Given how precious Disney can be about its brand, Kingdom Hearts feels like something that wouldn’t typically pass the House of Mouse’s smell test. An anime boy swinging a key around beloved Disney worlds? I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in Square Enix’s initial pitch meeting. Thankfully, ex–Disney CEO Michael Eisner is here to regale us with the tale of…wait…he doesn’t remember why he gave Square Enix the thumbs-up? How could you forget something so important to the pantheon of Disney characters and to instilling the power of friendship in millennials?
Game File attended a press conference for Delphi Interactive, a talent matchmaker in the video game industry that has had a hand in games like 007 First Light, at which Eisner, an investor in the company, was present. Given the chance, Game File’s Stephen Totilo decided to ask him about his time as Disney’s CEO from the 1980s to 2005, when he would have greenlit Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix’s Disney/Final Fantasy crossover series that has gone on to have an entire life and lore of its own in the past 24 years. Eisner probably gave the go-ahead on hundreds of deals and projects in his time running Disney, so I’m not surprised he doesn’t remember every detail, but I am surprised that, according to Game File, he didn’t immediately remember Kingdom Hearts when asked.
I ask him if he can recall saying okay to a game called Kingdom Hearts.
No, he replies.
You were pitched the game in Tokyo, I tell him. It was Final Fantasy plus Disney characters.
Oh, I remember now, he says.
Do you recall why you said yes?
I don’t, he tells me.
Well, that’s a shame. Would have loved insight into why Disney would let Square Enix do as much crazy stuff with Disney characters as Kingdom Hearts has done. But it’s not like Disney has been entirely opposed to weirder, edgier projects over the years. Especially in video games, where the also-strange Epic Mickey and Disney Mirrorverse exist alongside Kingdom Hearts. Maybe we’ll hear more about the original pitch when the series gets its D23 retrospective panel next month?