The Incredible World of Riddles

The Incredible World of Riddles is a Kuboian animated television series created by Ashley Maverick, and the first series to be produced by Kubokartoonz (now called GeneBox Animation). Targeted towards young children, the show is set in a fictional fantasy-orientated planet, Riddle World. It is the first official animated series to be produced in Kuboia.

The show has a total of two series, aired in 1991 and 1994, both consisting of thirteen 17-minute episodes. The first series focuses on four children, who have never met each other before, who must work together to save the mayor of Riddle World, Mr. Riddles, who has been kidnapped by a unknown figure. The second series, meanwhile, focuses on the adventures the children have after saving Mr. Riddles. Episodes were premiered on Vision Network on Saturday evenings as part of the Bumper's Block programming strand. The series was aired on around the world during the 1990s and 2000s.

The Incredible World of Riddles has had a large impact on Kuboian culture. It is often credited for setting the staples for Kuboian animation, and is the first ever television series to be labelled as a Kantasy series, which has since became the most popular genre/style of animation in the country. Due to its influence, the series continues to be enjoyed worldwide by people of all ages, despite being targeted towards a younger audience.

Setting
Riddle World is a fictional planet located in the solar system between Earth and Venus. Despite being inhabited by humans, it is also the home of many anthropomorphic mammals, birds, plants and objects. Unlike Earth, Riddle World is not very realistic, with many bizarre, sometimes nonsensical events occurring frequently. Supposedly, the planet is very small in size, and is stated to be approximately the size of the continent of Australia. One episode of the series suggests that "Riddle World" is not the actual name of the planet, but is a widely agreed upon nickname due to the actual name being too difficult to spell and pronounce.

Synopsis
The first series of The Incredible World of Riddles features the main cast of characters (Onita, Paddy, Kacie and Tennet) helping the spirit of the Platinum Wand, Diomo, discover the whereabouts of Mr. Riddles, the mayor of Riddle World.

The second series acts as a selection of "bonus" episodes, which involve the children visiting Riddle World after helping save Mr. Riddles.

Main characters
Each of the four central children are residents of Earth who get teleported to Riddle World by Diomo after accidentally forming the Platinum Wand. During the first couple of episodes, the children are reluctant at helping Diomo, and are mostly interested in just returning home, but eventually begin to take their mission seriously as the series progresses.

According to Ashley Maverick, each of the main protagonists reflect a different type of child; Tennet is a more effeminate boy compared to Paddy, who has a personality that was more predictable for his gender at the time, whilst Onita is more tomboyish compared to the more girly Kacie.

Onita
Onita (voiced by Charlie Karma) generally acts as the unofficial leader of the group. She is usually the one who takes the front seat when the group are progressing through their quest, and is often the one who does the most talking to Diomo. Onita likes to see herself as the "mature" one of the group, but sometimes acts in a controlling manner, which can cause the group to lose track. Regardless, she always undoes any mistakes she makes, and is often the one to act first if somebody is in trouble.

Paddy
Paddy (voiced by Charlie Karma) is generally the cleverest of the group, as he is capable of spotting things the others don't notice, and is good at organising plans quickly when the time to do so is necessary. Paddy has a strong sense of humour and enjoys good-natured banter, though he will act serious when it is necessary.

Kacie
Kacie (voiced by Ashley Maverick) is a lot more curious than the other children, and has the tendency to get distracted easily. She is also very giggly and sweet minded, and cares a lot for her friends. However, she doesn't have much of a sense of humour and can be very impulsive. She appears to have a large appetite, and particularly likes chocolate and sweets.

Tennet
Tennet (voiced by Ashley Maverick) is very cowardly compared to the rest of the group, and gets very stressed or frightened by minor things. He is not good at fighting back if someone or something threatens him. Because of this, Tennet is by far the least competent of the children, and is often the one who gets kidnapped. As a person, he often has a flirty nature to his dialogue and body language, and enjoys physical contact such as hugging and even kissing.

Diomo
Diomo (voiced by Marty Rockfield) is the spirit of the Platinum Wand, who is simply just a white holographic sphere creature with two black eyes and a mouth. He is incapable of doing much since he cannot travel any sort of distance away from the Platinum Wand, but is capable of giving advice to the children if they are in a difficult situation. He usually only shows up once for a few minutes in each episode, generally when one of the children asks a random question or mentions him.

Mr. Riddles
Mr. Riddles is the mayor of Riddle World who, despite being friendly, is very vulnerable and easy to kidnap. He spends most of the first series being held captive, whilst in the second series, he is often seen in his office doing paperwork. He is very loyal towards the children, although Diomo finds him to be unintelligent.

Snappy
Snappy is Mr. Riddles' pet seagull, who delivers a letter to the children at the beginning of most episodes of series one.

Roller
Roller is a wheel creature with two large eyes. It occasionally crosses paths with the children, and helps them on their way thanks to its fast speed. Roller cannot talk, but can understand speech. It bears a resemblance to the Wheelie species in the Kirby franchise.

Tricky
Tricky is a human-sized mouse who wears a red dress. She is the janitor of a hat shop in Riddle World. She hates her job, but likes meeting and talking to the customers. She sometimes crosses paths with the children, and, alongside Roller, occasionally helps them on their adventure.

King Klapper
King Klapper is the main antagonist of the first series, appearing in approximately half of the episodes. He is an anthropomorphic brown wolf, who is the leader of a group of vicious wolf animals. King Klapper enjoys being evil, and even has a small card he carries which he shows to some of his victims - the card explains that being evil is his occupation. Throughout the show, he causes frequent trouble for the children, and often tries to kidnap them, as he often finds a way to use them for one of his goals.

Production
Ashley Maverick created the premise and characters for The Incredible World of Riddles in 1986. She would often spend several hours each day drawing up designs and animating characters performing different actions in order to get the hang of producing cartoons. After co-founding Kubokartoonz in early 1989, The Incredible World of Riddles was the first series to be pitched.

Ashley Maverick chose to base the show around a fantasy setting because she considered making a cartoon based in a realistic setting to be boring.

Animation
All of the show's characters, backgrounds and objects were drawn and animated by Ashley Maverick. She insisted that the show should run at a minimum of eight frames per second, as she wanted to avoid spending too much time and money on too many frames, but also did not want the animation to appear sloppy or unprofessional.

In The Incredible World of Riddles, the human characters are drawn without noses, ears or eyebrows, and their eyes consist of only round black pupils, completely lacking a limbus and sclera. Ashley Maverick has stated that this was done to make drawing and animating the characters easier. This has since became a staple of Kantasy shows.

Casting
Originally, Ashley Maverick was going to voice all four children, but Charlie Karma ended up voicing Onita and Paddy after Marty Rockfield introduced her to the team, who were satisfied with her work. The Incredible World of Riddles marks Charlie Karma's first role in a television series.

Ratings
Series 1 of The Incredible World of Riddles spawned record-breaking high ratings, with each episode receiving approximately 1.75 million viewing figures on average. It is often believed that the high viewing figures were due to the promotion and attention the series received for being the first official Kuboian cartoon. Episodes of series 2 spawned approximately 1 million viewing figures on average. It continued to receive high ratings when reran on Nick Jr. Kuboia during the late nineties and noughties.

Critical reception
The Incredible World of Riddles has received critical acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with praise towards the show's animation, character development and writing. However, in recent years, some critics argue that the show is unfairly praised simply for being the first Kantasy series.

On internet database IMDb, the show has a normalised rating of 8.5 out of 10.

Sexuality and LGBT representation
Since the show's initial airing, the use of possibly homosexual behaviour seen throughout the series has been controversial, especially during the early nineties. By approximately three episodes into the first series, many viewers of the show questioned Kacie and Tennet's supposedly flirty behaviour when interacting with Onita and Paddy respectively.

In October 1991, TVVC were allegedly threatened by angry, homophobic parents, who threatened to permanently boycott Vision Network unless they pulled the show from the Bumper's Block programming lineup. However, all of these complaints were seemingly ignored.

Although many of the show's cast and producers have been asked about the supposed homosexual behaviour present on the show multiple times, they have usually responded with ambiguous answers. However, Charlie Karma, the voice of Onita and Paddy has stated "Yeah, Kacie and Tennet are definitely gay if you ask me."

Kuboia

 * Vision 1 (1991-2008)
 * Bumper's Block (1991-1997)
 * Nick Jr. Kuboia (1996-2010)
 * KT (1998-2008)
 * Kantasia (2018-present)

Canada

 * CTV (1991-1995)
 * Teletoon (1999-2007)
 * Teletoon Retro (2008-2010)

Circlia

 * Mini (????-present)

Croeya

 * CT Kidstoon (1992-1999)
 * Canal+ Kids (2003-present)

El Kadsre

 * El TV Kadsre 1 (1992-1998)

Internet

 * The Coca-Cola Network (1996-2011)

Mexico
The Spanish dub was titled "La búsqueda de Señor Riddles" and was produced by Lipsync Audio Video in Venezuela.
 * Canal 5 (1992-1999)

South Korea

 * EBS (1995-2007)

United El Kadsreian Nations

 * Nickelodeon (1996-2001)
 * Nick Jr. (2001-2008)

United Kingdom

 * CBBC (1991-2001)
 * Nick Jr. (1999-2010)
 * POP! (2004-2008)
 * Nick Jr. 2 (2006-2010)

United States

 * First-run syndication (1992-????)
 * Toon Disney (1998-2002)
 * Noggin (2003-2009)

Film
In September 2018, it was rumoured that a theatrical film based on The Incredible World of Riddles was in development. Ashley Maverick responded to the rumours saying "Maybe it's true... but maybe it's not. Only time can tell."

On 23rd March, 2020, it was announced that a film based on the show would be released on 10th September, 2021 in commemoration with its 30th anniversary.

The Incredible World of Riddles: Kacie's Adventure (1994)
The Incredible World of Riddles: Kacie's Adventure is a platforming video game released for the SNES and Sega Mega Drive on 18th March, 1994. The game stars Kacie, and has the player controlling her in thirteen different levels to rescue the other three protagonists, who have been kidnapped by a possessed King Klapper.

Kacie's World Quest (2002)
Kacie's World Quest is an action-adventure video game released for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2002. Much like the previous video game, the game stars Kacie (and to an extent, Tennet), who must save both her own world and Riddle World from being permanently cast under the control of a puppeteer master.

Cancelled Philips CD-i video game
Another video game based on the series was developed for the Philips CD-i, set to be released in 1997. However, the game was cancelled due to Ashley Maverick's disappointment with its development. In a 2009 interview, she said she is glad that the game was never released.