Courage the Cowardly Dog

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This article is dedicated to Thea White, Arthur Anderson, and Lionel Wilson


Courage the Cowardly Dog
Stupid dog! You make me look bad! OOGA BOOGA BOOGA
-Eustace Bagge.
Genre: Slapstick
Comedy
Horror
Running Time: 22 minutes
Country: United States
Release Date: November 12, 1999 – November 22, 2002
Network(s): Cartoon Network (Worldwide)
Boomerang (Worldwide)
Created by: John R. Dilworth
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Starring: Marty Grabstein
Thea White
Lionel Wilson (Seasons 1 and 2 - 14 episodes of season 3)
Arthur Anderson (The rest of season 3 and 4)
Simon Prebble
Paul Schoeffler
Seasons: 4
Episodes: 52

Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated horror comedy television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network as part of the network's Cartoon Cartoons block.

Plot

Courage is a timid pink dog with paranoia problems. He and his owners live on a farm in the middle of Nowhere... literally. Despite being far away from everything and everyone, that doesn't stop a whole bunch of bizarre adversaries from turning up like living nightmares. Courage must overcome his fear and help save his owners, Eustace and Muriel, from ghosts and paranormal spirits living on the farm. Although Muriel loves Courage, Eustace loves to tease him and scare him.

Why It Fills You With Courage

  1. It's one of Cartoon Network's original first series.
  2. It handles dark subject matters extremely well, such as domestic abuse, lesbianism, and implied prostitution.
  3. Amazing sense of horror, as the villains in the show are delightfully creepy for its rating.
  4. Great and creative character designs.
  5. Likable and memorable characters, such as the main characters Courage, Eustace Bagge (despite his flaws), and Muriel are very protective of each other.
  6. Memorable creatures and villains, such as The Computer, Shirley, Katz, Le Quack, Freaky Fred, Benton Tarantella, The Snowman, and most notably, King Ramses.
  7. Amazing soundtrack, such as the background music playing in the intro and theme songs of various characters (such as Katz).
  8. Unique humor and slapstick.
  9. The funniest thing that always happens is when Eustace gets his comeuppance almost in every episode was the funniest thing throughout the entire series.
  10. Many Memorable quotes such as "The things I do for love." "Ooooooooo!", "Oh my." "Stupid dog!","Ooga Booga Booga!" "What did I do?" and more.
  11. Amazing animation and art style that was done by Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest (which also worked on Garfield and Friends), especially by 1999 standards, due to how amazing it looks today, it has aged well, especially for people and viewers who like the show, the color palette is oddly beautiful and very nice to see, the CGI is downright creative and unique they seem if they got it right.
  12. Interesting and smart writing that mixes horror with comedy.
  13. Top-notch voice acting, especially from Marty Grabstein, who voices Courage, where they put a lot of effort into expressing their characters and it feels like they want to do it at all.
  14. Beautifully detailed background design.
  15. It got a 2014 revival special titled "The Fog of Courage" and a crossover movie with Scooby-Doo in 2021 titled Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog which were well received.
  16. The show is a throwback to cartoons and animators from the Golden Age of Animation such as Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Ward Kimball, Max and Dave Fleischer, as well as a few others.
  17. Lots of memorable episodes such as:

Stupid Dog Qualities

  1. A few scenes can be way too scary and disturbing, even for older viewers and the standards of life and nature sometimes, such as the infamous "Violin Girl Scene" or "You're not perfect" scene in the series finale. It reached the point where the show even got banned or censored in some countries because of this.
  2. There are some bad/weak episodes such as:
  3. The animation and CGI, while amazing, can be very ugly and grotesque, even by laws of nature and life sometimes (as in NSFL culture, even though it's not really like that), with the worst offender being the blue bugle in “Perfect”.
  4. Some characteristics are not done well:
    • Eustace Bagge, one of Courage's owners, always teases and scares Courage using his mask for absolutely no good reason.
    • Ma Bagge, Eustace's abusive mother and the one person Muriel dislikes.
    • Di Lung, who created a robot in one episode to replace and sadistically beat up Courage.
  5. Courage, the main protagonist has less dialogue after the first season.
  6. Plot Hole: Throughout the show, Eustace is seen speaking proper dialogue, even though he has no teeth. In real life, having no teeth means old people cannot say dialogue properly.
  7. The Stretch Films logo can be a nightmare fuel to some people. Though, it is better than the Klasky Csupo logo

Trivia

  • This show was banned in India, according to a video online.
  • The names Muriel and Eustace are taken from the middle names of Chandler Bing and Ross Geller of Friends (1994).
  • Courage's dialogue decreased after the first season. This is because the executives at Cartoon Network thought Courage "talked too much" and wanted his dialogue cut short.
  • Lionel Wilson (Eustace) quit halfway through the series before his death on April 30, 2003, and was replaced by Arthur Anderson.
    • Thea White (Muriel) also died on July 31, 2021.
  • This was voice director Peter Fernandez's favorite show that he worked on.
  • Tim Chi Ly, who voices the recurring character Di Lung, was one of the show's animators.
  • Throughout the show, John Dilworth's name was somewhere seen in the environment.
    • In addition to hiding his name (or DIL) in every episode, a sketch of creator John Dilworth can be seen throughout most episodes in various locations (predominantly on the wall near the stairs in the house).
  • Courage originated as a side character called Hamilton in a grotesquely animated short called "Smart Talk with Raisin" that first aired as a segment in episode 1 of season 3 of MTV's "Liquid Television" animated anthology series. The character was then completely reworked and renamed to star in a short called "The Chicken from Outer Space" which aired as an episode of season 1 of "The Cartoon Cartoon Show" and became the de facto pilot for *"Courage the Cowardly Dog" series which was animated and written in the same fashion and tone. There was one more Courage the Cowardly Dog short called "The Fog of Courage" that was released in 2014 as a proposed CGI pilot for the revival of the show, and it's also designed and written in the same tone as the original show.
  • In 2021, the show received a crossover movie with Scooby-Doo! titled "Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog."

Videos

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