Courage the Cowardly Dog

Dedicated to the voice actress of Muriel Bagg, Thea White (April 15, 1940 – July 30, 2021)

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 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) One of Cartoon Network's original first original series.
 * 2) Capable of handing mature subjects well, such as domestic abuse, lesbianism, and implied prostitution.
 * 3) Great sense of horror, as the villains in the show are delightfully creepy for its rating.
 * 4) Interesting use of both slapstick animation and CGI.
 * 5) Original and creative character designs.
 * 6) Likable and memorable characters, such as the main characters Courage and Muriel who are very protective of each other.
 * 7) Memorable creatures and villains, such as The Computer, Shirley, Katz, Le Quack, Freaky Fred, Benton Tarentella, The Snowman, and most notably, King Ramses.
 * 8) Other underrated characters such as The Hunchback from the episode "The Hunchback of Nowhere".
 * 9) Amazing soundtrack, such as the background music playing in the intro and theme songs of various characters (such as Katz).
 * 10) Sophisticated, intelligent, and dark episodes, such as "The Demon in the Mattress", where an actual demon possesses Muriel.
 * 11) Unique humor and slapstick.
 * 12) Eustace got comeuppance at the end of most episodes.
 * 13) 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.
 * 14) 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 of 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.
 * 15) Interesting and smart writing that mixes horror with comedy.
 * 16) 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.
 * 17) Some dramatic and/or sad episodes, such as "The Tower of Dr. Zalost", "The Mask", and "Remembrance of Courage Past", the second-to-last episode of the series, which shows what happened to Courage's parents and when he got adopted by Muriel.
 * 18) Beautifully detailed background design.
 * 19) Earned a 2013 |CGI revival special titled "The Fog of Courage", which was well-received.
 * 20) The show is basically 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.
 * 21) Had a handful of funny episodes such as. "Dr. Le Quack: Amnesia Specialist", "King Ramses' Curse", "Angry Nasty People", "Courage the Fly", "Cajun Granny Stew", "Scuba, Scuba Doo", and "The Duck Brothers".
 * 22) * The final episode, "Perfect", ended the show on an excellent note.
 * 23) The funniest thing that always happens is when Eustace gets his comuppence almost in every episode was the funniest thing throughout the entire series.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some imagery may be way too scary for some children, such as the infamous "Violin Girl Scene" or | "You're not perfect" scene in the series finale. It also got up to the point where even adults have claimed that they had nightmares.
 * 2) Many fans consider "Ball of Revenge" to be the weakest episode in the entire series.
 * 3) The animation and CGI, while amazing, can be very ugly and grotesque at times, even by late 1999 standards, with the worst offender being the blue bugle in “Perfect”.
 * 4) Some character designs were reused, such as Mr. Nasty who is an even nastier version of Eustace.
 * 5) While they are memorable, there are some mean-spirited/unlikeable characters, although they usually receive their comeuppance.
 * 6) * Eustace Bagge, one of Courage's owners, always teases and scares Courage using his mask for absolutely no good reason.
 * 7) * Ma Bagge, Eustace's abusive mother and the one person Muriel dislikes.
 * 8) * Di Lung, who created a robot in one episode to replace and sadistically beat up Courage.

Videos
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Trivia

 * 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 in 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 got 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 "mh:greatestmovies:Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog."