Tetsuya Nomura confirmed that the worlds of The Lion King (1994) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) will never be used again. Later at the trailer for E3 2018, it was revealed that Simba will be returning as a summon, similar to Kingdom Hearts (2002).
This is the first time in the franchise that Pixar movies have worlds as well as the first appearance of Pixar characters.
A new feature for this game now includes full voice acting in minor character interactions other than just in cutscenes. This replaces the worded dialogue scenes from the past Kingdom Hearts titles.
At E3 2015, Tangled (2010) is the first Disney movie confirmed to have a world in this game. Director Tetsuya Nomura revealed that Tangled (2010) was one of the first worlds to be considered for this game.