"Little Muriel" is part one of the thirteenth and final episode of Season One, preceding "The Great Fusilli".
The episode was produced in 1999 and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on July 14, 2000.[2]
Plot[]
A tornado hits Nowhere, and Muriel is sucked in. The whole Bagge Farmhouse is completely destroyed by the twister, but luckily, Muriel is unharmed. However, the storm has altered her age and appearance, and she is now a three-and-a-half-year-old child.
Poor Courage has only ever known the adult, harmonic and serene Muriel, so having her spoiled, unruly and hyper childhood self to deal with is pretty hard on him. After failing to make a macaroni and cheese platter to her satisfaction and keep her from playing in the dangerous ruins of the farmhouse, he can't take it anymore.
The Computer instructs that to turn Muriel back to normal, Courage must hurl her into a tornado that spins in the opposite direction, and he must travel to the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth to do that. So Courage takes the little girl on a plane to Sri Lanka, where tornadoes spin clockwise instead of counter-clockwise.
Courage succeeds in finding such a twister, and in turning Muriel back to her normal, elderly self (in only undergarments). Eusatce then regains consciousness, and demands his dinner, only to be knocked out again. They return to Bagge farm, where she quickly returns to her normal outfit. On the TV, the Nowhere Newsman explains that the tornado emergency is over, and now the only thing left to worry about is "the giant tidal wave roaring across the plains". The tidal wave sweeps up the newsman, then is seen on the horizon, rapidly approaching the farmhouse. Courage is then seen riding Eustace as a surfboard on the crest of the wave, while carrying Muriel on her chair above. He finishes the episode by saying, "Crazy weather we've been having, huh?"
Characters[]
Major characters[]
- Courage
- Muriel Bagge (elder self)
- Little Muriel
Minor characters[]
Trivia[]
- The man seen on the TV dancing with bananas in his ears is John R. Dilworth, creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog. This was used for the variant of the Stretch Films logo seen in the episode "Freaky Fred".
- The footage is also seen in Dilworth's Noodles & Nedd short Catch of the Day! made for Sesame Street, with the same music playing as well.
- The pilot looks exactly like the sea captain from "Klub Katz".
- Muriel is seen here as a child, while Eustace won't be shown as a child until "The Curse of Shirley". Eustace is shown as an infant in "The Quilt Club".
- Little Muriel is voiced by Kath Soucie, the voice of Phil and Lil DeVille in Rugrats, along with Sally Acorn in Sonic the Hedgehog.
- This is one of the few episodes that lacks an antagonist, and the second episode in season one with no villains.
- This is the only episode in which Muriel is mostly shown in nothing but undergarments, though she appears to be fully clothed at the beginning and the end.
- The Macaroni and Cheese scene is paid homage to in the New Looney Tunes episode "Best Bugs".
- As a bonus, Muriel yells "I WANT AN EASTER EGG!" which is what a kid said in the classic era Looney Tunes short Easter Yeggs.
- Muriel is shown with white hair as a toddler, but she had brown hair when she adopted Courage, and red hair when she married Eustace.
- In "Muriel Meets Her Match", it's revealed that Muriel has white hair dye, with which she dyes Maria's black hair white. This suggests several things - Muriel's hair is not naturally white; she was dyeing her hair different colors over the years, the tornado wasn't able to remove her hair dye, and it hasn't been a long time since she found Courage.
- It could also be due to the supernatural properties of the storm, making her smaller and childlike but not removing signs of age.
- In "Muriel Meets Her Match", it's revealed that Muriel has white hair dye, with which she dyes Maria's black hair white. This suggests several things - Muriel's hair is not naturally white; she was dyeing her hair different colors over the years, the tornado wasn't able to remove her hair dye, and it hasn't been a long time since she found Courage.
- The Computer mentioning that tornadoes spin in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere (as a solution to getting back the older Muriel) may be in reference to the Coriolis Effect, where, at least for this narrative case, atmospheric currents move differently from both of the equator-divided hemispheres of the planet Earth (i.e. counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere).
- He also mentions the countries of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, all of which are not only located in the Southern Hemisphere (although Ecuador itself has some territory that's located in the Northern Hemisphere), but are also South American nations. Ironically, he mentions the country of Sri Lanka, as well (even if it's likely meant to be sarcastic), which is instead located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.