For those who are not aware, China have recently banned that all media related to A.A. Milne and Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the character should not now shown in various media or sold in any merchandise form in the country. The reason for this was because of netizens created comparison memes of the cute bear and current Chinese President Xin Jinping.
The Chinese version of the trailer of Kingdom Hearts III which featured the world of the Hundred Acre Wood world of Winnie the Pooh was totally different as they censored Winnie the Pooh by covering him in white. Screenshots of the said trailer were leaked recently.
The original video trailer can be seen below:
Website Comicbook.com reached out to Square Enix and have not made comment on the issue.
Kingdom Hearts III will be released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25 (Japan) and January 29 (West). The following confirmed worlds in the game are Toy Story, Big Hero 6, Monsters Inc., Tangled, Frozen, and Pirates of the Carribean. Square Enix also confirmed the return of the Olympus Coliseum world.
The opening theme song titled “Face my Fears” will be a collaboration of music producer Skrillex, Japanese singer icon Utada Hikaru, and record producer Poo Bear. Utada will also be singing the ending theme song titled “Don’t Think Twice” (“Chikai” or “Oath” for the song containing Japanese lyrics).
During Tokyo Game Show in September, game director Tetsuya Nomura said the upcoming game is “most definitely not the end of Kingdom Hearts.” He is also expressed that he wishes to continue Sora’s story and confirms that the final game will have a Xehanort as the main enemy. Kingdom Hearts III will also have a secret movie and the game staff is still deciding on where to where to implement it into the highly-anticipated game.
The franchise is also getting a Kingdom Hearts VR Experience game which will be launched this holiday season for free in English. Sony will also release VR experience of two songs performed by Utada Hikaru this winter which is from her recent concert tour that happened this year.
Source: Comicbook.com