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Title: The Kitchen Casanova
Starring: Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Kay Bergman and Frank Welker
Genre: Romance / Comedy
Company: Hanna Barbera Productions
Directed by: John McIntyre
Year: 1996
MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A
Buy on: N/A
Being part of Cartoon Network's "The What-A-Cartoon Show," the short starts off with a man named Casanova, who is trying to prepare a delicious meal for his girlfriend, Doris. Once Doris arrives at his house, Casanova continues preparing the meal for her. But unfortunately, things start to go haywire when Casanova starts reading his cookbook wrong, as a gust of wind comes in and keeps switching the pages to strange recipes (like porcupine pie) and Casanova ends up putting all of the strange ingredients together into one dish. Once Casanova finally prepares the dish, he and Doris will get the surprise of their lives once they see what the dish actually looks like!
So, I actually seen this animated short when I was a child (although I don't quite remember how I was able to watch this cartoon as a kid, as I didn't have Cartoon Network, until 1998). But all I ever remembered from this short was the ending. It wouldn't be until I rediscovered this short on YouTube that I finally found out what this short was and man, was this one of the craziest animated shorts that I have ever seen! What I really liked about this short was the premise. Sure, this short is mostly about a man trying to impress his girlfriend by making her a delicious meal, but the way that this short went about that premise was done in such an insane and twisted way and I really loved how twisted the short got at times. Like, there is one scene in the short where Casanova accidentally chops off his finger when he was preparing the meal and you can see blood spurting out of the wound. I will admit that I was shocked when I first saw this scene, since it's rare for children's shows show any blood (let alone showing a character's limb get cut off in graphic detail) and I was even more shocked that this short got banned because of that scene (although that might explain why I didn't see this short come on TV that often after I watched this short the first time as a child). Another thing that I liked about this short was the animation. The animation reminded me of the line boil style of animation that was found in shows like "Ed, Edd n Eddy" and it lent itself well to the crazy plot of this short.
The only issue with this short is that there is some gross humor and the dark humor can be a bit much for some people. I have mentioned before that Casanova's finger gets chopped off in a graphic way in this short, which is surprising for a children's show and that could turn off some people from this short. Also, how Casanova's meal turned out at the end of the short is pretty gross and I will admit that I was very grossed out by the meal in the end (although it was clearly accidental on Casanova's part).
Overall, I really enjoyed watching "The Kitchen Casanova!" While I wasn't the biggest fan of some of the gross out humor, I really loved the twisted nature of this animated short and it's a short that I will definitely rewatch for many years!
- 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
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