Kingdom Hearts III’s Toy Story Visuals Surprised even Pixar; Big Hero 6 World Earlier in Development

Giuseppe Nelva July 24, 2017 6:15 PM EST

The Toy Story World in Kingdom Hearts III looks so good that it surprised even Pixar, but we'll have to wait some time before we see more of Big Hero 6.

With the reveal of the Toy Story world for Kingdom Hearts III, many were impressed by just how close it looked to the visuals of the film, but fans weren’t the only ones surprised by the expressive toys, as explained by Director Tetsuya Nomura himself in an interview on the Japanese Magazine Weekly Famitsu.

Nomura-san explained that they received sample data [from Pixar], but he didn’t expect to be able to reproduce the source material this faithfully. In the same way, the staff [at Pixar] was also quite surprised.

Since the expressive power of visuals has improved considerably from the first Kingdom Hearts, each world has its own visual style, and even the gameplay gimmicks are different. Nomura-san mentioned that it’s a bit like making many games at the same time, and it’s difficult.

Incidentally, Nomura-san also explained that the Toy Story world is already in an advanced development stage. It was actually ready to be showcased a long time ago, but he had to wait for the reveal according to Disney’s intentions and advertisement plans.

Since Toy Story is a popular property, they discussed when and where it was best to reveal it, and D23 was deemed suitable. Two years ago Big Hero 6 was announced, but it was a sudden request, so at that time it was possible to show only one illustration. This time around, Nomura-san wanted to present an actual video.

He was also asked to give an update on the Big Hero 6 world, and he explained that development is proceeding smoothly, but since it was the last world to be decided, it’s still in an earlier stage of development than the other world.

If you want to read more, you shouldn’t miss our own interview with Tetsuya Nomura himself, directly from D23 expo. Las week, we also saw the release of new Kingdom hearts III screenshots.

Kingdom Hearts III will be released in 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One.