Category: TV/Movies

  • Father Tropes In Fiction

    Father Tropes In Fiction

    Turn Out Like His Father – A character has charge of a child (usually her son) and is desperate to keep this child from imitating another relative (usually his father). This is a fear of history’s repeating itself for his fate, which may be turning evil and usually ends with being dead. Harry Potter isn’t allowed to […]

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  • Kiki’s Delivery Service Symbolism and Story Structure

    Kiki’s Delivery Service Symbolism and Story Structure

    Kiki’s Delivery Service is a Studio Ghibli film released in 1989. This film was always popular in Japan but — though it’s hard to remember now — Studio Ghibli films didn’t take off in the West until 1997 with the release of Princess Mononoke.

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  • Serena (2014) Film Study

    Serena (2014) Film Study

    Serena is an example of a film in which the production values and acting talent far exceed the final product. Serena’s obvious symbolism and on-the-nose dialogue make for a film that’s narratively sub-par, but for students of storytelling  it’s an interesting case study. The name ‘Serena’ is meaningful — although the character comports herself serenely in public and […]

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  • The Great Fusilli Courage The Cowardly Dog

    The Great Fusilli Courage The Cowardly Dog

    STORY STRUCTURE OF THE GREAT FUSILLI The Great Fusilli is the last Courage story of season one and it is fitting that the creators have made a work of metafiction — in other words, the audience is reminded that they are watching a TV show. WEAKNESS/NEED Courage: That it’s up to him to save the […]

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  • Little Muriel Courage The Cowardly Dog

    Little Muriel Courage The Cowardly Dog

    Often in stories with a very small character there is some metaphorical/thematic reason for it, but in this case Muriel’s regression to the body and mind of a 3 and a half year old is pure fun. In other words, this is a carnivalesque story.

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  • The Precious Wonderful Adorable Loveable Duckling

    The Precious Wonderful Adorable Loveable Duckling

    The Precious Wonderful Adorable Loveable Duckling episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog reminds me of a type of picture book in which a cute character (often an annoying younger brother or sister) gets away with doing mean things behind the parents’ back. This must be a common family dynamic because I remember my own younger […]

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  • The Snowman Cometh Courage The Cowardly Dog

    The Snowman Cometh Courage The Cowardly Dog

    In The Snowman Cometh episode of Courage is interesting for the way in which the writers comically represent a part of science which is difficult to understand and even harder to portray on screen. SETTING Most of the Courage episodes are set in the Bagge family home in the middle of Nowhere but by this […]

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  • Heads Of Beef Courage The Cowardly Dog

    Heads Of Beef Courage The Cowardly Dog

    “Heads Of Beef” is an episode of Nickelodeon cartoon show from the late 1990s, Courage The Cowardly Dog. In any horror comedy starring a dog, surely at some point the dog must find himself a hot dog, right? The trope of the surprise in the burger plays on a primal fear we have when visiting […]

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  • The Hunchback Of Nowhere Courage The Cowardly Dog

    The Hunchback Of Nowhere Courage The Cowardly Dog

    “The  Hunchback of Nowhere” is an episode from the first season of Courage The Cowardly Dog. As ever, this modern re-visioning takes inspiration from a wide history of storytelling, including from The Bible. Any adult viewer will know immediately that this is inspired at least partly by The Hunchback of Notre Dame, though the writers can’t […]

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  • The Clutching Foot Courage The Cowardly Dog

    The Clutching Foot Courage The Cowardly Dog

    This episode of Courage seems to be a parody of an episode of a TV serial from the 1930s based on a novel by Arthur Reeve. It is called “The Clutching Hand” and is about a detective named Craig Kennedy. This serialised original includes the following elements: A get rich quick scheme Assuming a false identity Criminals […]

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  • King Ramses’ Curse Courage The Cowardly Dog

    King Ramses’ Curse Courage The Cowardly Dog

    In the “King Ramses’ Curse” episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog we have three plagues — since storytelling loves The Rule Of Three — and the plagues comprise a mixture of ancient and comically modern curses. This horror comedy for children takes inspiration from ancient holy texts such as found in the Bible and in the […]

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  • The Duck Brothers Courage The Cowardly Dog

    The Duck Brothers Courage The Cowardly Dog

    “The Duck Brothers” episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog features opponents who are revealed to be not really bad, which makes for a comical big struggle scene. The big struggle scene is noteworthy for including a wide variety of small big struggles. STORY STRUCTURE OF “THE DUCK BROTHERS” SHORTCOMING Courage is unable to convince Eustace when […]

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  • Mother’s Day Courage The Cowardly Dog

    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

    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

    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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