Courageous Enough.

Now for my thoughts on one of the oldest animated series seen on TV, "Courageous Cat And Minute Mouse."


At the time that I began watching the show, I enjoyed listening to the jazzy theme music. Of course, I didn't actually realize back then that each episode was only five minutes long. They seemed longer to me for some odd reason.

The opening, with a shot of Empire City's waterfront really had me using my imagination. I'd convince myself the body of water was the Hudson River, which was a short drive from my home. And whenever the Up The River Reformatory was mentioned, I thought it was Sing Sing.

But on to the heroes and villains now. This duo went after criminals, who, for the most part, were animals like them. Exceptions were Pisano, Periscope Pete, AKA The Crawler, and of course, Professor Von Noodle Stroodle, who wasn't a true villain, but a frustrated scientist. All the others like the Frog, Harry, Rodney Rodent, etc, made the show memorable. I also liked the ones with Marilyn Mouse and Sassy Bones. There was also a crook called Angelface, whose name was probably inspired by the gangster film "Angels With Dirty Faces."

When I saw Courageous use his many guns, I was fascinated. He had a balloon gun, ice gun, heat gun, you name it. When Minute used them, and chaos ensued, I thought, "Good job, Minute---not!"

And my all-time favorite episode was when the Frog and Harry stole the Catmobile, and converted it into a four-wheeled flying saucer--two years before "The Jetsons." When it saw Courageous, it rolled up to him, and made a cute noise, causing the cat to remark, "It recognizes me." "Awww," was all I could say in response.

But the worst episodes had them doing volunteer work. When they became lifeguards at the beach, I thought, "They need to have a long talk with David Hasselhoff." And the one about their stint as volunteer firemen was ridiculous. Just what were Minute and that heavyset woman doing perched on the windowsill of a high-rise apartment?


But all things considered, it was a great show, and earned its rightful place on DVD and Hulu. Thanks, Bob Kane. Yes, it was the brainchild of the creator of Batman.

emeraldisle said:Of course, I didn't actually realize back then that each episode was only five minutes long. They seemed longer to me for some odd reason.

When I first watched The Mighty Heroes in the late 1970's, I thought their cartoons were longer than the average cartoon because they were split into two parts. (Though I don't think WCIX put commercials between the two parts.) So when they were posted on YouTube, I was surprised to find out that they're only seven to seven-and-a-half minutes long. (Though these versions probably have the "cliffhanger" parts edited out.)