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Mother’s Day Courage The Cowardly Dog
“Mother’s Day” is an episode from season one of Courage The Cowardly Dog. This is where we get some of Eustace’s back story. Until this point in the series, Eustace Bagge has been a singularly unpleasant character. We haven’t see what made him the way he is. In this episode, for the first time, we […]
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Night Of The Weremole Courage The Cowardly Dog
The folklore of the werewolf is great fodder for a horror comedy and it was bound to be used sooner or later. Others have made new creatures out of the werewolf story — Wallace and Grommit have The Curse Of The Wererabbit, for instance, in which they take a cute, fluffy animal that can’t (directly) […]
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The Demon In The Mattress Courage The Cowardly Dog
In “The Demon In The Mattress” episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog we have the full moon, the midnight ‘witching’ hour and a comic horror story about possession. The idea of an evil mattress is of course horror fantasy, but comes from the real world mistrust we have about sleeping on other people’s beds. Here […]
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Hot Head Courage The Cowardly Dog
The “Hot Head” episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog owes much to the Jekyll & Hyde trope. We can probably go back further than that, to Cain and Abel. For more on twins in literature see here. See also: A History Of Other Selves. STORY STRUCTURE OF “HOT HEAD” This is a story in two distinct […]
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Big Foot Courage The Cowardly Dog
In the “Big Foot” episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog we have a story which makes use of the legend of Big Foot. The great thing about the horror comedy genre is that writers not only have access to a treasure trove of metaphors and symbols — they also have access to urban legends and […]
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Courage The Cowardly Dog: Doctor Le Quack
All of the Courage The Cowardly Dog episodes including Doctor Le Quack are set in a place called Nowhere. “Be quiet, Eustace,” says Muriel one morning, “you’ll wake the neighbours!” This setting is perfect for western spoofs. Many of the Courage stories are horror spoofs but in Dr Le Quack we have the cartoon, child-friendly version […]
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The Shadow Of Courage, Courage The Cowardly Dog
At first I wondered if the title “The Shadow Of Courage” were a riff on The Red Badge Of Courage but no — apart from the grammatical structure and perhaps some of the themes (of bravery vs cowardice) this plot line borrows little from the classic American novel. Shadows who disentangle themselves from their bodies […]
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Cajun Granny Stew Courage The Cowardly Dog
“Cajun Granny Stew” has influences from: STORY STRUCTURE OF CAJUN GRANNY STEW SHORTCOMING Courage is scared of birds. So how is going to possibly deal with a formidable opponent like a shady fox? Quite often in a comic story there is a main opponent and then there are lesser evils. The birds are actually harmless, […]
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At The Katz Motel (Pilot) Courage The Cowardly Dog: A Night
“The Katz Motel” is the wonderful pilot episode of horror comedy for kids, Courage The Cowardly Dog. If you’re anything like me you can’t stand anything on the Cartoon Network for too long. A lot of those shows seem like ill-conceived, overly chatty, highly-polished but vapid productions designed to sell toys. Courage The Cowardly Dog […]
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The Mechanical Behaviour Of Fussbudgets In Comedy
Fussbudgets, sticklers, officious types, whatever you want to call them — comedy gold. An essential component of the fussbudget is mechanical behaviour. We’ve all had run-ins with them, which makes the comedy aspect universal. MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR ON SCREEN This gag plays out especially well visually, so you’ll see it in many films and TV shows. […]
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Transgression Comedy and The IT Crowd
Comedies have subcategories. One of those categories is the ‘transgression comedy’. The IT Crowd is a good example of a transgression comedy. About A Boy is another. Screenwriting experts usually give the example of Tootsie as the perfect example of this form, but I’m no particular fan of that film. It hasn’t aged well. It needs to be […]
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Romantic Comedies
Notes on the genre of romantic comedy.
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Planes Trains and Automobiles
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a thanksgiving comedy from 1987. The film has been given an R rating — not, as I expected, because of the pillow scene, but because of the cussy airport scene. [Hughes] is not often cited for greatness, although some of his titles, like “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” “Ferris Bueller’s […]
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Muriel’s Wedding (1994) Film Study
Muriel’s Wedding is an iconic 1994 film. If you’re ever in Australia and hear, “You’re terrible, Muriel,” this movie is where it comes from. Mix of Genres Comedy, drama, romance. There’s a romance subgenre called ‘fake relationship’. These are romantic stories in which two people are forced into emotional closeness via proximity or circumstance. Muriel’s […]
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Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner? Picture Book Analysis
Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner is one of my all-time favourite picture books and funnily enough, it has been created by a husband and wife team. Some of the very best picture books are obviously created with a lot of collaboration between writer and illustrator, and it amazes me that so many (also good) picture books are created without writer…