Smiling Heroes was an action adventure reboot based on the famous Smiling Critters franchise of the late 80s and early 90s, reimagining the beloved critters as heroes who have to balance between their normal jobs and saving the day. It aired between 2003 and 2011, with a total of three seasons.
Despite the quite debatable change of character designs and the production hell the series got after the 2005 PlayCo. incident, which revealed the beloved toy company was hiding child experimentation and an incident which killed all workers from PlayCo.'s original factory. Fortunately, one individual who had previously worked at the company was able to not only save the victims of human experimentation that were still trapped in the place, but to uncover the truth for the world to see. After the PlayCo. court battle was settled in 2009, the show's production immediately came back - this time, with a new director, who took the series above and beyond.
Dogday is a history teacher, capable of energizing the people he's close by.
Bubba Bubbaphant works at the powerplant as one of the many engineers! His power is electromagnetism.
Bobby Bearhug is a beloved florist, who has telekinesis and is capable of feeling what others are feeling!
Craftycorn is a freelancer artist, whose power is ink control.
Hoppy Hopscotch is a gym coach, and her power is being able to move as fast as lighting - and maybe even control a bit of it...?
KickinChicken is a stunt actor, capable of transforming and mimicking other people.
PickyPiggy is a chef at a restaurant, with her having control over plants.
Catnap was introduced in Season 2 as a villain who later gets reformed. He works at Dogday's school as a janitor, and has shadow manipulation and shadow travel as his powers!
... Aka I decided to be a bit silly and make a stylized 2000s cartoon of the critters inspired by magical girl shows! The episodes use a monster of the week format, and yet, the Nightmare Critters are reocurrent villains. Each Smiling Critter has a normal job, and all the critters in this world have an unique power each, which comes from their pendant, even if they can't transform like the main cast does.
