Things have changed quite a bit in King of the Hill’s fourteenth season, and not just due to the series jumping from Fox’s schedule to Hulu. It’s been years since we last left the Hill family and the revival took this into account, presenting us with much older versions of Hank, Peggy, and Bobby. With the animated series hitting some major viewership heights since its debut, the series looks a little different from its original style and the showrunner was more than happy to explain why the changes were necessary.
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In a recent interview with MSN, King of the Hill’s new showrunner Saladin Patterson discussed how the new animation style might have been jarring to fans of the original series, “I do want to address the art because that’s probably been the most universal thing that has shook the new audience when they saw the previews and things like that — that the animation looks so different. I get it, and I get why people who want to revisit the show may be taken aback a little bit. The new animation style is all digital now, but the truth of the matter is, it is impossible to do the show now the way it was done then.”
King of the Hill Tech Changes
Patterson noted that the technology used to bring the first thirteen seasons to life no longer exists, giving fans a good idea of why the changes were necessary: “The hand-drawn animation, the watercolors, those don’t exist anymore. If they exist, they certainly don’t exist at a cost where you can do a TV show. So it has to be updated, and so we updated it with the current style and makeup of animation that animated shows do. I admit it does look different and maybe jarring to some people. I just want to put out there that even though it’s updated, we still went and tried to give it an age-old look, to make it feel more like the color palette and the landscape of the original, more so than other shows. We certainly went through a lot of back and forth with the background designers and things like that, to make our colors feel closer to what they felt in the original and the tones and things the most that we could.”
Despite the success of the latest season, Hulu has yet to confirm if King of the Hill season fifteen is in the works. With the recent finale seeing Bobby and Connie vowing to attempt forging a romantic relationship, there are plenty of story avenues to be explored in Arlen’s future. Even with Hank and Peggy beginning to acclimate themselves to a very different Texas, there are sure to also be plenty of “fish out of water” stories to explore should King of the Hill return.
Want to see if Arlen, Texas will make a return to the screen? Follow along with ComicBook.com for the latest updates on King of the Hill and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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Image Courtesy of DC Comics -
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Image Courtesy of DC Comics
