What’s happened to the rest of the smiling Critters? To figure this out, the first thing we have to look at is all of their cardboard cutout voice lines. Afterwards, we’re going to be analyzing each member of The Smiling Critters one by one, all the way down to their personality, and speculate on how each of them could have possibly died.
Starting with Bubba Bubba Fant. Bubba Bubba is the most intelligent smiling Critter and acts as the brain of the gang. This is even shown in the smiling Critter’s intro, as he removed Crafty Corn’s painting to show a complex math equation. His identity as a genius is based on the real fact that elephants have extremely good memory. His voice lines are also the most tame out of all of them, if you exclude the screaming, of course.
What’s weird about Bubba Fant’s voice lines specifically is that when he’s screaming, he’s also laughing at the same time. “I’m Bubba Bubba Fant. Hey, I remember you. An elephant always remembers. Want to know what I remember about you?” I might have a valid reason for this happening; however, before looking into that, we have to take a look at one of his normal voice lines, which could be taken multiple ways. “Want to know what I remember about you?” When Bubba Fant says this, it could mean two things: the first is that he’s just expressing the fact that he has great memory, or it could mean that he remembers us working here 10 years ago. You can honestly look at it both ways.
Now, the reason I think Bubba was heard laughing in his last voice line is because of how he and the rest of the smiling Critters acted at the end of the episode when the crew weren’t able to sleep. They get a knock at the door, and it’s revealed to be Catnap. Bubba Fant was the first to come up and ask for Catnap to put them to sleep after everyone pleads for this. However, once Catnap secretes the red smoke, everyone, including Bubba Fant, is seen laughing maniacally.
I’m not sure if the red smoke from the show has the exact same properties as the one in real life, but it seems to show signs of insanity and addiction when someone inhales it, along with them being able to fall asleep. With that being said, there’s a chance that Bubba’s laughing in his last voice line is linked to Catnap, as he was initially exposed to the red smoke, causing him to laugh. Catnap took this opportunity to kill him.
Next up is Kicken Chicken. Kicken Chicken is known as the cool character in The Smiling Critters, as he likes to keep his cool image and is shown surfing. He’s very determined and doesn’t give up easily, even in tough situations. However, Kicken Chicken can get scared like the other six characters in the show, which is not only seen in the show but is also heard in his voice lines. They first include him asking to go outside and hang out, but after this, he says that he’s never been outside before, and he asks for us to come with him, admitting that he’s scared to go alone. Trying to keep his image, he says that he’ll step out first, and soon after, you can hear him screaming.
“Hey, I’m Kicken Chicken. Want to go outside and hang out? It’s looking pretty rad outside. I’ve never been outside before. Will you come with me? I’m scared. Here, follow me. I’ll step out first.” But what does all this mean? Surely he doesn’t die because of the sun or something outside. So why is he killed right after trying to venture off outside? Well, if you look at Playcare as a whole, it seemed to be some type of controlled environment that tries its best to simulate the outside world, which is kind of disturbing when you think about it.
Kicken Chicken most likely knew of this and Playcare’s nature and was curious about what the real world was actually like, but I don’t think his fear was because of the outside world itself. During one of our interactions with Poppy, she lets us know that the Prototype will kill us the second we try to escape, so we have to dispose of him first. “Prototype knows we’re coming. By now you try to escape, he’ll kill you before you ever reach that front door.” Kicken Chicken was likely aware of the fact that something would happen if he were to step foot outside of the building. Once he tried to leave, he’s either killed off by Catnap or the Prototype.
Now we have Piggy Piggy, a healthy eater who loves food and encourages her friends to eat a well-balanced diet, though she also harbors a secret fondness for cheeseburgers and PB&J sandwiches. Her voice lines include her expressing her love for food, but as you go on, she slowly starts to talk about meals that are made of the rest of the smiling Critters. Even after this, she says that she’s still hungry and offers a friendship with us right after.
“Hi there, I’m Piggy Piggy. Let’s eat roast beef, delicious grilled chicken, down the hat, seared elephant, yum, slay unicorn. I’m still hungry. Hey, what do you say? You and I be friends now?”
Knowing this, it’s clear that Piggy Piggy ate all of her friends and still needed to eat afterwards. But now we have two problems: wouldn’t that get in the way of how everyone else died, and how did she end up dying after she ate everyone? Well, this actually means that Piggy Piggy had to have been the last to die. On top of the fact that you don’t hear her screaming or being killed in any of her voice lines, what I think happened is after all the smiling Critters were killed by either Catnap, the Prototype, or natural causes, Piggy was the last one alive, excluding Dog Day, of course. To keep living, she ate the bodies of every single one of her friends. After this, she had no more food to eat, leading to her eventually starving to death.
Next up is Hoppy Hopscotch, who is said to be the friend everyone needs to maintain their energy and enthusiasm. Her personality is also seen in the show for The Smiling Critters, as you can see her playing soccer on a rainbow in the intro. Kind of weird, but whatever. While sometimes being loud or impatient, she’s still willing to slow herself down to please her friends.
The impatient part of her personality is very much shown in her voice lines, as she’s convinced that if she keeps trying, she’ll be able to jump to the moon. She tries multiple times, growing increasingly frustrated at the player, but in the last voice line, when Hoppy Hopscotch tries one last time, she’s heard screaming while saying the word “jump,” and the audio cuts out. Right before this, she said not to look at your feet and none of that matters.
“I’m Hoppy Hopscotch. Want to try hopping to the moon with me? On three, with me. One, two, three. Again, one, two, three. Listen, this won’t stop until we make it to the moon. One, two, no, no, don’t look at your feet. None of that matters. Again, again. Jump, jump.”
Now, I think this one is the most obvious. Hoppy Hopscotch is somehow deluded into thinking that she can jump to the moon. When she tries one last time, she didn’t look at where she was and ended up jumping off some high platform, falling to her death.
Up next is Bobby Bear Hug, who possesses warm and appreciative qualities similar to how Huggy Wuggy was designed. She cares deeply about her friends and everything around her, maybe a bit too much. However, Bobby can also be seen as naive, as she may care about some who don’t have her best interest at heart. She’s also shown to have a fear of being abandoned, as she asks the player if they’re going to leave her and that she’s been lost a long time.
“Hi, I’m Bobby Bear Hug. Want to know how much I love you? I love you to the moon and back. I’m crazy about you. I’m lost without you. I’ve been lost a long time. Please take me with you this time. You won’t leave me, will you?”
I honestly think that this is the saddest of them all, especially considering the fact that Bobby Bear Hug is the one who cares most about everyone, yet she ends up being abandoned. This obviously leads to the question of why and how Bobby Bear Hug was abandoned. This might be due to her clingy tendencies, and the rest of the smiling Critters didn’t want to be around her because of how close she wanted to be with everyone. Or perhaps she was one of the last to be alive and couldn’t find anyone else, which could explain her saying why she’s been lost for a long time. When she says, “You won’t leave me this time, will you?” it’s likely that she’s referring to us leaving Playtime Co and coming back, letting us know that she doesn’t want us to leave again. After having no one to love, no one to talk to, and nothing to eat, Bobby Bear Hug slowly starved to death, possibly never being found due to the fact that Piggy Piggy never even mentioned eating a bear in any of her voice lines.
Now we have Crafty Corn, a creative unicorn with a passion for art, sharing its importance with the other crew members. She also appears to be a peacemaker, seeing the beauty in all things around her. In the cartoon’s intro, she demonstrates her skills as a talented painter by painting an exact replica of Bobby Bear Hug. In her voice lines, it sounds like she’s making another painting and realizes that she ran out of red. Once she’s told this, she doesn’t believe you and suspects that you’re hiding more red from her. Suddenly, she yells at you to give it to her, and screaming is heard right after, to which she says that now it’s much better.
“Hi, I’m Crafty Corn. Can you help me with my painting? Thanks. Now, can you give me some red? More red, please. Out? But we can’t be out. You’re hiding more red from me. I know you are. Give it here. Now that’s much better.”
For Crafty Corn, I’m led to believe that when she’s talking about red being hidden from her, she’s most likely talking to a member of The Smiling Critters. What’s even worse is that she’s likely talking about their blood. This is evidenced by the fact that once she yells at one of the members to give her some more red, you can hear one of them screaming right after, which likely means that she killed them for their blood. But how did she end up dying herself? Well, Crafty Corn could have either died due to starving to death, or she was killed by the other smiling Critters after expressing her violent behavior and killing one of her friends. For this member specifically, her voice lines don’t really reveal a concrete reason as to how she really died.
Lastly, we have Dog Day, the trusted leader of the smiling Critters, always looking at the bright side of things and encouraging others in their time of need. In his voice lines, he tells the player to go fetch and then questions why we’re just standing there. Afterwards, he tells us that we can’t stay, but right after this, we can hear Dog Day screaming for a lot longer than the other members who died.
“Dog Day says fetch. Go, go as far as you can. Why are you just standing there? You can’t be here. You can’t stay.”
This one is honestly the most disturbing because we somewhat already know what happened to Dog Day. In his first voice line, when he tells us to go fetch, that’s referencing his want for us to leave Playtime Co. He questions why we’re still here. When he tells us that we can’t stay and that we shouldn’t be here, he’s indirectly revealing the truth of Playtime Co, showing that he doesn’t agree with its beliefs, more specifically the Prototype’s. Catnap and the Prototype tortured Dog Day for encouraging the others to escape, as that’s what they do to heretics. This likely explains why the screaming lasted so agonizingly long. You can actually hear the moment where Dog Day’s legs are cut off and fall to the ground. This makes Dog Day’s death all the more horrific, especially considering that everything he was saying in the cardboard cutout was pretty much the exact same thing he was telling us in person.
But what do you guys think happened to the rest of the smiling Critters? Will they potentially make an appearance in the upcoming chapter? Let me know down in the comments.
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