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After watching the recently released Disney and Pixar animated film Up, I was overwhelmed with a disappointing realization - There are no Pixar movies featured in Kingdom Hearts.

This realization comes at a time where it is becoming clear that the series' use of Disney is beginning to become stale, with players having experienced certain Disney worlds three or four times at this point. Eventually, there is only so much Disney animation source material that Square Enix can hope to use, and the series will eventually have to branch out to other Disney properties.

Critics of this idea are quick to forget that this branching out has already occurred. Kingdom Hearts 2 experimented with live action Disney movies with the introduction of Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Paranoids of Tron fame. Both worlds were met with fantastic reception, with players praising the unique presentation of the locales. It would only make sense to take this broadening scope of the series even further, to 3D animation.

And who better to adapt quality 3D animation material then from the the industry masters themselves, Pixar. With quality release after quality release, from Toy Story to Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. to Ratatouille, Pixar has been one success story after another. Even better, almost all of their worlds and characters are a perfect fit for the mystical and zany universe of Kingdom Hearts. Compare this to Disney Studio's own recent offerings, such as Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons, which were both critically flawed and commercially awkward, scoring either average or sub par scores. Up, on the other hand, has averaged a phenomenal 98% average among critics, while WALL-E has grossed over half a billion worldwide. It is unsurprisingly clear where the movie goer's preferences stand.

Hopefully both Square Enix and Disney take note of this when it comes to future releases, such as Kingdom Hearts 3 or Birth by Sleep. Turning a blind eye would be a missed opportunity.

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