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Kubokartoonz is a Kuboian animated studio founded in September 1987 by Ashley Maverick and Harlow Morrison. It was the first animated studio to be founded in Kuboia, and has produced several television series and specials that have received critical acclaim and spawned a lot of merchandise.
Themes[]
Kubokartoonz' programmes are often characterised by high-quality 2D visuals and animation, fantasy elements in a realistic setting, high-budget soundtracks, serial formats, a mixture of dark and lighthearted storylines and wholesome social lessons.
All of the studio's works are targeted towards younger children whilst featuring humour and plotlines that an older audience would appreciate. One exception is Magma Eye, which is aimed at an older audience. Despite this, Ashley Maverick states that their content "is for everyone, no matter who you are".
Filmography[]
TV series[]
All television series produced by the company have been done in traditional animation.
- The Incredible World of Riddles (1989-1993)
- Greenwood Forest (1993-1996)
- The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets (1995-1997; co-produced with Colourbox)
- Magma Eye (1997-2000)
- Tip's Nursery (1999-2003)
- Detective Tricky (2004-2007)
- Little Red (2018-2021)
Other ventures[]
Kubokartoonz World[]
A chain of retail store based on the studio's franchises titled Kubokartoonz World was launched in 1998, beginning with the launch of two chains in Reichetto and Fahrbahnin the same year. The stores sell a wide variety of merchandise based on Kubokartoonz' television series, including clothing, posters, DVDs and VHS tapes, video games and other items. Most chains also contain restaurants as well as some non-Kubokartoonz branded items in order to make using merchandise more convenient (i.e. VHS sets so one can use the VHS tapes).
Since its launch, the Kubokartoonz World brand has operated outside of Kuboia, with a limited number of chains (usually two or less) currently open in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States.
Kubokartoonz Interactive[]
In 1990, Kubokartoonz formed a video game-based division called Kubokartoonz Interactive which would publish a majority of video games based on their properties.
Reception[]
Kubokartoonz are often credited for popularising Kuboian animation, with some of their works, such as The Incredible World of Riddles, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets and Magma Eye, maintaining high cult status worldwide, even decades after their series ended production. Harlow Morrison argued that being the first Kuboian cartoon studio gave them an advantage, in addition to focusing more on production values than most non-Kuboian studios did at the time.
Legacy[]
In 2019, BBC referred to Kubokartoonz as the Kuboian version of The Walt Disney Company, citing the studio as having "a very long-lasting legacy thanks to its wide range of culture-orientated and high quality animated series".
Criticism[]
Some sources have criticised Kubokartoonz' lack of diversity in their shows, with many of their protagonists being light-skinned, with characters with darker skin rarely playing a prominent role. Maverick discussed the issue in a 2020 interview stating "it took me quite a while to realise that so many of the leads we make are white-resembling. Perhaps a dark-skinned lead is something we could look into for a future series."
Kubokartoonz have also been criticised for their depictions of overweight people in Magma Eye and Tip's Nursery. Although the studio have been praised for featuring homosexual and transgender characters in their media, a few LGBT activists have accused them of making poorly-written LGBT characters solely for publicity - Ashley Maverick denied the accusations.
Some sources have also blamed Kubokartoonz for popularising stereotypes related to Kuboia.