History WesternAnimation / TheChickenFromOuterSpace

''The Chicken from Outer Space'' was an 11-minute cartoon created by John R. Dilworth for ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoon''. Released on December 31, 1995, the short eventually got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (losing to ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave''.) It later served as the pilot for the Cartoon Network series ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''.

Enjoying a nice and peaceful day in the middles of Nowhere, Kansas, Courage is scared out of the house by Eustace and, shortly after, sees a UFO land in the front yard. Horrified, Courage gets his masters, but when they arrive at the scene, the space craft had gone, as well as its captain, a [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyed]] chicken.

->''"This should not happen to a dog."''

* BodyHorror: Don’t eat the eggs laid by the chicken from outer space, or you’ll turn into a chicken.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Surprisingly little. For a standalone DomesticOnlyCartoon short, it has more in common with [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog the show it was spun off into]] than most actual pilots do for their shows. The only major differences are Courage having a bigger snout, significantly more MediumBlending (all of the photos are real photographs), Eustace and Muriel being slightly less on-model, and a couple of interiors in the Bagges' house that were never seen again. It also lacks some of the show's trademark comically oversized props, and Eustace and Muriel have no spoken dialogue (as a result, we don't even learn their names until the credits roll -- even then, Eustace ''has'' no name, listed instead as "Farmer"). Otherwise, the show would follow the short's aesthetic to a tee.

* VocalEvolution: Compare Courage's screams and his dialogue at the end of the short to his voice in the actual show. Helps thag his original voice actor, Howard Hoffman, was replaced by Marty Grabstein for the series.

Enjoying a nice and peaceful day in the middles of Nowhere, Kansas, Courage is thrown out of the house by Eustace and, shortly after, sees a UFO land in the front yard. Horrified, Courage gets his masters, but when they arrive at the scene, the space craft had gone, as well as its captain, a [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyed]] chicken.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Surprisingly little. For a standalone DomesticOnlyCartoon short, it has more in common with [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog the show it was spun off into]] than most actual pilots do for their shows. The only major differences are Courage having a bigger snout, significantly more MediumBlending (all of the photos are real photographs), Eustace and Muriel being slightly less on-model, and a couple of interiors in the Bagges' house that were never seen again. It also lacks some of the show's trademark comically oversized props, and Eustace and Muriel have no spoken dialogue (and as a result, we don't even learn their names). Otherwise, the show would follow the short's aesthetic to a tee.

* VocalEvolution: Compare Courage's screams and his dialogue at the end of the short to his voice in the actual show.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Surprisingly little. For a standalone DomesticOnlyCartoon short, it has more in common with [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog the show it was spun off into]] than most actual pilots do for their shows. The only major differences are Courage having a bigger snout, significantly more MediumBlending (all of the photos are real photographs), Eustace and Muriel being slightly less on-model, and a couple of interiors in the Bagges' house that were never seen again. It also lacks some of the show's trademark comically oversized props, and Eustace and Muriel are mostly TheVoiceless, when they spoke fairly regularly in the show. Otherwise, the show would follow the short's aesthetic to a tee.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Surprisingly little. For a standalone DomesticOnlyCartoon short, it has more in common with [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog the show it was spun off into]] than most actual pilots do for their shows. The only major differences are Courage having a bigger snout, significantly more MediumBlending (all of the photos are real photographs) and a couple of interiors in the Bagges' house that were never seen again. It also lacks some of the show's trademark comically oversized props. Otherwise, the show would follow the short's aesthetic to a tee.

* EekAMouse: How Courage first shows that he doesn't live up to his name.