The Cruel Veterinarian is the overarching antagonist of the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog, appearing as the main antagonist of the penultimate episode "Remembrance of Courage Past".
He is a sadistic, delusional veterinarian with a hatred of dogs who was responsible for separating Courage from his parents when he was a puppy, leading to his adoption by Muriel and Eustace Bagge. He is also one of the two arch-nemeses of Courage (alongside Katz).
He was voiced by Jim Cummings, who also voiced Fuzzy Lumpkins in Powerpuff Girls, Pegleg Pete in Disney, Negaduck in Darkwing Duck, and Fusilli in the same series.
Contents[]
- 1Appearance
- 2Personality
- 3Biography
- 4Quotes
- 5Trivia
- 6Navigation
Appearance[]
True to his own title, he is an elderly and sinister veterinary practitioner in appearance, wearing an ordinary lab coat with a stethoscope attached as well as black mud boots. He is half-bald and somewhat obese, and also has a scary beard, mustache, some eyeglasses, scary eyebrows, scary nose and ears, and monstrous crooked teeth.
Personality[]
Although at first the Veterinarian acts like a kind old man, as pragmatically demonstrated by giving Courage some candy and talking to his parents in a kind voice. However, this was only to conceal his true nature: in reality he is a sadistic, sinister, inhumanly cruel, cold-hearted, antisocial, and greedy mad scientist as well as odd-minded schemer, believing that sending dogs into outer space would breed space dogs. It's because that he hates dogs as a whole.
Using his secret knowledge of rocket science and aerospace engineering (and based on 2 posters he saw), this has led him to send many dogs into space against their will. He will also send people to this same fate, to avoid his research being exposed and compromised to the public, also completely uncaring about human life or their well-being, as evidenced when he caught Muriel and Eustace with a net and then (using the same net) throwing them into his rocket and locking the rocket's door to prevent both Muriel and Eustace from escaping. He is also manipulative, as evidenced when he persuades Courage's parents into talking with him alone, only to get nabbed by him with a net.
He is extremely fearful, as evidenced after he ironically suffers the same fate as his victims, he was petrified as the dogs that he sent away were extremely angry at him for his actions, resulting in the dogs attacking him off-screen.
Biography[]
The Veterinarian was the one who was responsible for separating Courage from his parents as a puppy. He manipulated Courage's parents into talking with them alone, which was revealed to be a trick as he captured them. Courage followed the evil veterinarian to his secret lab as it was revealed that he was shoving and locking them in a rocket. This was as part of his secret breeding experiment, to see that normal dogs (in space) would breed space dogs. However, Courage attempted to save his parents, but is spotted by the vet, who then chases Courage around the lab. Courage eventually uses a garbage chute to escape the evil veterinarian, and watches as his parents were sent to space. He was later adopted by Muriel.
Years later, Muriel and Eustace Bagge took Courage (still haunted by that treacherous event) to the same vet who kidnapped and sent his parents to space, after recognizing him from the past, talking to them about speaking to him alone, which was secretly just a façade as he tries to do the same actions that he did to his parents earlier to Courage. Fearing that the Cruel Veterinarian would send him to space, Courage runs away and is chased in the hospital, running to open the door to his secret lab, but as he tries to open the rocket control room door, the Cruel Veterinarian nabs him with a net. He reveals he does remember Courage, telling him it's his turn as he takes him to the same rocket ship that launched the latter's parents into space, starting the same countdown before, then throwing him inside, closing and locking the rocket's door.
When Muriel and Eustace discover his breeding experiment, as well as attempt to rescue Courage, he decides that Muriel and Eustace have seen too much, and that he cannot allow his operation and research to be discovered and exposed to the public. He catches Muriel and Eustace with a net, and briefly explains that they will become the first humans to see his secret experiment at work, and claiming that breeding dogs in space is the future of normal dog breeding (with Courage opposing the crazed vet's evil space breeding scheme), before throwing them into the rocket and locking the door to be sent into space to prevent them from interfering with his cruel plan.
However, while he closes and locks the rocket's door, Courage escapes and is chased around the lab. Courage knocks over a bucket of bolts and screws, causing the evil vet to slip. With thirty seconds left to launch, Courage tries to open the door to the rocket to save Muriel and Eustace, but to no avail. As the Cruel Veterinarian confronts Courage and nabs him again, trying to throw and trap him in his rocket again, this backfires when Courage screams into the stethoscope, almost deafening the Cruel Veterinarian, and causing him to scream from the pain.
While already distracted from Courage's screaming sounds in his head, Courage then snatches the Cruel Veterinarian's rocket door key from his pocket, unlocks the door and rescues Muriel and Eustace while the Cruel Veterinarian takes off his stethoscope, throwing them to a nearby bin. With eight seconds left to launch, the Cruel Veterinarian tries to nab Courage to throw and trap him in his rocket yet again, but this also backfires as Courage bangs the rocket's door causing him to become weak in the process, weakly laughing as Courage traps the Cruel Veterinarian inside the rocket.
About five seconds to launch, Courage runs to be comforted by his owners and away from the rocket. As the countdown reaches zero seconds, the rocket engines under it ignite and the rocket launches sending the evil vet into space instead. At the end of the episode, Muriel wonders what became of him while Courage hopes he suffered. It is revealed the rocket had already crash landed on an unnamed planet, as the evil vet opens the rocket's door and is then petrified, finding out that all of the dogs, including Courage's parents, have survived the trip in space, and didn't breed any space dogs as he hoped, which meant that his breeding experiment to see that normal dogs would breed space dogs has failed. Out of pure anger by the dogs, the Cruel Veterinarian laughs nervously onscreen for the last time before he is dragged off in a net and mauled by the vengeful dogs off-screen for his actions. He is last heard screaming in pain during the attack.
While it is unclear what happened to the Cruel Veterinarian afterwards, it is possible that he be remained trapped on the planet until he died from starvation and dehydration.
Quotes[]
“ | I know just what to do with the dog. But I'd like to have a moment with him, alone. | „ |
~ The Cruel Veterinarian, as he talks to Courage's owners about talking to him privately, which, just like in the flashback, is also revealed to be a trap. |
“ | Ready for the trip? Hehehehehe! It's your turn now! | „ |
~ The Cruel Veterinarian, as he makes it clear that he recalls Courage as he takes him to the rocket ship. |
“ | It's time for your trip, little dog! | „ |
~ The Cruel Veterinarian, as he confronts Courage and grabs him, trying to lock him in his rocket again. |
Trivia[]
- The fact that the Cruel Veterinarian was the first enemy Courage ever faced in his whole life in spite of being an ordinary human is very fitting, as this may reflect that something with a monstrous appearance is never always evil and that some humans can be wicked and depraved.
- Despite only appearing in one episode, the Cruel Veterinarian is directly responsible for the events of the show, as he sent Courage's parents to space, which caused Courage to be abandoned until he was found and adopted by Muriel.
- He is presumably based on animal testing during the Soviet Rivalry and the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union (e.g Laika).