The Incredible World of Riddles

The Incredible World of Riddles is a Kuboian media franchise that originated in 1989 with a series of loosely structured television shorts and specials that were produced until 1993. Created by Ashley Maverick and Harlow Morrison and produced by Kubokartoonz, the original series was among the first animation to be produced in Kuboia.

The Incredible World of Riddles takes place in a fictional world referred to as Riddle World, which is accessed by entering a magical hole in the "real" world. The franchise centres around the regular visitors of Riddle World. Whilst it was originally lighthearted, slow-paced and educational, later material produced for the franchise featured more adventure-orientated stories in order to appeal to older children.

Though the main line of shorts and specials ended in 1993, the franchise continued through merchandise, video games and a feature-length film released in 2004 to mark its fifteenth anniversary. Popular in its heyday, The Incredible World of Riddles continues to maintain a passionate following.

Premise and settings
Riddle World is a fictional world which, according to Ashley Maverick, is "a place which can get away with being bizarre". One can access Riddle World by crawling through a magical hole found in a hill. The few who are aware of the strange world and its entrance regularly visit Riddle World. The world's owner, Mr. Riddles, orders his sparkling wasp creature, Diomo, to call their real world friends to come and see them when they need help or a special event is happening.

Onita, Kacie, Paddy and Tennet, four children who know about Riddle World, thus visit it the most, play the role as the main characters in all of its shorts and specials. As Kacie and Tennet are established as best friends later on, as are Onita and Paddy, later stories normally focuses primarily on one of the children with the closest friend playing the secondary role. The four often have their own boundaries they frequently have to come across, such as Tennet focusing on improving his confidence and Kacie learning how to concentrate better.

Development
Kubokartoonz was founded by Maverick and Morrison in September 1987. The studio was requested by TVVC to produced a children's programme that could air on the upcoming Vision Network.

According to Maverick, she was not told what type of programme to make, as long as it was suitable for children. Unsure how strict the broadcasting regulations would be, Maverick developed the series so it could appeal to young children. Preferring quality over quantity, Maverick produced a total of eight stories which all lasted from seventeen to nineteen minutes, with each centring on morals regarding fairplay, honesty, teamwork and friendship.

When developing the show's settings, Maverick chose a fantasy world as she thought a realistic one would be difficult to write interesting stories for. The series' premise was largely inspired by Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with both having similar settings. The characters of Kacie and Tennet were inspired by Maverick and Morrison themselves, who developed a close bond during the production of the show. Maverick also admitted that Riddle World does not exactly have many written "rules", with things happening mostly for plot convenience.

After the eight stories aired in 1989 to positive reception, TVVC requested more stories to be produced. After running out of ideas for plots, Morrison suggested adding more adventurous stories, suggesting that doing so would help the series appeal to older children.

Filmography
Stories based on The Incredible World of Riddles are divided into two categories, "volumes" and "specials". Volumes relate to a series of multiple shorts produced and aired in a row, whilst specials relate to one-off broadcasts that run for a slightly longer time.

Feature-length film
In early 2001, Ashley Maverick revealed that Kubokartoonz would be releasing a feature-length film based on The Incredible World of Riddles in 2004. The film's name was later revealed to be New Beginnings: An Incredible World of Riddles Film. It was released on 1st October, 2004 to polarising reviews.

Video games
The Incredible World of Riddles: The Great Adventure is an educational video game released in September 1992 for the MS-DOS, Super NES and Mega Drive. The MS-DOS version is a point-and-click adventure whilst the Super NES and Mega Drive versions have platforming elements. Each of the three versions have a slightly different plot, with the console versions also has slightly different gameplay elements.

Kuboia

 * Vision One (1989-2008)
 * Bumper's Block (1991-1997)
 * KT (1998-2008)

Australia

 * ABC TV (1989-?)
 * KidsCo (2007-2014)

Canada

 * Family Channel (1989-2002)
 * Teletoon Retro (2007-2010)

Italy

 * Italia 1 (1989-?)
 * Boing (2004-2010)
 * Frisbee (2010-2011)

United Kingdom

 * BBC One/BBC Two (1989-2001)
 * CBBC (1989-2001)
 * POP! (2003-2004)
 * Tiny Pop (2004-2008)

United States

 * The Family Channel (1991-1997)
 * Toon Disney (1st October, 1998-28th December, 2001)