Courage the Cowardly Dog is one of the greatest cartoons ever

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Absolutely one of the best cartoons ever. Can't believe a horror comedy show like that aired haha

So creative, surreal, darkly humorous, and inspired. Great nightmare fuel.
 
The Big Stinkin' City is one of the episodes I remember the most. Mainly because of:
courage-the-cowardly-dog-big-stinkin-city.jpg
 
Tower of Dr. Zalost remains the best tv-show cartoon movie i've ever seen.

Courage was one of my favorite shows growing up! so many hidden themes and mature setups! plus also funny and entertaining!

the theme is still the epitome of this.

it even got nominated for an award:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO7wapuwW6s


the last scenes of tower of dr. zalost were pure genius.

UNHAPPY CANNONBALLS!
 
Courage is one of those cartoons that I acknowledge how good it is(it's pretty good) yet I don't really like it because it's not really what I want in a cartoon.
 
Courage was a good cartoon series, i never found it particularly "scary" but was interested on the weirdness of the world. humor was not always good but the series had hidden themes that worked well on most episodes.
 
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This is the from the episode that made my young self really sad. Poor guy.
But I love how he would call Eustace "extremely bald" haha
 
PillarEN said:
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This is the from the episode that made my young self really sad. Poor guy.
But I love how he would call Eustace "extremely bald" haha
Click to expand...

I'm actually marathoning the series right now and saw the 'ugly outside, beautiful inside' episode a bit ago, and JUST finished the firector episode.

"Didn't see that ending coming."
 
Lesbians episode was best episode. Scary in a way no episode was before or after. Lots of scary episodes, fore sure, but lesbian episode was real fear for me.
 
That episode where Eustace is kidnapped by some woman and Courage doesn't give a fuck because of how Eustace treats him but sees Muriel very sad/suffering as a result so he saves Eustace to make her happy because her happiness means more to him than his own.

Also there's an episode that shows the cycle of abuse because Eustace is the way he is because of how his mother used to treat him, and that's how he treats Courage.
 
One of my favorite cartoons for sure. Very smartly done a lot of the time with a lot of subtle humor. If I am remembering this right one of the biggest things was that the show's score was composed to match the episode after the episode was made, not pre-recorded then inserted where convenient.

I actually looked for a long time for some of the a show's music, especially the entire score for the episode "The Tower of Dr. Zalost", but I havnt had any luck. Some of the best music I've heard in a cartoon.
 
I'll elaborate more on my love for this show when I'm not on mobile...

But to bring up one episode I haven't noticed mentioned, how about the one where Eustace has a small cloud following him everywhere, and in the episode's climax he
sees himself as a very sad child, and gives him his hat?
. Man, very touching resolution.
 
It was too scary for me, even though I love the show. In fact, it's too scary now. I want to watch it on netflix, but I keep chickening out.
 
Courage is awesome! Easily one of the best cartoons ever, and maybe my favorite.

Fun fact: I just discovered that "The Mask" was censored here in Brazil. Tried to look for the regional version everywhere but couldn't find it, and later found out that it was pulled out. It's funny because after rewatching it in english, I'm completely sure I did watch it back in the day, so the censoring must be a recent thing.
 
Favorite show as a kid. I really liked it, in fact I liked it so much that it didn't even creeped me out, not in the slightest.

Edit: well maybe doctor gerbils world episode... The crazy red head lady with the suction cups creeped me out a little bit.
 
I definitely say it's a top tier cartoon and one of the most original out here. I didn't know we had a Powerpuff Girls thread recently. I'm going to have to look for that one too as I remember more episodes from it.
 
I really enjoyed watching this show, even if it had its creepy moments.

One memorable episode was "The Great Fusilli". "How now, brown cow!"

The ending of that episode was sad though...
Eustace and Muriel were turned into puppets, and Courage lives his life as he controls the two.
 
Honestly Courage will always be the GOAT cartoon show for me. Freaky Fred and the Return the Slab episode were terrifying and are my favorite episodes for sure!

I still remember being excited to see new episodes of Courage every friday night on cartoon cartoon fridays ):

Those were the days lol and am I the only one who felt SO bad for Eustace that one episode where he sees his child version in the mirror Courage broke and gives him his hat? That music was so sad haha
 
CorvoSol said:
Lesbians episode was best episode. Scary in a way no episode was before or after. Lots of scary episodes, fore sure, but lesbian episode was real fear for me.
Click to expand...

Are you a lesbian?

ShadowElliot said:
I really enjoyed watching this show, even if it had its creepy moments.

One memorable episode was "The Great Fusilli". "How now, brown cow!"

The ending of that episode was sad though...
Eustace and Muriel were turned into puppets, and Courage lives his live as he controls the two.
Click to expand...

I remember that episode. Messed up.
 
Show was scary, even when I got older. It's defintely one of the greats.

Also, I knew that it would never happen but I wanted an episode where Eustace and Courage bonded.
 
ShadowElliot said:
I really enjoyed watching this show, even if it had its creepy moments.

One memorable episode was "The Great Fusilli". "How now, brown cow!"

The ending of that episode was sad though...
Eustace and Muriel were turned into puppets, and Courage lives his live as he controls the two.
Click to expand...
It was especially weird because Courage also emulates Eustace's abuse.
 
Dusk Golem said:
Definitely love for this, but I decided not to mention it as it comes from the final episode of Courage. Same reason I didn't mention the first half of the episode, which talks about Courage's back-story, which is ridiculous but also touching and fits the weirdness of the show.
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Huh. I knew that the one about Courage's parents was one of the last episodes, but I never knew those were the last ones (I found it annoying how cartoons never had their finales advertised as such back in the day). The one about Courage's backstory was pretty sad, but it made think that future episodes would be more plot-driven.

This show weirded me out as a kid, but I loved it. I'm not going to lie, I had nightmares about King Ramses.
 
hobblygobbly said:
That episode where Eustace is kidnapped by some woman and Courage doesn't give a fuck because of how Eustace treats him but sees Muriel very sad/suffering as a result so he saves Eustace to make her happy because her happiness means more to him than his own.
Click to expand...
Queen of the Black Puddle, when Muriel mistakenly believes Eustace left her for a younger woman.

GenericBadGuy said:
One of my favorite cartoons for sure. Very smartly done a lot of the time with a lot of subtle humor. If I am remembering this right one of the biggest things was that the show's score was composed to match the episode after the episode was made, not pre-recorded then inserted where convenient.

I actually looked for a long time for some of the a show's music, especially the entire score for the episode "The Tower of Dr. Zalost", but I havnt had any luck. Some of the best music I've heard in a cartoon.
Click to expand...
Yes. It was something the team took great pride on. Each episode's music was custom-fit to the specific episode, giving it great atmospheric presence. Easiest to notice is in Stormy Weather, when the music tempo changes as the storm goddess becomes more an more annoyed (eventually going into a full rage, with predictable results) or in Muriel's sitar segments in various other episodes. Also in segments where the Bagges go to South America: the tune's beat tends to follow Courage's running pattern.

Courage the Cowardly Dog was the first show to tackle in a serious, non-punchline-y manner heavy adult themes like spousal abuse, parental neglect, pedophilia, homosexuality, depression, excessive expectations etc. The ultra-absurdist tone of the show made slipping things past the radar extremely easy, and the lessons are easily understood by children and adults alike (albeit in different ways).

It pains me that Dilworth and his Stretch Films team aren't given more recognition for what is a truly revolutionary show (there wasn't anything like it at the time).
 
ErrorMacro said:
Courage is awesome! Easily one of the best cartoons ever, and maybe my favorite.

Fun fact: I just discovered that "The Mask" was censored here in Brazil. Tried to look for the regional version everywhere but couldn't find it, and later found out that it was pulled out. It's funny because after rewatching it in english, I'm completely sure I did watch it back in the day, so the censoring must be a recent thing.
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm brazilian, and also 100% sure that episode was aired in the first run.


One of my favorite cartoons as well, so many fantastic episodes.
Aside from the obvious ones people already talked about, "quilt club" and "windmill vandals" are worth a mention....

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Something that is not talked about often is how this show reuses voice clips over and over again. Courage's "The things I do for love", Muriel's "Oh my!", Muriel's hum, etc. This would be taboo in many shows, but Courage pulls it off excellently.

Oh, another episode I'd like to bring up is the Katz candy episode. I feel that episode is literally the only time in the series where Eustace went out of his way to save Muriel, so I appreciated him as a character more since it showed that he actually cared about her.
 
The magic tree episode man. After episodes of comedic screams Courage would do, his clifftop scream was so memorable. While visually comedic, you could hear the distraught and anger in his voice as he just couldn't protect the Magic Tree form Eustace.
 
It should be noted that the creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog, John R. Dilworth, was nominated for an Oscar for the original animated short, named The Chicken from Outer Space, that the show is based on.
 
Watched it every night after i got off work.

"You want to know what made these bones?" *nods head* "You dont want to know what made these bones." *shakes head*
 
First, let me say great OP. I loved this show as a kid and easily one of my favorites ever. Scary and funny at the same time. Great, great show.

ElBoxyBrown said:
"Barbara, my love was named,
and her fair hair, a mane untamed,
until one evening, I'm ashamed,
I got a little... naughty.

The look upon my young love's face,
was sweet as lace,
but in this case,
I realized she... needed space."

Yep.
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That episode freaked me out back then. That music...
 
One of my all time favorites growing up. I loved how surreal it was compared to other cartoons of the time, and it was great seeing what craziness will happen every episode.

One thing I loved that I don't see mentioned much is all of Courage's crazy scream animations. Like he'd react or transform in so many different ways. Those were always so great and original.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Z8ZPcuGeU

That's the one thing that the new cg short gets right and makes me go, yeah this is Courage.
 
This is the show that is next on my binge watch, right now I am watching Pinky and the Brin (And of course I am going to skip Pinky, Elvira and the Brain).

I remember how unnerving this show was, and recently I saw the new CGI short and I also found it great, I need to go back and watch everything again.
 
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