Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum

Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
Genre	Children's television series Educational
Created by	Todd Grimes
Based on	Ordinary People Change the World by Brad Meltzer
Written by	Julia Daly Jiro C. Okada Charles Johnston Jennifer Daly Desmond Sargeant Meghan Read Lakna Edilima
Directed by	Cory Bobiak
Voices of	Aidan Vissers Zoe Hatz Wyatt White
Theme music composer	Joseph Trapanese Jason Lazarus Lindsay Pitts
Opening theme	"Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum Theme"
Ending theme	"Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum Theme" (instrumental)
Composer	Meiro Stamm
Country of origin	Canada United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (26 segments)
Production
Executive producers	Brad Meltzer Christopher Eliopoulos Vince Commisso Blake Tohana Rob Weisbach Fonda Snyder
Producer	Jennifer Bradley
Editors	Meghan Read Tom Hastings
Running time	22 minutes (11 minutes per segment)
Production companies	Brown Bag Films 9 Story Media Group
Original release
Network	PBS Kids (USA) TVOKids (Canada)
Release	November 11, 2019 (2019-11-11) – present

Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum is a Canadian-American flash-animated children's animated television series that premiered on November 11, 2019, on PBS Kids. The series is produced by 9 Story Media Group. It is a concept of the children's book series written by Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos, named Ordinary People Change the World. The series involves Xavier Riddle with his friends, Yadina, Brad, and Berby, at the Secret Museum, and help from historical heroes, who are depicted in the series as children.

Overview

The series involves Xavier Riddle with his sister Yadina Riddle and their friend Brad. In each episode, a problem or difficulty is encountered. They go to the Secret Museum, to time travel to the past, to observe, interact, and learn from the historical heroes. They then return to the present, and use their experience to solve the problem.

Characters

Main characters

• Xavier Riddle (voiced by Aidan Vissers) – Xavier is the leader of his group with his sister Yadina and their friend Brad. He appears to be an excitable kid who is eager to go back in time and meet various historical figures. He is described as a kid who loves everything (especially art and basketball), but lives for adventures.
• Yadina Riddle (voiced by Zoe Hatz) – Yadina is Xavier's younger sister. She seems to be eager to explore the secret museum and learn about various historical figures. She carries a stuffed turtle around with her named Dr. Zoom. She is quite talented, whether it be with books or with balls. Although Yadina is very extroverted (not a wallflower at all), she is only six years old. This means that she can be very honest with just about anyone, and sometimes even blunt. For example, Yadina dislikes meanness of any kind, and if anyone is not being friendly to another, Yadina will let them know exactly what she thinks of their behavior. When faced with conflict, Yadina is an expert at making others understand a situation from someone else's perspective, which ultimately requires empathy, self-awareness, and self-regulation. She also has a habit of making bad puns, which she fruitlessly tries to explain to both her brother Xavier and her buddy Brad.
• Brad Scott Meltzer (voiced by Wyatt White) – Brad tends to be the most nervous and neurotic of his friends and suffers from several allergies. He is sometimes hesitant to go on adventures since travelling back in time makes him dizzy. Brad is quite partial to butterflies, as well as action heroes and is a relatively good artist who enjoys drawing comic book stories. He is described as having "delusions of averageness", and is apprehensive over everything. His friends, Xavier and Yadina, encourage him to live a little and to try new things. He suffers from imposter syndrome. Brad is Jewish, as revealed in I am Tomioka Tossai, when he shows his friends a dreidel. His last name is only revealed on the website.

Major characters

• Berby – A small, egg-shaped flying robot who resides at the Secret Museum and functions as part of the time machine by transporting Xavier, Yadina and Dr. Zoom, and Brad back and forth in time. Berby communicates by making robotic beeping sounds, and is good friends with the kids and Dr. Zoom. It also functions as the museum's curator, ensuring all of the exhibits are taken care of and in the right places. Berby also appears in all the shorts after all episodes.

Episodes

Each episode of Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum runs for half an hour. They consist of two 11-minute stories based on famous historical heroes around the world in the past. There may be an interstitial segment between the two main stories, in which Berby, and either Xavier, Yadina, Brad, or Dr. Zoom, are shown doing something fun together.

Season 1 (2019–present)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code
1	1	"I Am Johann Sebastian Bach" "I Am Marie Curie"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Jennifer Daley Storyboard by : Cory Bobiak Written by : Amy Brown Storyboard by : Firas Momani	November 12, 2019 (2019-11-12)	101
2	2	"I Am Mary Shelley" "I Am Harry Houdini"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Meghan Read Storyboard by : Craig Taillefer Written by : Desmond Sargeant Storyboard by : Hong Qi	November 13, 2019 (2019-11-13)	102
3	3	"I Am George Washington" "I Am Susan B. Anthony"	Unknown	Unknown	November 14, 2019 (2019-11-14)	109
4	4	"I Am Isaac Newton / I Am Golda Meir"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Amy Brown Storyboard by : Sean Janisse Written by : Amy Brown Storyboard by : Stephanie Ramone	November 18, 2019 (2019-11-18)	106
5	5	"I Am Winston Churchill / I Am Cleopatra"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Jiro C. Okada Storyboard by : Alex Greychuck Written by : Lakna Edilima Storyboard by : Firas Momani	November 19, 2019 (2019-11-19)	107
6	6	"I Am Catherine the Great / I Am Tomioka Tessai"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Jiro C. Okada Storyboard by : Sean Janisse Written by : Meghan Read Storyboard by : Stephanie Ramone	November 20, 2019 (2019-11-20)	108
7	7	"We Are the Wright Brothers / We Are the Brontë Sisters"	Unknown	Unknown	November 27, 2019 (2019-11-27)	111
8	8	"I Am Mark Twain / I Am Abigail Adams"	Unknown	Unknown	November 27, 2019 (2019-11-27)	112
9	9	"I Am Julia Child / I Am Neil Armstrong"	Unknown	Unknown	November 27, 2019 (2019-11-27)	113
10	10	"I Am Helen Keller / I Am Alexander Graham Bell"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Meghan Read Storyboard by : Alex Greychuck Written by : Lakna Edilima Storyboard by : Firas Momani	December 2, 2019 (2019-12-02)	103
11	11	"I Am Florence Nightingale / I Am George Washington Carver"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Charles Johnston Storyboard by : Sean Janisse Written by : Jiro C. Okada Storyboard by : Craig Taillefer	December 9, 2019 (2019-12-09)	104
12	12	"I Am Leonardo da Vinci / I Am Amelia Earhart"	Cory Bobiak	Written by : Charles Johnston Storyboard by : Alex Greychuck Written by : Jennifer Daley Storyboard by : Firas Momani	December 16, 2019 (2019-12-16)	105
13	13	"I Am Zora Neale Hurston / I Am Charles Dickens"	Unknown	Unknown	December 23, 2019 (2019-12-23)	110
14	14	"I Am Jackie Robinson / I Am Anna Pavlova"	Unknown	Unknown	January 20, 2020 (2020-01-20)	114
15	15	"I Am Mary Leakey / I Am Alexander Hamilton"	Unknown	Unknown	January 21, 2020 (2020-01-21)	115
16	16	"I Am Theodore Roosevelt / I Am Eleanor Roosevelt"	Unknown	Unknown	January 22, 2020 (2020-01-22)	116
17	17	"I Am Lou Gehrig / I Am Marie Owens"	Unknown	Unknown	January 23, 2020 (2020-01-23)	117
18	18	"I Am Madam President"	Unknown	Unknown	March 16, 2020 (2020-03-16)	118
19	19	"I Am Nikola Tesla / I Am Nellie Bly"	Unknown	Unknown	August 3, 2020 (2020-08-03)	119
20	20	"I Am Maya Angelou / I Am Frederick Douglass"	Unknown	Unknown	August 4, 2020 (2020-08-04)	120
21	21	"I Am Louis Pasteur / I Am Rachel Carson"	Unknown	Unknown	August 5, 2020 (2020-08-05)	121
22	22	"I Am Kate Warne / I Am Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"	Unknown	Unknown	August 6, 2020 (2020-08-06)	122

Xavier Riddle and the Secret Movie: I am Madam President

A TV special titled Xavier Riddle and the Secret Movie: I am Madam President aired on March 16, 2020. In the special, Yadina, who dreams of becoming president one day, realizes all the presidents were men. She questions if she can still be president, even though it is something no girl has done yet. The trio visit the Secret Museum, where a five-part star is shown to them. They travel to different periods in time, where they meet women who are attempting to do something that has never been done before. Yadina learns from them on what is needed to do something that has never been done before, as she attempts to complete the star. She meets Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Amelia Earhart, Junko Tabei, and Sally Ride.

Production

Brad Meltzer has been writing novels, nonfiction, television and comic books for over 50 years; his children’s books were his favorite. He wrote the book Ordinary People Change the World and began a series based on the book named the Ordinary People series in 2014 with I Am Abraham Lincoln, I Am Amelia Earhart, I Am Rosa Parks, and I Am Albert Einstein.

The series is produced by 9 Story Media Group's animation division, Brown Bag Films. 9 Story's Chief Creative Officer Angela Santomero states that Xavier Riddle lets kids know they have "the curiosity and adventurous spirit to change the world". Meltzer added to that statement: "When my own kids watch this series, I get to see them realize that there’s extraordinary within the ordinary."

Broadcast

The series ran on TVOKids in Canada on December 10, 2019. And the series ran with Hop! Israel on July 3, 2020 and Nat Geo Kids Latinoamérica And Nick India On July 12, 2020

Criticism and Reception

Joyce Slaton of Common Sense Media gave Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum a mixed review. She stated that "the show makes many historical inaccuracies, which makes it odd for a TV show that wants to make history come back alive for kids." She also stated that "the show's tendency to play too fast and loose with the historical facts is confusing, and that 'Go for it!' is an unlikely motto for Amelia Earhart, who deceased in 1937 and didn't complete her solo Atlantic flight as a grade school student, as Xavier depicts." George Washington Carver did have a secret garden as a child, in which he learned important lessons that impacted his career in botany. But, as Slaton states, "it's a real stretch to imagine him having to defend plants from renegade soccer players in 19th century Missouri," and that "the show seems to overlook his importance as an activist for ex-slaves and champion of sustainable agriculture, instead boiling his messages down to 'take care of plants and you'll take care of the earth.'"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
2020	Annie Awards	Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Preschool Children	Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum	Nominated
2020	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Directing for a Preschool Animated Program		Nominated

References

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA. Text taken from Xavier Riddle​. Fandom.com.
•  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA. Text taken from Yadina Riddle​. Fandom.com.
•  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA. Text taken from Brad Scott​. Fandom.com.
•  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA. Text taken from Berby​. Fandom.com.

External links

• Official website
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum at IMDb