King of the Hill (KotH) is a cartoon I like very much recently. From the pilot broadcast in 1997 to the cut in 2008, KotH has been in decline since the fifth season. In the sixth season of the show, the two main creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels began to gradually reduce their supervision of the script. This led to some irresponsible script writers to portray the characters disappointingly, indicating that KotH could not after all. And Fox's other two cartoon giants The Simpons and Family Guy will keep pace in the future.
Of course, in its golden age, KotH was an extremely successful American cartoon, and the reason why it is so important in the history of American cartoons is also because of its unique style: close to reality. KotH's painting style and character creation are the closest to reality in American cartoons I have ever seen, and the closeness to reality has become the reason why it is so unique in the cartoon world. It has a kind of paradox.
In an American cartoon world where the CalArt style is flooding, KotH's style of painting can be described as a clear stream. Take fox and its two cartoons about the same period as an example (Figure 1), you can feel KotH thick from the poster. The breath of "hillies". Two or three years ago, when I was still obsessed with Adventure Times, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and Rick and Morty, I saw works like KotH's style. I still refused, but I had some aesthetic appreciation for CalArt characters. When I was tired, the down-to-earth style of KotH became my spiritual food.
In terms of character creation, KotH also does not lose to any excellent works, even better than some works (such as Family Guy). The early script was very successful in shaping many characters in the play, and the plot advancement in each episode is relatively independent. In the middle, their images are gradually filled and become real and full.
I really like KotH’s role of Hank Hill. He is the most upright and reliable (of course the oldest) male protagonist in my history of American cartoon watching. Hank can be described as a textbook model. Husband, he dumbly loves his wife and children, in order to give his family the best life, he works hard. Although he is rigid and likes to follow the rules, his philosophy is always at the forefront of the times. In the late 1990s, Texas was still a very conservative place, but Hank was able to accept his wife to teach sex education in his son's junior high school, support gender equality, Racial equality and homosexual love, he will also accept his only son Bobby's hobby (playing comedy) different from normal boys, and support it (although he has been working hard to transform Bobby and hope he can be more manly). Looking at all the characters in KotH, Hank is the one with the least shortcomings and the most mentally normal. Although KotH’s laughter is mainly focused on Bobby (this is why KotH is not very popular, but Bobby’s emoji is very popular. ), but Hank is undoubtedly the spiritual pillar in this drama. Without Hank, KotH's plot would be difficult to advance. Compared to other mainstream cartoons, characters like Hank are actually rare. For example, Family Guy, which was at the same time as KotH, tells the story of a family’s daily life like KotH, but Peter’s role in FG is more for fun, and Peter is often a dead-end character who asks for trouble. , And Hank is a pottery character who is troubled to find him.
Objectively speaking, KotH’s script writing does not have very bright spots. Most of the episodes of each season tell a relatively independent plot, and then the last episode of each season will leave a suspense, and then the first episode of the following season The plot of one episode is connected. In the later period when the two main creators gradually retired, KotH’s script showed obvious routines. Some characters changed their temperament and set to collapse (for example, Peggy), and even some characters were directly cut off because they were difficult to handle (Laoma). The timeline has also become very chaotic. Christmas, Thanksgiving and the characters’ birthdays have appeared many times, making it difficult to keep up with the shaping of the characters, so they have become as fixed as the characters in FG. And in the later period, the plots of each episode are rarely connected, and most of them use two-line plots. I personally do not reject double lines, because this is a commonly used narrative technique in American dramas. Double lines can make the plot fuller, and if used properly, it can also increase the comedy effect. However, the double line plots in the later stages of KotH are mostly derived from the same event. The two parallel events in the TV show make it easy for viewers to feel bored during the viewing process, just like watching TV while watching two channels back and forth.
Although KotH failed to live as long as other Fox cartoons in the end, it is a unique existence in cartoon history. Like The Simpsons, it is full of the grievances of middle-class families, but it is more grounded. Like FG, it will spoof some celebrities. , But not as vulgar as FG; its painting style is as clear as South Park, but it is not as bad as South Park. It doesn't have the brains of Rick & Morty and AT, and it doesn't have as many good songs as Steven Universe (it should be called melocartoon!), but it (the first 5 seasons) is so addictive. This drama has been emphasizing a kind of stability of life. Going home from get off work, friends stand in a row in the backyard, open a can of beer, and don't need to chat eagerly, and life begins quietly.
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