The Incredible World of Riddles

The Incredible World of Riddles is a Kuboian animated media franchise created by Ashley Maverick and produced by Kubokartoonz, which originated in a series of made-for-television specials that began in 1989 on Vision Network. The franchise stars a pre-teen girl called Kacie who has adventures in an alternate dimension called Riddle World with her friends Onita, Tenet and Paddy. It was amongst Kuboia's first animated series, and the first to develop an international following.

The success of the original television series has paved way for many spin-off material, including books, theme parks and video games. It continues to maintain a popular following in its home country in the current day, with TVVC continuing to air the original series from time to time.

Premise and setting
Riddle World is a planet that is hidden in an unknown location in the universe, but one can be teleported from Earth and back by acquiring a special Riddle Gem and rubbing it vigorously. The Riddle World does not follow the customs of Earth; it is mostly inhabited by anthropomorphic non-human creatures and follows a different time structure.

The Riddle World is currently run by Mr. Riddles and his "glowup" assistant Diomo. Mr. Riddles carries a magical wand with him, though rarely uses it. The most common visitors of Riddle World are four children from Earth - two girls; Onita and Kacie, and two boys; Paddy and Tenet, who found out about Riddle World after finding the Riddle Gems on accident. Episodes largely centre around what the children get up to in Riddle World, which mostly involve helping the planet's inhabitants and building up their own confidence. According to Ashley Maverick, most episodes are themed around friendship, teamwork and trust.

The status of Riddle World changes several times throughout the show's chronology. At first, the children are told to keep the existence of Riddle World a secret, but the rest of Earth eventually discover about it. Kacie finds out that she possibly related to Mr. Riddles, and that she is determined by fate to eventually defeat Synther, an evil creature lurking in Riddle World, and become queen of Riddle World.

Cast

 * Ashley Maverick as Kacie
 * Melissa Emery as Tenet
 * Charlie Karma as Onita
 * Avoc Westwind as Paddy
 * Edward Reizer as Mr. Riddles
 * Harlow Morrison (1989-1990) and Flynn Raidon (1991-2005) as Diomo

Early development
Kubokartoonz was founded in the autumn of 1987. Shortly aftewards, Ashley Maverick was confronted by Arthur Benning if the studio could produce a children's television series that could air on Vision Network. Maverick mentioned that Benning gave her "generous funding and support" as well as a lot of creative freedom, with the only rules being that the show must have some form of educational content in it.

As she thought that a realistic or overly educational-based series would be considered boring to children, Maverick decided to make the series have a fantasy setting. She created the show's main setting, Riddle World, with the original idea that everything in the series would involve riddles and other forms of trick questions. She scrapped the idea over fears the show would get repetitive too quickly, but decided to keep the setting's name.

Maverick admitted that she was seldom reluctant to throw in ideas that could be considered bizarre. Eventually, it was decided that such ideas would be a recurring theme of several episodes but not an overly dominant one. When coming up with the main characters, she and Harlow Morrison decided to make the main cast two girls and two boys with the hopes that the show would have a general-neutral target audience. Maverick went to a nursery in Gutstone in early 1988 where she got children to draw ideas for supporting and minor characters, a few of which ended up being used in episodes.

Animation
Ashley Maverick drew a lot of the characters and backgrounds herself, although polishing up the cels and adding professional colour was done by other professionals. The series was produced entirely in Kuboia with no outsourcing at all. Maverick claims she has a technique where she can draw characters and objects professionally in a quick and efficient manner, though has never revealed what said technique is.

Most of the show's characters are drawn with round black circles as eyes, which became a staple for most Kuboian animated series in the future.

Target demographic
When creating the series, Maverick was not told whether to target the show towards older or younger children. She decided to form a "middle ground" by making the series fairly lighthearted and toning the setting to a preschool level, but also having several fantasy elements and occasionally feature darker moments in episodes. Future Kubokartoonz animated series, as well as many Kuboian animated series in general, would follow this trend.

Casting
Originally Maverick and Morrison were going to voice a majority of the series' characters themselves, but Maverick thought that children would be bored "hearing the same two voices constantly", so Morrison personally spent money hiring voice actors.

Whilst Maverick voiced Kacie, she and Morrison were able to hire Edward Reizer as Mr. Riddles, Charlie Karma as Onita, Melissa Emery as Tenet and Avoc Westwind as Paddy. All three went on to voice characters in future animated shows produced by Kubokartoonz. The supporting cast were mostly voiced by Gutstonian locals hired by Morrison, including Bruno Leon Vidal, who voiced multiple supporting characters. Vidal said he enjoyed his job so much that he agreed to continue doing it for free after Morrison said they may not have enough money to continue paying him, although he later said he was still paid for every episode his voice was heard in.

Reizer has since adapted the nickname Tone Riddles, which he based off the character of Mr. Riddles.

Music
Most of the music heard in The Incredible World of Riddles was composed by Wilfried Montgomery, who took inspiration from the music in both Disney films and programmes produced by DiC Entertainment, which were popular in Kuboia at the time. Later episodes feature new compositions that take inspiration from the disco, eurodance, hi-NRG and acid house music genres.

Filmography
The Incredible World of Riddles began in March 1989 with six specials, which were sporadically aired until 1990. Aftewards, Kubokartoonz produced a series of twetnty-six episodes which aired from 1991 to 1993. These were followed by several feature-length films.

Specials

 * The Golden Key (1989)
 * Kacie and Tenet's Grand Adventure (1989)
 * The Time Test (1989)
 * Mystery of the Riddle Theatre (1990)
 * Riddle Underground (1990)
 * The Fright Before Christmas (1990)

Television films

 * An Incredible Halloween Story (1993)
 * To the Limits (1994)

Direct-to-video films

 * Let's Dance! (1996)
 * Kacie to the Rescue (1997)
 * Behind Closed Curtains (1999)

United Kingdom
The Incredible World of Riddles debuted on Children's BBC in the autumn of 1989. From there, specials and episodes would usually premiere on Saturday afternoons roughly a week after their Kuboian premiere. It reran on CBBC until late 2001. It later aired on CBeebies from February 2002 until late 2004. Since 2021, BBC Four has returned to showing the episodes and specials on a sporadic basis.

The Incredible World of Riddles later aired in the United Kingdom on POP! from 2004. Reruns were aired on Tiny Pop until 2010.

Canada
The Incredible World of Riddles had a long run in Canada, first appearing on Hodge Podge Lodge (later called CBC Playground) from 1991 until 2000. It also aired on the Family Channel round about the same time. Reruns aired on Treehouse TV from 2001 until 2010, and also ran for a short period on Teletoon Retro around 2010 and 2011.

United States
In the United States, the show aired on The Disney Channel from 1991 until 1997, and later on Toon Disney from 1998 to 2002.

European countries
The Incredible World of Riddles aired on TF1 in France, Super RTL in Germany, Italia 1 in Italy, Nederland 3 in the Netherlands, Channel One in Russia.

In 1999, Disney acquired the rights to air the series in several European markets, with both the specials and shorts airing on Playhouse Disney in several markets, including Spain.

Other international airings
In Brazil, the series had a successful run on Rede Globo that lasted for over twenty years. In Japan meanwhile, it aired on TV Asahi. It also aired on ABC in Australia and Spacetoon in the Arab world.

Legacy
Because of the franchises's popularity, The Incredible World of Riddles saw many reruns on TVVC even long after it ended. The series aired on Tiny Vision from 1997 to 1999 and then on KT from 1999 to 2008. TVVC still shows episodes and specials to this day, albeit sporadically and often on special occasions such as Christmas and New Year.

According to many sources, The Incredible World of Riddles set the standards for Kuboian animation, with many cartoons produced in the country taking some form of inspiration from the series, particularly the characters, tone and setting. Ashley Maverick and Harlow Morrison expressed shock over its legacy, and never believed it would become very popular, with Maverick noting in 2018 that it was "just a cartoon that we were told to make because Vision needed something to air".

Several elements of the franchise, including its large forest environments, the pseudo-flirtatious nature of several characters and the presence of gravy spiders and deer burgers have went on to become stereotypes associated with Kuboian culture.

In 1997, Kacie became the first fictional character to be included in the Kunning Hall of Fame.

Cult following
Since its original premiere, The Incredible World of Riddles has received a cult following in young adults, who find amusement in its bright and vibrant setting and unusual design of some of the characters, believing that it has "trippy" qualities in a similar manner to the Teletubbies. It also has a cult following in the LGBT community, with several people likening the main children characters are being bisexual, homosexual and/or pansexual due to the effeminate nature of Paddy and Tenet and due to several scenes where Kacie and Onita appear to be flirting with each other. Maverick states that implications that the children were "not straight" were accidental, and that the franchise is "definitely not a LSD trip".

The Incredible World of Riddles has also proven popular amongst Brazilian and Japanese audiences.

Controversy and censorship
Throughout its run, The Incredible World of Riddles was criticised for having imagery that could be seen as inapropiate or frightening for young children.

Books
A series of annuals based on The Incredible World of Riddles was published from 1993 to 2004 in Kuboia and some other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. These contain a variety of actviites, including puzzles, quizzes and some trivia based on the franchise.

A series of books targeted towards younger readers based on the franchise were published during the 1990s under the "Welcome to Reading" brand. These did not necessarily follow the chornology and plot of the main series of shorts and specials, instead often featuring some of the characters in a more ambiguous setting. These books featured full colour illustrations which were drawned by Ashley Maverick herself.

Other books, such as colouring books, were also published worldwide.

Indoor attractions
A few kiddie rides based on The Incredible World of Riddles were produced and sold throughout Europe in the 1990s and 2000s.

Other merchanide
Kubokartoonz produced official The Incredible World of Riddles merchandise throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, including toys and puzzles, playsets, posters, costumes and other items.

A wide range of merchandise based on the show is sold in Kubokartoonz World.

Tropes

 * Tropes
 * YMMV
 * Trivia