The Utterly Deranged Weirdness of Courage the Cowardly Dog

[nickyv917]

Did you watch it?

What do you remember about it?

Did you find parts of it as f***ed up as I did?

What's your favorite thing from it?

Do you think it would be popular among kids today?

 

[Gatx]

Fucking giant space squids... Can't watch the episode without crying or even think about it for too long without tearing up...

 

[Shadowstar38]

There's one where Courage's owners die and turn into puppets. He ends up basically playing with their corpses in an attempt to mimic a normal life.

It's even more creepy when you find out that was suppose to be the final episode to air. That's...how they wanted to go out. What the fuck.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

The episode with the red eyed chicken used to scare the shit out of me, especially when the old man starting turning into a giant chicken. Yeah looking back I think the guys making the show kind of forget that the show was meant for kids sometimes

 

[Evonisia]

I can't remember specific episodes, but whenever I saw it as a child my mind was crippled by the oddness.

I think there was a scene were Courage's parents are abducted and when he finds them they've replaced the furniture with themselves.

 

[Silvanus]

I love the show. It was my favourite cartoon as a kid, and the only one I really bugged my mum to let me stay up late to watch (used to air at 10, I think?). Rameses scared me quite a bit, but I could deal with most of the monsters and villains.

Fucking giant space squids... Can't watch the episode without crying or even think about it for too long without tearing up...

A thousand times this. Beautiful episode, along with the penultimate one, where Courage finds the vet who separated him from his parents.


Also...

Spoiler: Fancy a bit of sport before dying, dear boy?

 

[Greg White]

I remember that show...the episode where the mummy is inflicting curses on them stands out most...and now I have the song from that episode stuck in my head from thinking about it.

 

[Fappy]

The CG used for the pharaoh freaking me out as a kid DX

 

[Arakasi]

No discussion of Courage the Cowardly Dog is complete without mention of Freaky Fred.

 

[Furbyz]

I always thought it was wrong to call Courage cowardly. Yes, he's terrified, but despite his fear, he saves the old woman he adores time and time again. And he still saves her jerk of a husband too.

Courage isn't cowardly. He's goddamn heroic.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

I remember that show...the episode where the mummy is inflicting curses on them stands out most...and now I have the song from that episode stuck in my head from thinking about it.

KING RAMSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSEEEESSSSSS

THE MAN IN GAUZE, THE MAN IN GAUZE!

OT: By far my favorite show when I was a kid. My brother gave me a copy of Season 1 for Christmas last year. King Ramses' Curse isn't as scary as I remember it being, but that may be due to the obvious of having grown up.

It is still creepy, though.

My favorite episode is the one where Eustace and Courage turn into kangaroo monsters and fight in France. To this day, the episode where Courage finds out what happened to his parents is the saddest thing I've ever seen in a cartoon.

Bar none.

 

[josemlopes]

I always thought it was wrong to call Courage cowardly. Yes, he's terrified, but despite his fear, he saves the old woman he adores time and time again. And he still saves her jerk of a husband too.

Courage isn't cowardly. He's goddamn heroic.

Thats the joke.

OT: I loved it as a kid, dont really know why now that I think about it, there are a lot of reasons for me to like it now but then?

The use of CG really made certain scenes a lot more creepy then they should:

 

[MetalMagpie]

I had completely forgotten about that cartoon. I remember it being bloody terrifying.

I just watched this round-up to remind myself:

I was right.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

One thing about short cartoons: Obviously, the goal is to cram in as many gags as possible - but it all just turns into a trite, incoherent mess unless some sort of story can be shoehorned in as well. (Basically, the audience must be given some idea of WHY Jerry is hitting Tom with a frying pan, and the simple fact that one character is a cat and the other a mouse does not always cut it.)

Over the years, animators have devised some absolutely brilliant ways of setting up fairly elaborate conflicts quickly, a skill I greatly admire. I've probably seen less than ten complete episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog, but one of them did provide one of the greatest examples of this I've seen in a cartoon:

I don't know the title of the episode in question, but it begins with Muriel baking some pastries and showing Courage her big closet full of "#1 Pastry Chef" - awards. Then it cuts to recurring villain Katz, at the neighboring farm, cursing Muriel while staring at his own closet. Which is full of "#2 Pastry Chef" - awards.

And that's the entire rest of the episode free to focus on Katz trying to destroy Courage and Muriel in a James Bond-style death trap!

 

[MCerberus]

I remember being freaked the hell out about the episode with the alligator puppeteer

Spoiler

Everyone is turned into a lifeless puppet. Courage recreates normal life by pulling on the strings. HAPPY END

 

[silver wolf009]

That show is, in a lot ways, my childhood. I love the crap out of it.

And of course it was fucked up in the head, it prided itself on being like that.

My favorite thing though, got to be Courage the Fly. It just works really well.

 

[gibboss28]

You know I remember watching this show for the first time when it was a cartoon cartoon. I fucking loved it, thought it was utterly weird and just wonderful. Then the show. Dear god the show. So far This is one of the only shows I can say that has ever scared me. To this day I just can't watch it because it just fucked me up as a kid. Though that being said I did watch an episode a while back so who knows, might just give the entire thing a revisit. The other that scared me shitless show was the Moomins...there was just one episode of that thing that just...god damn.

But anyway, I remember one episode that I loved of it though which was a parody of The Island of Doctor Moreau and all the people on the Island were being turned in to household appliances and other such machines. Oh Katz you insane bastard. What will you do next?

 

[chikusho]

What I love most about it is the thought that everything happening in the show is actually normal life for Muriel and Eustace. The audience sees the world through the eyes of Courage, who is so afraid of everything around him that it turns into giant monsters in his mind.

 

[Broderick]

I loved the show and still do, I have the first season on dvd! I just loved all the different ways it set up conflicts and morals while still being it's weird, wacky, borderline disturbing self. Some of my favorite episodes are the ones with The Sea serpent singing Carmen, the hunchback bell ringer, and of course the space squids. I also like the episode "The mask" which dealt with some very heavy themes like domestic abuse, love the hell out of it though. I always thought Bunny and Kitty was lesbian when I was younger heh.

 

[MCerberus]

What I love most about it is the thought that everything happening in the show is actually normal life for Muriel and Eustace. The audience sees the world through the eyes of Courage, who is so afraid of everything around him that it turns into giant monsters in his mind.

That theory requires A LOT of mental gymnastics to accomplish though, especially when Eustace and Muriel are actively engaged in the goings-on. Like the hunchback that puts on a music number and then sick-burns Eustace, or the episode that featured Courage going off to end an abusive relationship.

Yah, there was actually an episode with domestic violence as a central point.
edit- ninjas. ninjas everywhere.