Square Enix Reveals Kingdom Hearts III Voice Cast
Suqare Enix has revealed various members of the voice cast for Kingdom Hearts III, confirming that many of those who voiced characters in the Disney films that are featured in the game will reprise their roles. The list of confirmed roles is as follows:
- Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast) as Olaf from Frozen
- Kristen Bell (Frozen, Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as Anna from Frozen
- Idina Menzel (Frozen, Enchanted, Rent) as Elsa from Frozen
- Jonathan Groff (Frozen, Mindhunter, American Sniper) as Kristoff from Frozen
- Zachary Levi (Tangled, Chuck, Thor: The Dark World) as Flynn Rider from Tangled
- Donna Murphy (Tangled, Center Stage) as Mother Gothel from Tangled
- John Ratzenberger (Toy Story, Cheers, The Incredibles, Coco) as Hamm from Toy Story
- Wallace Shawn (Toy Story, The Princess Bride, The Good Wife) as Rex from Toy Story
- Tate Donovan (Hercules, The O.C., Argo) as Hercules from Hercules
- Kevin R. McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean Series) as Gibbs from the Pirates of the Caribbean series
- Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
- Bill Farmer as Goofy
- and Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, A.I.) reprising his role as Sora
Originally announced in 2013, Kingdom Hearts III is the third mainline game in the Kingdom Hearts series and once again follows Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy as they travel to various worlds from Disney franchises. Kingdom Hearts III is set to be released worldwide on January 29, 2019, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
This list is bizarre. Hamm and Rex have voice actors, but Woody and Buzz do not? Seems like they’re only listing the VAs if they’re the originals from the movies. Either that, or maybe they’re still working on trying to get the originals for the ones they haven’t listed so it’s not decided yet?
square and disney have been very proud to keep the ‘classic’ voices in the franchise, up to the point asking 90 year old women to reprise roles they did in their teens. The mouse doesn’t like to outright admit that the facade is cracking by saying they don’t like talking to Tim Allen and that Tom Hanks’ day rate would blow the budget to shreds.
Yeah, I get why they’re doing it, but I think not announcing voice actors for characters that have appeared frequently in released content, while announcing VAs for minor characters draws even more attention to it. Don’t they realize how awkward it looks?
After KHII, I don’t expect the big names of Toy Story or Pirates of the Caribbean to return for KHIII. That said, Frozen’s cast is back, and they confirmed the male lead and main villain of Tangled. Thus, for me, absence of Mandy Moore for Rapunzel is the real big eyebrow raiser.