One of the slightly surprising things about Kingdom Hearts 2 was that it covered much of the same grounds as the original. Despite the plethora of Disney franchises that exist, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh all made repeat appearances in addition to a few other Disney movies. Kingdom Hearts 3 has been announced for both the Xbox One and PS4, though there is still plenty of speculation on which Disney franchises will appear in the game. If Square Enix is looking to diversify, the following movies would make great choices to appear in Kingdom Hearts 3.
The Black Cauldron – This movie almost seems like the inspiration for the heartless. While it is something of a black sheep of Disney movies, due to weak performance in theaters, it has a particularly impressive cast of demonic bad guys and a villain that is absolutely terrifying. A level based on this movie would almost certainly feature a haunted forest, a key blade based off the magical sword in the movie, and a final confrontation with the dreadful Horned King.
Darkwing Duck – Despite the fact that Disney purchased Marvel, Marvel superheroes are unlikely to appear in Kingdom Hearts 3. But, the Darkwing Duck universe allows Square Enix to have its cake and eat it too. This television series had a host of zany and cool villains that would make for excellent mini-bosses. The level could be set up similar to Traverse Town, except more obviously at night and with the vast majority of game play on the rooftops, rather than on streets. The entire Fearsome Five would make for a wonderful final boss fight.
The Emperor’s New Groove – If the level was made anything like the movie, this would be a level filled with climbing up cliffs, swinging on vines, jumping chasms, and running from Kronk, all while transformed into a harmless animal. This would give the game designers an opportunity to make up for the painstaking grind of the Deep Jungle from the original game. The movie is a little sparse on villains, but that won’t be a problem during the running sequences. And once you do finally revert to your normal form, a final battle with a potion drinking, constantly transforming Kronk and Ysma would really make for an epic world.
Treasure Planet – Like The Black Cauldron, this was another underperforming Disney movie. But, more than just about any Disney world other than Tron, it has amazing visuals. Imagine, if you will, Captain Hook’s ship, except traveling through space and occasionally landing on alien planets. This movie doesn’t have a single solid villain because Silver eventually proves to be relatively likeable, but it could be used as an alternative to the continually awful mechanic of gummy ships.
Cars – This franchise often likes to have at least one oddball level per game. The Cars movies provide a perfect opportunity to have a racing level. It would have to be an optional level like Atlantica was in Kingdom Hearts 2, but it could still be a lot of fun if done right. Also, unlike Atlantica, this level would actually make context within the story of the movie, rather than just involve meaningless mini-games for no conceivable reason.
Wreck-It-Ralph – This is yet another movie that features cars, but unlike Cars, there is no reason to insist on having a race in this one. In fact, it would make much more sense to basically take on the role of Ralph and jump around through various video games. The game could include the brilliant car building mini-game from the movie, but then, instead of racing, your job could be to run around outside the race track and help Vanellope win by fighting off heartless that would interfere with her race. And, of course, Turbo would be the obvious final boss of the level, leading to a rather epic fight that would probably involve a whole parcel of cy-bugs.
Frozen – Between a giant snow monster and Elsa herself, this movie has a lot of potential for epic battles. Any good level would start with Elsa as the nominal villain, but once you defeat her in an icy battle, she would join your party and fight for you. Fighting side by side with the Snow Queen would be amazing, even if you could only do it on a single world. Also, there is no better Disney franchise for allowing characters to skate around or move on ice slides.
