RealTalkAJ

Courage, The Cowardly Dog is another show that I could’ve easily added to the list I made earlier.

It was probably snubbed and seems to be in agreement with it being another top tier animated show.

At the very least it deserves a review.

What I’m gonna do is go over the guidelines that we agree qualifies a show to be considered top tier.

If we go back to the others we discussed too, that list had Kids Next Door, Dexter’s laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Fosters, and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

What we’re gonna do is break down:

It’s more of a microwave meal in where it’s a quick fix.

The show doesn’t have many of the episodes string along and go into the next where you had to watch one to appreciate the other, but what it does is touch on all the emotional and powerful points that you would want in a 15 minute show.

You get 2 in a showing, so they pack a lot in those, the entertainment factor for it is pretty high.

They also have an animation style that was pretty unique to its own.

It was different from the other shows and it was so eerie when you look at some of the things that would spook this dog.

It’s ironic.

The show’s funny and creepy.

Both make a deadly combination when you take into account that it’s tough to be successful in more than one area.

You look at what the premise is, it’s pretty consistent with the show taking place in the middle of nowhere.

That’s literally how it’s broadcasted.

You wanna believe it takes place in an older time.

The family lives on farm land.

We get peeks into the lives of a farmer, his wife, and a estranged dog.

It’s funny because as old as their lifestyle appears to be, they have one piece of technology that ends up coming clutch several times; their computer.

Nonetheless, as far as the storytelling, it’s the same in essence.

They actually repeat what the story of Courage is when they go over the things about his family.

They abandon him as a pup, and he was saved by the woman, Muriel.

He constantly deals with a angry farmer that just doesn’t like him for whatever reason.

It’s a real basic humor, but just something you can still appreciate.

Especially for the audience that it was looking to serve at the time.

My generation!

Safe to say they were successful in doing so.

Then you go to the character development.

There’s not much.

You won’t find it being any different really going through the show.

And if anything, that’s for the full stretch of the entire series.

But each show is different in itself where you do see a lot of people’s tones change after something happens.

They obviously get right back to their character in time for the next episode.

You definitely see this be the case where, for example, Eustace has more of a grumpy attitude that gets changed instantly, or eventually by the end of the episode.

But it doesn’t last long.

His attitude always go right back to what it was.

It’s the same as how most animated shows are: They don’t really have much continuity.

Especially when you’re just talking about basic animation.

This one is a lot more short term.

It’s not something where you’re gonna stick with it and always define the character by what you just saw off the last episode.

As far as the visual style and animation, now, this is where the show starts taking the cake with a lot of things.

They’ve added several different looks that go into a memorable screenplay.

I’ll even reference a different show that creatively holds the same reputation; Smiling Friends.

If you heard of that one, then you’re gonna get what I mean.

There’s different styles that go into a single look.

What that does for me is make the show really tough to understand what’s going on.

That doesn’t decrease the quality of it though, you just like what the experience itself is.

That’s something some people actually prefer to have too.

They don’t want to have to think too much about what it is they’re watching.

Some just want to enjoy what’s in front of them.

So that’s one thing they did really well.

There’s a few episodes that stand out with doing this.

It gets you to where you’re saying to yourself “I’m going to remember this show.”

You might not like it, but you’re gonna remember it for sure.

I’ll reference one specific episode where Courage was in a city looking for Muriel.

He had to open up several different doors in order to find her.

And you just saw a bunch of different looks, some of it was clay animation.

Some was stop motion.

The different styles of animation worked, and was popular at whatever point in time ended up getting thrown in there.

You eventually reach this one door, and at this point I won’t even let you know what that is because it would be considered spoiling.

And I’m declaring you can do that with these type of shows because there’s diehard fans.

But then we go on to the show being able to resonate with the different audiences and age groups.

This is one of those shows where there’s just a little bit of humor that everyone can appreciate.

And when you think of horror, that usually entices an older audience anyway, so they ended up bridging the 2 pretty well to where the dialogue sometimes might be a little basic, but when you start looking at the scenarios themselves and seeing what situations they’re dealing with, it’s stuff that even adults could relate to and probably enjoy themselves.

I think if I were to revisit this show, how I would deal with it, and I would probably like it just as much, if not more, than when I did as an adolescent.

But, the age group.

I wanna say the rating it got when it was broadcasting on Cartoon Network was TV-Y7.

So if it was that, then it would obviously be for that onward.

That seems pretty broad of a spectrum.

Sometimes it pops up with having some mature themes with lessons that could be really impactful.

In theory, you could be someone that’s watching it with a younger person and find yourself having to explain some of it.

Whatever you end up explaining can even be followed up with a meaningful lesson, that is if the show didn’t do that already.

Many would argue this to be true.

But that’s just another high selling point of this show that has to be credited.

And as far as the emotional and cultural impact, it has amazingly impactful impressions it leaves.

It’s track record could easily get it placed on a Mount Rushmore list of goated 90s shows.

Doing this felt needed, especially after I got the notice about considering it in the comment section of my last cartoon video.

Thank you to that account!

And I agree with this being another one of those shows where if you talk about one of the most impactful of an era, this is one of them.

But, yeah, Courage The Cowardly Dog is just another top tier show that has to be mentioned in the conversation of best of all time.

With not just Cartoon Network, but animation in general.