The Incredible World of Riddles

The Incredible World of Riddles is a Kuboian animated television series and media franchise created by Ashley Maverick and produced by Kubokartoonz. Based on an original idea, it is the first animated series produced by Kubokartoonz and one of the first Kuboian animated television series in general. The show focuses on four children who secretly visit a hidden planet, Riddle World, that is full of strange creatures whilst helping them with their lives and protecting them from danger. Meanwhile, one of the children, Kacie, discovers that she is stated to one day become queen of Riddle World.

The Incredible World of Riddles ran from 1989 to 1994, with episodes following a loose episodic structure consisting of multi-episode "volumes" and one-off specials that aired on Vision Network as part of its Bumper's Block programming strand. It has since gained cult status and remains popular in its home country in the present day. As such, it continues to be rebroadcast by TVVC (albeit usually on sporadic occasions). As of 2022, the Incredible World of Riddles franchise is the highest-grossing Kuboian media franchise of all-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.

Main characters

 * Mr. Riddles (voiced by Edward Reizer) is the current "king" of Riddle World who took it upon himself to look after the planet after finding it in poor condition as a child. He is friendly with both the inhabitants as well as visitors from Earth, as likes telling stories, though he seems unaware that Riddle World is still a dangerous place. At one point it was discovered he accidentally teleported to the place as a child and was unable to get back to Earth, and thus he does not know his real name, age or origins. He carries a wand with him, but rarely ever uses it due to its unpredictability. Although he appears frequently, Mr. Riddles only very sporadically plays a prominent role in episodes.
 * Diomo (voiced by [TBA]) is a glowup, a species of white ghost-like creatures. He is almost always by Mr. Riddles' side, often being the one to knock sense back into him when he lets his cluelessness get the better of him.
 * Kacie (voiced by Ashley Maverick) is an eleven, later twelve year-old girl from Earth, who has a Dutch accent. She discovered Riddle World after a Riddle Gem suddenly appeared on her bed. As a person, Kacie is shown to be very adventurous and daring, and usually being the one most willing to stand up and help those in danger. She often acts flirtatious towards her human friends, though accepts their personal boundaries. At one point, Kacie is elected by the dwellers of Riddle World to become queen once Mr. Riddles is too old, but she is hesitant to accept their offer. It is implied that she could be related to Mr. Riddles but this has never been confirmed.
 * Onita (voiced by Charlie Karma) is an eleven year-old girl who speaks in an English accent. She found out about Riddle World after finding a Riddle Gem at her local park. Onita prefers to spend time hanging out with the residents at Riddle World's residential areas, though does also admire Kacie for her daring nature. She appears to be on the lazy side though, as she is occasionally reluctant to get out of her comfort zone.
 * Paddy (voiced by Avoc Westwind) is a boy of the same age of Kacie and Onita. Unlike the other children, he partially knew about Riddle World's existence before finding the Riddle Gem with Onita, and took an interest in its mysterious nature. Paddy often likes to tell the creatures of Riddle World about Earth, and helps them learn how to do things like read and write. He is best friends with Onita and is often seen with her. Although he cares for his friends a lot, Paddy is often unimpressed since he feels Onita and/or the Riddle World residents usually don't trying their best.
 * Tenet (voiced by Melissa Emery) is the youngest of the main children characters, a ten year-old who discovered Riddle World whilst finding a Riddle Gem in his back garden. He is very shy and timid, and not very good at looking after himself. He is best friends with Kacie, who is often the one who rescues him when he is in danger and/or gets captured, and is often the one to cheer him up when he is feeling down. Over time, Tenet begins to develop more independence and confidence in himself, and is capable of redeeming some of the more villainous characters on the show by convincing them to change their ways.

Major characters

 * Chica is a white humanoid creature that seems to be made out of wood and cardboard, with all of her limbs being attached together by nuts and bolts. It is implied that she doesn't leave her house much, but she enjoyes inviting people in. Chica appears to have some strange condition where her eyes, which are attached to her eye sockets via springs, will suddenly fling out, a condition which makes others feel awkward. She also has several other verbal and physical tics. In later episodes, she shows a clumsier and more insecure side, and also develops a crush on Yowie after he helps her partially fix her "condition".
 * Flowral is a floating clown head whose entire body never animates, even when talking. He seems to be a news reporter of sorts for Riddle World, telling anybody about events that have occured and the likes. When eating, his entire body can open up in a manner similar to that of Pac-Man. He shows a cheeky side from time to time, such as seeing the funny side when he accidentally makes a wreck of the Wibbly Sisters' garden.
 * Mr. Nether (voiced by Bruno Leon Vidal) is a grey humanoid creature who almost always wear a black suit and a pair of sunglasses. He normally has his arms behinds his back, and usually speaks in a very emotionless and robotic voice. Despite very rarely displaying any emotion, Mr. Nether appears to have a very high pain tolerance, being able to survive being hit hard without even flinching, has very good reflexes and also shows sudden bursts of intelligence.
 * Peeka is a talking tulip who is capable of diving into and moving in the ground. She often likes to greet others by scaring them. Her petals also change colour depending on her mood, being purple normally, but also red when feeling cheeky or mischievous and a dark blue when feeling sad.
 * Snappy is a talking seagull who delivers messages to people around Riddle World. He claims that he has been around the entire planet and back thousands of times and knows the location of almost everything off by heart. He can also bring people to certain locations by grabbing hold of them and flying them to their desired location.
 * Tulipa is a humanoid rose creature introduced in volume three after moving into Riddle Village and getting a role at several performances in Riddle Theatre. She is shown to be very greedy and egotistical on multiple occasions, which causes her to be at ends with the other residents, but is still considered a good friend of them regardless.
 * The Wibbly Sisters, consisting of Gooey, Swimy and Teehee, are a trio of alien-like worm creatures who live in Riddle World's biggest drinking mug. They cannot speak real sentences but can say some phrases like "uh oh" and "woo hoo" and can imitate others in a similar manner to a parrot. Paddy often tries to teach them how to do things like reading and writing, though it often takes them a while to fully learn. Gooey is green, whilst Swimy is yellow and Teehee is red.
 * Yowie is a large anthropomorphic crow, and the clumsy and cynical "janitor" of Riddle World who speaks in an Austarlian accent. He is a bit of a punching bag amongst his peers due to his accidental-prone nature. After temporarily showing a more malicious and sneaky side in "The Fright Before Christmas", he eventually begins to become more friendly with the children and his neighbours. In spite of his pessimistic and grumpy nature, Yowie is shown to have a lot of compassion for things he cares about a lot. He and Chica begin to develop a crush on each other later on.

Villains

 * The Diamond King is the presumably deceased former king of the Riddle World who would treat the inhabitants as slaves before they overthrew him with the help of Mr. Riddles. Not much is known about him, but it is known that he is the reason there are dangrous creatures and places in Riddle World that are still lurking to this day.
 * Synther is an evil glowup who wishes to become a superior dictator than the Diamond King by finding a way to earth so he can rule both it and the Riddle World. According to Mr. Riddles, he was a good friend to everybody in Riddle World before his desire to overthrow the Diamond King made him greedy. Synther possesses the ability to transform into a large variety of different things depending on his needs.
 * Annabell is an anthropomorphic doll who Synther brought to life to serve him. In spite of his, she is not really loyal to him, prefering to spend time causing petty mishaps, though she is willing to do worse if Synther is able to bribe her.
 * Whammy is a humanoid creature with wheels instead of arms and legs, though "walks" on two wheels. He is known for his messy hair, his lips never moving even when talking and constantly roaming around Riddle World looking for children to eat. Whenever he moves about, he often nods his head back and forth, which causes his long bendy nose to swing up and down continuously.
 * Ghoulos is the leader of a group of pumpkin-shaped monsters who come in all types of shapes and sizes.

Other characters
People who live in the same village as the four main children characters make sporadic appearances, including their parents and some other family members. A toy shop owner, Miss Jolly, makes one appearance in both volume five and six, being the only human aside from the children to visit Riddle World in the main series of episodes. Kacie has a beagle called Coco, whilst Paddy has a breedless cat called Mimi - the two pets make several appearances from volume four.

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 outsourced studios, especially in later volumes. 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 dots as eyes, which became a staple for most Kuboian animated series in the future.

Broadcasting and series structure
The Incredible World of Riddles premiered on Vision Network in June 1989, with a group of six episodes lasting approximately thirty-five minutes airing on Sunday evenings at 5:00p.m. right before the news, and usually preceded by an episode of The Raggy Dolls. These were repeated in the spring and summer of 1990.

More episodes and specials followed from 1991 to 1994, with the episodes running for approximately seventeen minutes and the specials often running up to twenty-six minutes. Episodes are often stated as being in "volumes" consisting of four or five episodes instead of series. Maverick claims that episodes were simultaneously produced with the other episodes in the same volume.

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 spent his own 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.

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, hi-NRG and acid house music genres.

Epiosdes
The Incredible World of Riddles follows a very loose structure, with episodes being labelled as being part of "volumes", with each volume featuring between four to six episodes. The main series ran from 1989 to 1993 whilst specials ran from 1991 to 1994.

The Incredible World of Riddles Unlocked (1995)
The Incredible World of Riddles Unlocked is a feature-length film that was released in cinemas throughout Europe on 25th August, 1995. The film focuses on Kacie, Onita, Paddy and Tenet as they prove to their families that Riddle World is indeed real. Meanwhile, Synther discovers a way to teleport to earth so he can rule both it and Riddle World. It was produced with digital ink, unlike the series which used traditional ink.

The film grossed €4.09 million on an estimated €2 million budget, and received critical acclaim with praise going towards the music, animation and characters, though some criticised the slow pacing of the plot. It currently has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 8/10.

The Incredible World of Riddles: The Next Chapter (1997)
The Incredible World of Riddles: The Next Chapter is a direct-to-video package film that was released on home media on 1st September, 1997. It consists of three different stories that take place shortly after the events of The Incredible World of Riddles Unlocked.

VHS releases
The Incredible World of Riddles was released on VHS in Kuboia through Vision Video and the United Kingdom through BBC Video. Each VHS had either two or three episodes from a particular volume, though each volume zero episode was released on its own.

DVD releases
The Incredible World of Riddles was released on DVD throughout Region 2 in four DVD sets:
 * "Volume Zero" - released October 2004
 * "Volume 1 and 2" - released March 2005
 * "Volume 3 and 4" - released September 2005
 * "Volume 5 and 6" - released April 2006

In June 2009, to mark the show's twentieth anniversary, a box set DVD called "The Complete Collection" featuring every episode and special was released in Region 2, with releases in other regions following shortly afterwards.

United Kingdom
The Incredible World of Riddles debuted on Children's BBC in the autumn of 1989. From there, episodes would usually premiere on Saturday afternoons roughly a week after their Kuboian premiere. Episodes from volume one through five were reran on CBBC until late 2001. The show later aired on CBeebies from February 2002 until late 2004.

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.

Other international airings
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 and KidsCo in several international markets. It also aired on ABC in Australia and Spacetoon in the Arab world.

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

According to many sources, The Incredible World of Riddles set the standards for the typical Kuboian animated series, with many cartoons produced in the country taking some form of inspiration from the series, particularly the characters, tone and setting. Several elements of the show, 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. Ashley Maverick and Harlow Morrison expressed shock over the show's 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".

Cult following
Since its original premiere, The Incredible World of Riddles has received a cult following in young adults, who find amusement in the show's 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. The show 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 the fact that the four children appear to continuously flirt with each other.

Maverick states that implications that the children were "not straight" were accidental, and that the show is "definitely not a LSD trip".

Controversy
Throughout the shows run, The Incredible World of Riddles has been criticised for having imagery that could be seen as frightening for young children, particularly scenes featuring the character Whammy. Additionally, the scene in "Onita the Detective" where Chica's eyes suddenly fling out of her eye sockets, and multiple scenes in "The Halls of Riddle Underground" were censored in some international markets to feature lighter-hearted music and sound effects.

Books
Books based on several episodes of the show were published throughtout the 1990s, which featured coloured illustrations. A majority of these were written by Ashley Maverick herself. A set of annual books were also published from 1992 to 2003.

In 2004, a book titled The Incredible World of Riddles: Behind Closed Doors was released, which included facts about the show's history and development, as well as commentary on several of the most popular episodes.

Indoor attractions
The Incredible World of Riddles has several attractions in Reichetto, East Kuboia, including a section in the Reichetto Exhibition Centre, a ride at Fantasy Metropolis and a section at Kubokartoonz World.

Several rides based on The Incredible World of Riddles have appeared in theme parks throughout Europe.

A few kiddie rides based on the show were produced and sold throughout Europe in the 1990s and 2000s.

Video games
The Incredible World of Riddles has spawned several video games, which continued to be produced even after the show ended its run. Ashley Maverick noted that "people still want to see more from Mr. Riddle and friends which is why more games are coming out". In addition to the main video games based on the show, several educational video games were released, including several PC CD-ROMs as well as a V.Smile game that was released in 2004.

According to Ashley Maverick, all of the mainline video games with the exception of Riddle World GP and Fantasy Fever chronologically take place in the franchise's overall storyline. A few have criticised this move, noting that some plot points do not make sense unless one plays all of the games in a specific order.

Other merchanide
Official merchandise based on The Incredible World of Riddles was produced in the 1990s and early 2000s, including toys, games and costumes based on the characters. In order for merchandise to be considered "official", it must be approved by Kubokartoonz themselves, particularly Ashley Maverick.

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

Tropes

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