A a grand crossover/mashup between Disney and Final Fantasy, it goes without saying that the long-running Kingdom Hearts series would take players to countless worlds courtesy of the House of Mouse. These action RPGs let gamers of all ages interact with their favorite characters and experience timeless stories that last a lifetime.
Of course, certain liberties must be taken. Kingdom Hearts often tweaks the plot of each Disney film, either to condense the story or tailor it to fit in with the series' mythology. Sometimes, the developers don't go as far with the content, and nowhere is this more apparent than the deaths. You wouldn't normally associate the family-friendly Disney with darkness, but these scenes might make you think twice.
10 Evil Queen
Despite Birth by Sleep adopting a fragmented narrative for its three playable characters, the story of Snow White still unfolds how you'd expect. Once Aqua reaches this world, the princess is already in a deep sleep. Her Dwarf friends mention how they drove off the queen/witch who poisoned her.
The movie actually shows this. What a novel idea! The angry Dwarfs chase the queen to the top of a mountain. During her attempts to escape, lightning strikes the ledge she's standing on, sending her plummeting to her doom. A pack of vultures then come to feed on her carcass. Even in its debut film, Disney didn't shy away from scaring kids.
9 Megara
Betrayal demands redemption. After manipulating Hercules on behalf of Hades, this sarcastic spy saves the would-be hero from being crushed by a column. Her life literally hangs by a thread, and the Sisters of Fate cut that thread, sending her soul to the Underworld. The visuals obviously borrow from Greek mythology, making for a powerful interpretation of someone's last moments.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Hades just chucks Meg into the Well of Souls. She still winds up in the same place, and Hercules still dives in after her. How she gets there is just far more mundane.
8 Master Control Program
A more sadistic version of HAL 9000, the MCP represents total control of an otherwise free system. As such, no tears are shed when Tron and Sora delete him in a flash of light.
The 1982 film takes a bizarre turn at this moment. The MCP was originally a chess program, presumably resembling the other anthropomorphized programs at one point. Before deletion, his face briefly changes to that of an old man. Reverting to such a vulnerable, human state before dying is a surprise, and it carries eerie implications for what Tron just did and how a seemingly harmless program can be used for nefarious purposes. Those feelings are absent in Kingdom Hearts II; he's just another bad guy to beat.
7 Mother Gothel
One of the more annoying Disney foes has one of the more gruesome ends in Tangled. Without Rapunzel's magical hair to sustain her, Gothel ages rapidly. Her panic causes her to tumble out of the tower, turning to dust on the way down.
Kingdom Hearts III maintains this to a point, but players need something to fight. So, Marluxia turns the old crone into a giant Heartless. Only then can the story continue. Luckily, she doesn't turn back into a human. It might have been weird seeing Sora, Donald, and Goofy beating an elderly woman to death.
6 The Mountain Village
Mulan and company encounter a mountain village in both the movie and Kingdom Hearts II. The game uses this purely as a save spot and moogle point; it's a place of respite before the big battle. As such, seeing it destroyed has no impact. All it does is put Shang out of commission.
The film's village is a shock. Charred ruins lay in front of a blood-red sky, and all that's left of the people is a little girl's doll. The haunting scene is amplified when the heroes discover the remains of the Imperial Army. Since his father was the general, this is a more personal blow for Shang. Moreover, it paints the Huns in a horrifying light.
5 Ursula
Since Kingdom Hearts II more directly adapts The Little Mermaid (complete with the songs), it should come as no surprise that this sea witch's death mirrors her film counterpart. She still gets impaled. The difference is that Eric throws Triton's trident, which goes straight through her and leaves her flailing as she dies.
It's more visually raw in the movie. Although viewers see no blood, Eric steers his ship right into Ursula. Seeing her wrapped around the vessel as it sinks beneath the sea is a striking sight. It may be less clean, but it gets the job done.
4 Sabor
This frenzied feline is a thorn in players' sides, attacking them throughout their time in Tarzan's jungle. All good things must come to an end, though, as Sora and company eventually beat the predator for good. He unceremoniously drops dead, and the heroes go about their business.
That's a far cry from Tarzan killing Sabor with his spear. The ape man then lifts his foe up and lets out his iconic yell, celebrating his victory for all to see. The image of a Disney hero displaying his enemy's corpse is a wild departure, which is probably why execs haven't regained the rights to the property.
3 Captain Barbossa
It's amazingly weird that Kingdom Hearts kept so much of Pirates of the Caribbean. That said, the developers did cut a few corners with the films' twisted subject matter. Take Barbossa's death. Not only does a river of blood flow from his pistol wound, but his face tells a chilling story all its own. His subtle inflections show great joy at finally feeling something, but this slowly gives way to fear as he realizes it's all over.
The game's Barbossa pulls a few exaggerated body movements before falling to the ground. Maybe the developers didn't want to show much blood, or it could be the limitations on photorealistic faces at the time. Either way, it doesn't feel as uncomfortably intimate.
2 Clayton
1999's Tarzan is one of Disney's darkest movies, evidenced by two entries on this list. The climax sees Clayton take to the trees in pursuit or Tarzan, who promptly entangles him in a slew of vines. Furiously attempting to free himself, he accidentally severs the one he's holding. The vines catch him around the neck as he falls, and the hunter is hanged.
In contrast, his last stand in Kingdom Hearts is downright silly. He's so weak on his own that he rides a chameleon Heartless, which doesn't look stupid at all. His defeat causes the chameleon to collapse on the hunter, crushing him. How dully conventional.
1 Scar
The usurper lion initially appears to go out like he did in the movie. He and Simba have the slow-motion fight before his nephew tosses him off Pride Rock. The twist comes when he climbs back up as a Heartless and battles the whole party. Only after that does he finally collapse and die.
Such a fake-out is nonexistent in The Lion King. Instead, a dethroned Scar runs afoul of an angry army of hyenas, the same "friends" he threw under the bus moments before. The cackling canines then proceed to eat him alive. Talk about instant karma. It's a shockingly dark turn on leadership, one that puts every Organization XIII back-stab to shame.