Courage is a little purple dog who was abandoned and found and taken in by an elderly woman, Muriel. He lives with her and her husband, Eustace, in a farmhouse in the town of Nowhere, Kansas ... smack dab in the middle of it, in fact. Unfortunately for Courage, living in the middle of Nowhere is far from peaceful as the trio is constantly assaulted by everything from alien ducks (a couple of times actually), demons, evil eggplants, zombie filmmakers, a creepy nephew, and worst of all, Eustace's mother.
Each episode is broken up into two stories, and they pretty much all fall into a similar pattern of poor Courage recognizing some evil thing that is trying to torment his owners, typically Muriel, and the two humans being generally ignorant of their danger. Often times, Eustace will become aware of the danger, but because of his animosity towards the little dog will either do nothing, or actively work against the title character.
Some of the more amusing encounters include cartoons like "Freaky Fred," "Journey to the Center of Nowhere" and a personal favorite, "Everyone Wants to Direct." "Freaky Fred" is a play off of Sweeney Todd (almost a decade before the Tim Burton film, mind you) involving Muriel's unstable nephew. In "Journey to the Center of Nowhere," a race of subterranean eggplant people vow vengeance against Muriel for her decision to make a delightful dish out of them. In this episode, Courage actually dons an eggplant suit and pretends to be their god. "Everybody Wants to Direct" has a famous director, Benton Tarantella, come calling at the Bagge family house. What neither Eustace nor Muriel seem to recognize is the fact that the director is a zombie. Using the two humans and their home as a movie scene, Tarantella plots to resurrect his partner, who is apparently buried under their house.
Cartoon Network Hall of Fame: Courage the Cowardly Dog: Season One is a great collection of the show's first season. The only aspect I was disappointed over was the lack of special features. After watching the amusing extras from the Johnny Bravo release, I was expecting equal treatment here.
Despite that though, I still find Courage the Cowardly Dog: Season One worth the purchase. For all of us who watched the series live, as well as the viewers who get to watch it currently during Cartoon Network's replays, it's just a great collection to keep in the house.
