Squaresoft and Disney got together? Well I never did, but that didn't seem to stop them. The first joint production of Square and Disney, Kingdom Hearts, was just released in Japan. Its an RPG with a Square CGI, a Square story, a Disney sense of humor, and Square and Disney charectars. If the opening movie is any indication of what's to come when Kingdom Hearts becomes available in the US, its going to be the best thing to hit the PS2 since, well, Final Fantasy X :)." Very positive review. Gotta admit, I'm intrigued.
Update by J :
Check out
this review too, with a ton of screenshots, from
the GIA:
"By all rights [it] should be an awkward, conflated mess... instead, it's an epic piece of crossover fanfiction."
So, Disney's NOT evil this week?
Remember who owns Fritz Hollings.
I didn't mention this up above, but there is more...
- Many of the side charectars, shop keepers, etc., in Kingdom Hearts are well known Disney charectars or charectars from past Squaresoft games. For instance, Donald Duck is the chief magician to the court. Cid from FFVII runs an items shop. Even Wakka from FFX makes an appearance.
- The Disney voice acting and animation seem to be authentic. i.e. Donald Duck moves and sounds exactly how you would expect him to. Check out one of the movies where he enters the throne room and says good morning (in Japanese), and runs into Pluto. The camera angles and the voices look like they are right out of those old Disney cartoons that we all grew up with.
Last but not least... Make sure to check out the opening movie. Its ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, and 10-times better than any FMV from FFX, which is saying a lot as FFX FMVs look 10-times better than any CGI DVD I've seen.
....not funny at all? Bland 'family' entertainment wih the odd fart joke thrown in?
I posted a copy here
Kingdom_intro.mov
Yeah, I'm intrigued too, Taco, but it's still Disney. Ever hear the one about Michael Eisner in the Senate hearing saying he couldn't think of a single reason for Michael Dell to sell PCs without hardware copy prevention except to sell to infringers?
/. that you'd still consider giving money to these sleezy bastards.
I can't believe as an EDITOR (the founder, no less) of
I don't care how "great" this game might be. It's Disney, therefore I'm not buying it.
The Free desktop that Just Works
I saw this in the store the other day (I live in Japan), and it didn't seem too impressive. Granted, all I saw was the box and the intro screen they had running on a demo machine (no controllers plugged in), but my impression was that it seems to be aimed at little kids. Anyway, it didn't make me feel like buying it or even want to play it.
:)
Mod away, I just thought someone who reads at -1 might want to know
By the way, I am a Square/RPG fan and I do own a PS2 so it's not like I'm biased against it for some weird reason.
..what would happen if the incredibly creative talents of Senator Hollings and Disney got together?
The CBDTPA!
*sigh*
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
...its going to be the best thing to hit the PS2 since, well, Final Fantasy X
Excluding Metal Gear Solid 2 and GTA 3 which, if I remember correctly, were much better received critically and sold more than FFX.
Final Fantasy has basically become watching a DVD with a broken pause feature: you have to intermittantly hit a button to get the movie started again.
Freedom Force, on the other hand, is as close to a pen-n-paper RPG experience you can get. Exciting, personal, and thrilling. Oh and replayable. Another classic from Crave/Looking Glass.
BTW Kingdome Hearts does look cool though. It seems Sony is going to try and take the demographic they don't have: the kids from Nintendo.
What is music when you despise all sound?
...a Disney sense of humor...
You mean the sense of humor that says "You vill vatch our product, und you vill like it, or you suffer penalties under federal law."
Is that the sense of humor you mean?
Edith Keeler Must Die
Hmm...
One day, Slashdot publishes a story about the CBDTPA, saying how horrible it was, and how they hope that Senator Hollings gets voted out.
The next day, Slashdot publishes a story about a collaboration between Square and Disney, with Square everything except a Disney sense of humor and characters from both.
Now, I'm willing to give Taco the benefit of the doubt. Maybe both Disney and Square are in bed with Hollings, so it makes sense that they're working together. However, he then says, "Very positive review. Gotta admit, I'm intrigued." Aside from the fact that any game with a "Disney sense of humor" and Donald Duck as the court's chief magician is bound to suck, Taco is endorsing the very company who bought a senator to make a law to outlaw open-source!
<sarcasm>Maybe the CBDTPA isn't that bad after all. You won't have your PS2 Linux kit, or Linux anywhere for that matter, but you'll have all the Square-Disney collaborations you could ever want!</sarcasm>
Slashdot is "News for nerds, stuff that matters", right? Well, you're faced with a "difficult" decision. Which matters more: Linux or Disney?
creative talents of ... Disney
So this time they didn't use someone else's story, or make a sequel? Oh, wait, they reused characters originally drawn decades ago.. never mind.
While we're at it, anyone see the McDisney ads at Walt Donald's World? "Disney, 100 Years of Magic"
Now unless they count baby Walter's used diapers as "Disney Magic" I don't see how they can reach back to 1902. But I suppose anything's possible when the Marketing Dept. is involved.
Then again, I suppose the 79 years since 1923 isn't quite good enough for the boredroom "executives" who's only creative contribution is the fragrance in the conference room after the catered lunch of Mexican food.
I still think someone ought to make the following movie:
"REVENGE OF DISNEY"
Starring Jackie Chan as Walt E. Disney
A story about a victim of mistaken identity arriving at the very gates of the "Magic Kingdom." Looking around, he sees his own name and only the outline of his beloved character's disembodied head plastered over every flat surface in a display of wanton greed so profound that the enraged cartoonist vows to carry out a one-man campaign to wrest control of the entertainment behemoth from its corporate masters.
Following scenes of frantic, moving, dubbed speeches, gripping courtroom drama, and an action-packed chase through the back hallways of a cineplex on opening night, the film culminates in a spectacular 45-minute "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"-esque kung-fu fight scene in the Disney Corporation's board room as the screaming, elderly, bandanna-wearing animator defeats the entire company's senior management single-handed.
The film ends with Disney, having liquidated the company, and placing its entire portfolio in the public domain, opening an art school with a record $800 million endowment, then retiring to a life of drawing one of a kind cartoons for children in the park.
Truly an instant classic.
Did anyone else read that title as "Square and Disney Team up For Klingon Hearts," or am I just too much of a star trek fan?
Every time you spend a dollar on a Disney film
or buy something advertised on ABC, you are
placing a vote in favor of the DMCA.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
at network hearts.
Oh Kingdom.
I've been coding X *and* win32 in one application today, it has turned my brain to Emmenthal
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent