How can Kingdom Hearts appeal more to mainstream Disney fans?

[qwertysaur]

If Hannah Montana was in a Kingdom Hearts game I would cry tears of pain

[Depression Moon]

Anyone else down for some Sora, Donald, and Goofy musical action with the cast of High School Musical?

Hell to the smurfing NO!

[Roogle]

Utada Hikaru is as much a western artist as she is a Japanese artist. She was born and raised in the United States. She's fluently bilingual and releases different albums (with different songs, not just translations) in the United States and Japan. She puts out more albums in Japan because she's more popular there.

Hikaru Utada has released select albums in the United States, but, personally, I feel that she is still too underground to be considered a mainstream Western artist. I know that she was born in New York and that she fluently speaks English and Japanese. I think that SuperMillionaire wants to see a mainstream Western artist rather than an underground Western artist with popularity in Japan. The Wikipedia article for Hikaru Utada has more information about her activity in North America. It looks like she is trying to make a comeback in North America, so hopefully this will give her more exposure and help promote the series should she decide to record another song.

[Goldenboko]

So many ideas posted in this thread has made me bleed. Physically, bleed.

KH already appeals to Disney Fans, sure, it may not appeal to current Disney fans, but like nearly everyone else, I grew up with the Disney characters of my generation, so now being able to go back and play a serious game with Disney cameos is actually neat, and a selling point of the game to me. With that said, Atlantica from KHII. Never again.

[RedPouch]

This is late, but:

"Sanctuary" made a bit more sense lyrically, but it was a pretty awful localization of "Passion." There are far too many instances of holding out a single syllable over multiple beats that sounds forced and awkward. They could have done a better job with it, I think.

^ This.

Sanctuary sounded so terrible, it was quite awkward during those moments where she held out those single syllables for too long, as you said. In fact whenever I heard that, I quirked this awkward smile that comes from trying to hide laughter, which is the exact same thing that happened when I saw Matrix Revolutions at the theatre with a couple friends of mine. During Trinity's death scene, Neo lets out this little cry that sounded kind of awkward, and my friends and I bursted out laughing which caused everyone in the theatre to turn around and look at us. But to be fair, I actually held in my laughter the longest, but hearing Amanda crack up made me lose control.

With that said, Atlantica from KHII. Never again.

Seriously, I second this notion.

[Roogle]

Sanctuary sounded so terrible, it was quite awkward during those moments where she held out those single syllables for too long, as you said.

I was disappointed with Sanctuary. Have you seen the music video for Passion? Hikaru Utada is a great musical artist, but I get the feeling that much more work was done for Passion than what was done for Sanctuary. Maybe it would be a better idea if she was allowed to select another song for the North American release or remix her old track enough to make sure that her lyrics can fit the music?

With that said, Atlantica from KHII. Never again.

I liked Ariel as a playable character rather than a singer in a musical. Incidentally, in the first game, she was selected to be a playable character rather than a Princess of Heart despite her status as a Disney Princess.

[qwertysaur]

Passions Music Video is amazing. Hikari's is also hilarious because of how odd it is.

[SuperMillionaire]

First of all, "Sanctuary" was written first, and Utada stated that writing "Passion" was a bit difficult for her because that had to be released first.

Second of all, while I do agree that seeing High School Musical and/or Hannah Montana in KHIII would make absolutely no sense, perhaps Kim Possible and Jake Long: American Dragon would, and even though Hannah Montana won't be in the storyline of the game, perhaps Miley Cyrus and other Disney Channel singers can contribute music to the games. After all, we know that Jesse McCartney is also a singer, so perhaps maybe Roxas should sing in the next game. Furthermore, Disney movies are known for their musical sequences, so having the musical in Atlantica in KHII was a homage to that.

I think that SuperMillionaire wants to see a mainstream Western artist rather than an underground Western artist with popularity in Japan.

Yes, Roogle, you have that one right.

And I still don't get why Ariel wasn't a princess of heart in the KH series, despite her status as a Disney Princess in mainstream Disney media. Perhaps what they should have done is transform her into a human and THEN put her in that capsule.

[RedPouch]

First of all, "Sanctuary" was written first, and Utada stated that writing "Passion" was a bit difficult for her because that had to be released first.

Yes, I have heard this claim before. The fact is, I find it to be a load of crockahooey. Just listening to Sanctuary irritates me to no end as she awkwardly holds way too many single syllables for varying periods of time, just to keep it flowing with the music. Her voice singing the lyrics sounds extremely worked and soaked with far too much effort, making it seem like an unnatural alternate version to the song. It screams "poorly written", and I have no idea how that thing got allowed to be installed as the opening song to their long-anticipated game.

When she sings Passion on the other hand, her voice sounds so natural and the words flow out quite effortlessly, as the words come together a lot more easily. Though I may not understand Japanese, I consider my opinion to hold some validity and merit here, as I used to listen to hundreds of Japanese songs day-in and day-out when I was younger [it came from being a youthful, hardcore anime fan, don't rub it in people], and I got a pretty good sense of their styles and approaches to singing and forming lyrical harmony.

She claims to have written Sanctuary first and Passion afterward? Could've fooled me.

Furthermore, Disney movies are known for their musical sequences, so having the musical in Atlantica in KHII was a homage to that.

I'm aware of that. They're certainly allowed to have their homages to musical sequences from Disney movies. Just don't expect me to like them or want to have anything to do with them, ever again.

[Roogle]

First of all, "Sanctuary" was written first, and Utada stated that writing "Passion" was a bit difficult for her because that had to be released first.

I recall hearing this at the time of the release of Passion that she had written the English version of it first, but it doesn't sound like it to me because of the nature of the music. The Japanese version flows a lot better when actually performing the song because there is not as much syllable elongation as in the English version.

Passion is a longer song than Sanctuary. I think that she may have written Sanctuary first with the basic idea for Kingdom Hearts II in her mind, but then switched over to Passion and worked on that longer because she was going to release it as a single in Japan. I remember reading that the extra parts of Passion have nothing to do with Kingdom Hearts II because she knew that they would not be used for the game. If someone could find the interview or article that discusses the release of Passion, that would be great.

And I still don't get why Ariel wasn't a princess of heart in the KH series, despite her status as a Disney Princess in mainstream Disney media. Perhaps what they should have done is transform her into a human and THEN put her in that capsule.

Maybe they didn't want to have a character that joins the party as a Princess of Heart? Maybe they didn't want to show her as a human because of her story in the first Kingdom Hearts? Alice was made a Princess of Heart despite not being a part of the Disney Princess franchise.

[PuPu]

Other than language, the only other difference between Passion and Sanctuary is that Passsion has a that part where Utada says "My Heart's a Battle Ground"

[Goldenboko]

And I still don't get why Ariel wasn't a princess of heart in the KH series, despite her status as a Disney Princess in mainstream Disney media. Perhaps what they should have done is transform her into a human and THEN put her in that capsule.

Maybe they didn't want to have a character that joins the party as a Princess of Heart? Maybe they didn't want to show her as a human because of her story in the first Kingdom Hearts? Alice was made a Princess of Heart despite not being a part of the Disney Princess franchise.

I think it has to do with the party member thing. It also would've created extra production, as they would've had to reworked Atlantica to match what was going on in the story at the moment (Ariel's capture), thus making it easier production-wise to have an NPC play her place as a Princess of Heart.

Other than language, the only other difference between Passion and Sanctuary is that Passsion has a that part where Utada says "My Heart's a Battle Ground"

I'd say language can be a huge difference. In Latin The Aeneid is a clear case of wonderfully, and masterfully written poetry even to me. Translated into English it really loses that feel and actually sorta stinks

[RedPouch]

Other than language, the only other difference between Passion and Sanctuary is that Passsion has a that part where Utada says "My Heart's a Battle Ground"

Don't you mean the other song? Anyways, language and choice of words makes a dramatic difference when talking about trying to make lyrics seem cohesive with music in the background. Changing the language of the lyrics while keeping the exact same music makes a drastic difference, and is extremely hard to do, as we can clearly see when listening to Sanctuary along with Passion. The former is obviously pretty bad, but I'm pretty sure she at least tried to make it sound good. I doubt she sat there and thought "okay guys, let's make this song sound REALLY terrible". It's something that just happened.

[black orb]

>>> I thought only the Disney fans were into the KH games..

[Roogle]

Other than language, the only other difference between Passion and Sanctuary is that Passsion has a that part where Utada says "My Heart's a Battle Ground"

There is a longer version of Passion that was released in Japan as a single, but there is no equivalent for Sanctuary. Sanctuary only makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts II.