The Smiling Critters - Poppy Playtime Guide - IGN (2024)

Poppy Playtime has a big cast of characters across its first three chapters, and we're here to break down their motivations, past, and lore so you can catch up on the wider story.

On this page, we'll cover the colorful lineup of toys introduced in Chapter 3: The Smiling Critters.

The Smiling Critters

As we see in the cartoon that opens Chapter 3, the Smiling Critters were an attempt at a huge new franchise for Playtime Co, both as a product to sell to the masses and as a way of controlling the company's secret test subjects. A bunch of colorful animal plushes with wide grins and zany personalities, Playtime saw the Critters as the perfect caretakers to help the kids in Playcare.

Through the Bigger Bodies Initiative, all of the Critters were brought to life as organic toys, although by the time we reach Playcare in Chapter 3, only two remain: DogDay and Catnap. We'll cover both in their own pages, but first, let's go through the history of the Smiling Critters brand and how all of them were eventually picked off by the most sad*stic member of their group...

The History of The Smiling Critters

In the late 80s, Playtime attempted to launch their most ambitious brand yet: The Smiling Critters. Assembling a bunch of marketable toys with unique personalities, the company figured the plushes would be hit new products.

You had the cool KickinChicken, the food-obsessed PickyPiggy, the arty CraftyCorn, the bouncy HoppyHopskotch, the brainy Bubba Bubbaphant, and the caring Bobby Bearhug. To round out the gang you had Catnap, the moody (and borderline nightmarish) cat who tended to put the cast to sleep with mysterious red smoke, and the group's plucky leader, Dogday.

Alongside the toys came a full-fledged cartoon. We even get to see an episode during the cold opening of the chapter. However, you probably noticed a very strange addition to that lineup. Catnap the sleep-inducing nightmare feline was an unsettling addition to the group, and it didn't take long for his presence to be questioned by parents, especially after the line of toys was released.

Directly after the ending of the cartoon, which sees Catnap sitting in the darkness watching the viewer after forcing his friends to sleep, we immediately cut to a news report. In it, the broadcaster explains that the Catnap doll had to be recalled after parents realized it was giving their children horrific nightmares. Catnap's red smoke wasn't just a trait of the cartoon character, but it had wormed its way into the toys as well.

The ensuing controversy was terrible for Playtime. Catnap was removed from the lineup and the company attempted to scrub him completely from the marketing, but it didn't matter. The factory's reputation was knocked and their profits were dipping. The Smiling Critters fiasco was a huge issue for the company at the time and a key factor in its decision to found the Bigger Bodies Initiative.

Bringing The Smiling Critters to Life

Following the creation of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, the cast of the Smiling Critters was eventually brought to life in Harley Sawyer's experiments.

Throughout Chapter 3, we only meet DogDay and Catnap, so it's unclear how many were present in Playcare, although it seems like the majority were a part of the experiment in some form. Most seemed like standard experiments, but Catnap was something of a special case.

In 1990, there was an escape attempt where an orphan named Theodore Grambell was coerced by the Prototype into using a Grab Pack. During the escape, Theodore was badly injured and on the brink of death, but the Prototype saved him. He was transformed into Catnap shortly after, but never forgot his metallic savior.

After his procedure, he followed The Prototype everywhere and eventually began to see it as a god, praising it and even building a shrine for it in the caverns below The Playhouse. In 1995, The Prototype staged a factory-wide massacre known as The Hour of Joy. Considering Catnap's unwavering loyalty to The Prototype, he killed indiscriminately, helping murder all of the Playcare employees to serve his god.

In the years following the event, Catnap became The Prototype's eyes and ears in Playcare, and all the other toys feared him. When we meet DogDay in the Playhouse's prison during Chapter 3, we find him strung up and mutilated by Catnap; a punishment that he notes is what Catnap does to "heretics".

He goes on to tell us that Catnap killed anyone who resisted the will of The Prototype, specifically noting that he's "The last of the Smiling Critters." It's a morbid ending for the aggressively cheerful group, although there's always room for some of the supposedly dead critters to rear their heads in future chapters. After all, if you don't see a character die on screen, you can never fully write them off.