Jody Gray understood John Dilworth’s vision before he even submitted a trial composition for Courage the Cowardly Dog back in 1998. After watching the short that inspired the series, The Chicken from Outer Space, Gray knew exactly what to do to gain an advantage over the competition. “[Dilworth] didn’t want it to be like a kid’s cartoon at all. He wanted us to score it cinematically, like it was a horror movie,” Gray, one of the show’s lead composers, said. “We were encouraged to do the darkest, craziest stuff that we could possibly imagine.”
Courage premiered on Cartoon Network at the end of 1999 and ran for almost three years. The series followed Courage, the titular skittish, pink dog, and the lengths he was willing to go to protect his owners from supernatural forces on their farm in the middle of Nowhere. His owners, Eustace and Murial, were the face of middle America, living on their desolate farm and acting as lightning rods for danger, seemingly walking into trouble everywhere they went. But it was always up to Courage to rescue them. The premise of the series was the perfect foundation for its 11-minute horror-comedy episodes. Twenty years after its finale, fans see it as a cult classic, and many of those behind the show believe it exists in the DNA of a generation of new animation artists and horror creators.
Every horror fan has core memories dating back to their childhood, and while many of these memories involve peaking through their fingers at R-rated movies they were too young to see, children’s media is no stranger to introducing younger generations to the genre. With its elevated cartoon violence and malicious villains, Dilworth didn’t want his show to look anything like the genre’s predecessors. In fact, the award-winning animator told his team not to treat the project like it was a children’s show at all. Between its storylines, animation style, and score, Courage made every effort to thoroughly and genuinely scare its viewers.
From its inception, the show stood out alongside the network’s frontrunners like The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, and Dexter’s Laboratory. While its main characters remained flat, often sporting muted colors, the backgrounds and textures of the show were vibrant, adding a foreboding depth to the environment. But when it came to the monster of the week, like Benton Tarantella or Katz, Dilworth knew how to play with proportions and coloring to make each character uniquely off-putting.
The series would mix visual mediums, combining traditional animation with jarring effects like CGI or live-video integration. Fans reference episodes like “The House of Discontent,” which features a disembodied head, or “King Ramses’ Curse,” which showcases disturbing CGI, as the nightmare-inducing imagery of their youth. Certain episodes even reference some of the horror genre’s most iconic performances like The Exorcist and Sweeney Todd, which certain members of the creative team say inspired fan-favorite villain Freaky Fred.
“So many of the episodes were a parody or homage to certain horror or science fiction movies. It’s hard to point at a horror great that didn’t influence us at some point,” David Steven Cohen, the show’s head writer, said. “Everything I’ve ever experienced influences everything I write. I was a sponge for TV and movies growing up.”
But its visuals weren’t the only factor contributing to the show’s iconic horror. Gray worked alongside fellow composer Andy Ezrin to compose each episode from scratch, only reusing 10 percent of each season’s musical cues. The duo is responsible for scoring everything from an 11-minute opera in the episode “The Ride of the Valkyries” to a recurring egg shaker cameo. Gray credits avant-garde techniques for the series’ unique score and A Clockwork Orange as one of his main compositional influences, often choosing to create a score that worked in opposition to the show’s visuals similar to the film’s visceral sexual assault scene.
Still, Courage managed to pack so much more into its episodes than the occasional nod to a famous film or disturbing CGI visual. The series had a clear message to its young audience: that fear isn’t a weakness.
Although Courage may be “cowardly” in response to many of the situations he encounters, he still has the “courage” to confront those that threaten his family. Courage’s fear, although sometimes unfounded, allows him to be vigilant over those he cares about rather than framed as a neurotic obsession.
And some of the more relatable aspects of the show were a lot darker than others, especially when it came to Courage’s abuse. Although each episode featured a new villain for Courage to face, the biggest, consistent threat he had to endure was the torment from his own father figure, Eustace; who would constantly berate Courage, referring to him as a “stupid dog” and then intentionally terrifying him. Despite all the villains and monsters featured throughout the series, Cohen believes that Eustace’s role is the scariest.
“At the heart of it, I think the scariest thing for most people is having the people closest to you, the people that are supposed to love and take care of you, actively trying to get rid of you and make your life worse,” Cohen said. “It was never about the villain of the week. [Eustace] was trying to get rid of Courage at every turn, and that has to be scarier than any monster.”
Courage’s ability to stand in as the representation of a child creates an unsettling dynamic. Cohen adds that he’d channel his own fear of his parents fighting when it came to these show elements.
“The horrors from my childhood are reflective of the horrors that fans have discussed with me. I never really thought about it before, but I know that I drew on it at an unconscious level,” Cohen said. “I’d hide in my room, away from the fights. Probably just as much as pop culture, [my contribution] to Courage is partially autobiographical.”
But, despite all the malicious intent, Courage always seems to let villains redeem themselves. The show bases itself on empathy and understanding, making the scariest monster more tolerable – even if it doesn’t seem warranted. Even Eustice’s abusive behavior is eventually explored, shedding light on the trauma from his abusive mother. The show manages to balance its frightening atmosphere with deeper storylines, which Cohen says let its young audience cope with the complexities of fear.
“Courage was unique. I’m sure it’s influenced a lot of people. I like to think that the show is in the DNA of many of the new people who work in this business,” Cohen said. “A lot of times the influences are so subtle, you can’t notice them. Those are the best kinds of influences.”
The series took the idea of introducing fear to kids a step further, trading the training wheels of horror for visceral animation and disturbing storylines. It’s shown generations of kids that it’s alright to be afraid but also important to have enough courage to protect yourself and those you care about. Because at the end of the day, that’s the thing you do for love.
“You may think there’s a monster, an irredeemable beast, and maybe there are those in this world, but there’s a reason they’re that way. You’re given the moment to explore that,” Cohen said. “When you have empathy for your opponents, the person victimizing you, the person hauling you off to the circles of hell, it’s not an easy lesson.”
