Better than Butter Chicken
A Secret Recipe for Adventure
Manal Rasoi’s family built an empire on their secret butter chicken recipe (no, really, they’ve conquered nine kingdoms with their culinary skills). But their reign is threatened when magical forces decide to stir up some trouble. Manal needs more than a touch of masala spice to save the day!
Demographic: Boys and Girls ages 7-11
Format: 2D animation, standalone, 11 minutes
Genre: Comedy/adventure
Synopsis
The Maharajah of Cardamom has very particular tastes about what gourmet cuisines are allowed inside his kingdom – fast food, TV dinners and street meat are out of the question. But his daughter Manal, the only princess in a line of male heirs, is bored by the royal treasures that her brothers bring back from their culinary battles over neighbouring lands (not another onion ring for her deep freezer jewel collection). She wants to create her own concoctions, so when a tribe of food trucks moves onto her palace yard, she meets Tito and gets a different taste of life.
In an unlikely friendship, Princess Manal and Tito set out on adventures to protect the kingdom from enchanted forces awakened by the corrupt Chef Shahbash. But the ingredients don’t always add up as the duo discovers in this appetizing comedy for foodies!
Setting
The Kingdom of Cardamom is a fictional land, based loosely on visual elements of the 16th century Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, but with a modern twist. Boasting a domed palace, open courtyards and flowing fountains, the characters have a beautiful backdrop that is both traditional yet offset by contemporary elements like a field of food trucks from around the world. Rich in diversity, there are bazaars of colourful spices and other delicacies that are of international envy, and for which merchants travel long distances to trade. Though seemingly ordinary, the fantasy world is home to talking volcanos, funny yetis and ancient magic books – anything is possible in the name of a foodie adventure!
Characters
Manal Rasoi
Manal is a mischievous but brainy eight-year-old princess who struggles to live up to her royal responsibilities, intrigued instead by the stories she reads of magical faraway lands. Trained from a young age at the prestigious Kebab Culinary School, she is expected to uphold an etiquette of high cuisine in accordance with the Rasoi reputation (that means no licking the dessert spoon). But as a reluctant royal, Manal rebels against her family’s wishes and decides to follow in the footsteps of her adventurous older brothers to defend the kingdom with her own taste on life.
Tito Elvira
Nine-year-old Tito is a fun, easy-going foodie who has traveled far and wide on his family’s food truck. He knows everything there is to know about tacos, including the 99 ways to make them delicious. He has an infectious sense of adventure that often gets him into sticky situations. Living life on the edge, his ideas are often a hasty recipe for disaster, but you can always count on him to come to the rescue when things get tough. His zest for action means there is never a bland day in the Kingdom.
Maharajah Rasoi
Forced to face the glaring paintings of the decorated family leaders that came before him, the Maharajah is intimidated by all the culinary changes in this modern world. The only way he knows how to cope is by following each recipe to the teaspoon – experiments are strictly forbidden. He worries about his daughter’s erratic behaviour, but it doesn’t take long for him to realize that without innovation, his Kingdom will fall apart. Maybe Manal can make his bitter tastes sweet again.
Chef Shahbash
The royal chef of Cardamom is as tightly wound as his greasy, curled moustache. Unusually tall and slender, he is able to lurk in the shadows of the streets to spy on what’s cooking inside each household and steal the best recipes to present as his own. How else do you think he has managed to be on the front cover of Gourmet Guru ten years in a row? A boastful braggart at best, Chef Shahbash can’t possibly allow Manal and her friends to threaten his prestigious title, making it his secret mission to sabotage their adventures with his magic recipe book.
Springboards
The Royal Recipe
The royal culinary competition of the decade is just a few days away, and the family goes into a state of panic to discover that their secret butter chicken recipe is missing. Has someone stolen the scroll to sabotage the Kingdom’s chances at the global title? The elders try to recall and recreate the recipe, but something just doesn’t taste right. Grandma Rasoi, the only one who knows it by heart, has been cast into a sleeping spell by the resentful Chef Shahbash. Manal tries to convince a reluctant room, including her father, to break tradition and join forces with the Elviras for a new recipe that represents the diversity of their Kingdom. Together, they wow the judges with their butter chicken burrito, a one-of-a-kind delicacy, breaking the spell and finding the original recipe hidden beneath Grandma’s pillow.
Taco Tuesday
Tito is unusually sad this week, and Manal is persistent to find out what is bothering him. He does not laugh at any of her corny jokes or dance along to her Bollywood moves; this must be serious. Upon snooping around his truck, she finds a ripped poster of Tito and his family celebrating Taco Tuesday, the biggest fiesta of the year in the Great Frontier, a vast land of food trucks at the edge of the western borders of Cardamom. Angry at Manal for not minding her own business, Tito ultimately opens up about how his tribe was forced to leave their home when a dormant volcano awoke after two centuries and threatened to scorch the land. He recalls his festive childhood memories on the anniversary of this national holiday, and Manal conspires with the Kingdom to recreate a Taco Tuesday that the Elviras will never forget.
The Frozen Yogurt Fiasco
The Kingdom of Cardamom is experiencing its worst heat wave in history, and people are getting restless against the Maharajah in demand of a cooling solution. Tito tells Manal that he has heard about the healing powers of something called frozen yogurt from a faraway land, but are they prepared for the icy journey ahead? They “borrow” a ship from the royal navy and set sail to the legendary island of the Yetis, where they are imprisoned as factory workers at a frozen yogurt operation. Tito is having the time of his life rolling in sprinkles, but Manal insists that they return home with a sample before their Kingdom melts. They dig through an underground tunnel of toppings to find their way out of the island, saving the day with seven delicious flavours!
The Misfortune Cookie
It’s Valentine’s Day, and mysterious fortune cookies appear at everyone’s front door from a secret admirer. Hungry for praise from their peers, the villagers overlook caution and devour the desserts. It doesn’t take long for the side effects to kick in — inside every bite is a spell of bad luck cast by the lonely sorceress Chiyoko! The entire Kingdom turns against each other as messages go awry, and there is anything but love in the air. While her father’s army is busy in a food fight, Manal, the only one spared from the spell, goes on a treacherous journey to find the key to Chiyoko’s broken heart and reverse the misfortune.
Image Credit: Allies Interactive
