Ridiculously Cute Critter



""They're so cute. They're like if puppies and kittens could have babies.""

- Leela talking about penguin chicks, Futurama

A cute widdle creature typically consisting of fur, big eyes, maybe a Big Smile, and little else. It's probably biologically unfeasible, if not downright impossible, but who cares? It's stupidly huggable, and if the show is Merchandise-Driven, it will probably be a top seller. In many cases, it will become an easily-recognizable symbol for the show/series/whatever. All together now: "Awwwww..."

May double as Non-Human Sidekick types, but the main purpose of these creatures is to be irresistibly cute. Sometimes, they are unconventionally cute. Their natural habitat is the Sugar Bowl, but they have been known to wander far and wide.

Depending on the series, there can be either only 1 or 2 types of cute characters, contrasting the rest of the cast. In others (most commonly those taking place in Sugar Bowl realms) the most, if not all the cast is like that.

The robotic counterparts can be found in Cute Machines

If it's so ugly it's cute, it's Ugly Cute. If it's not so lovable, it's a Small Annoying Creature. If it's appealing but ferocious, it's a Killer Rabbit. If it's really not conventionally cute, then it's What Measure Is a Non-Cute?. If it's one of the bad guys, it's an Adorable Evil Minion.

If really unlovable, it's The Scrappy.

May cause Cuteness Overload. May be Yet Another Baby Panda.

Contrast BIG TIME with Eldritch Abomination, and also contrast that with Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu? if it's a nice monster.

Advertising

 * Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Bolo the polar bear.
 * Maxwell the Pig from the Geico commercials.

Anime and Manga

 * Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: Ecchan as seen in the trope image.
 * Kimba the White Lion.
 * Chi's Sweet Home
 * Although played straight with some Pokémon in the games (see below), this trope is subverted in the anime, perhaps in response to the complaints that Dawn has mostly cute Pokémon—adorable Big Eater piggy Swinub evolved into a rampaging disobedient Mamoswine within the course of three episodes.
 * Then brought right back in with two of the main group's Pokémon in Best Wishes. Ash's Oshawott (who Ash even says is adorable), Iris's Axew, and Trip's Vanillite (although Iris disagrees).
 * Even Team Rocket has had cute Pokemon, especially Chimecho, Mime Jr., Cacnea, Wurmple, and Woobat.
 * Seeing as about half the legendary Pokémon are cute buckets of fuzz (Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi, for example), that's something of a subversion.
 * The same can be said for Digimon, though Patamon is probably the Rookie that fits the most; of course, that's before he becomes the super-special-awesome Angemon.
 * Culumon from Digimon Tamers exemplifies this trope. It has to be among the most "awwwww" inducing critters ever seen.
 * Guilmon also gives out his fair share of cute when he isn't fighting. Okay, he's a big red dinosaur even in his base form, but his personality is utterly adorable.
 * Digimon Tamers in general exemplifies this trope, which is really odd, considering how dark it is. Culumon could carry the entire season's cuteness factor on his own because he's so dang adorable in every way. But then you have Guilmon (adorable personality), Terriermon (Do I need to say it? "Moumantai~"), Lopmon (Terriermon all over again, the frown doesn't diminish it)... And then MarineAngemon is introduced. Cuteness overload.
 * Thing about Marine Angemon: Most of the supercute Digimon are at Baby and In-Training levels (the levels of actual infant Digimon, and the heroes' Sleep Mode Size.) Marine Angemon? Mega. (That is, the levels of the heroes in Super Mode, and post-midseason BigBads.) The Powers That Be sadly didn't let him out of the bag much, but he saves the day in a big way once.  Said attack takes the form of pretty colorful bubbles, naturally.
 * Not to mention Impmon, he even has a tummy smileyface.
 * All the baby forms in the Digimon Nursery. I'm certain even Myotismon's baby form will make you go awww... However, running though a digidex can be quite webbish...
 * Then we have Cutemon in Xros Wars. Yeah.
 * Puwamon in Digimon Savers. Best described as a little ball of feathers with big Puppy Dog Eyes.
 * Momo, a Japanese dwarf flying squirrel Non-Human Sidekick of Fuu in Samurai Champloo. You really have to see pictures of the real thing to believe it is an actual species on this planet.
 * Potato, the puppy from AIR that some people think was so named because it resembled a pile of mashed potatoes. It's disturbingly intelligent (Kano can apparently talk with it), says nothing except "Pico pico" and is mind-bendingly adorable!
 * The Androgynous, fluffy, playful Mokona from Magic Knight Rayearth, ×××HOLiC and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
 * Magic Knight Rayearth also features, in one episode, a stupidly-cute, injured, foxlike critter that Hikaru instantly adopts and names "Hikari" after her old dog.
 * ×××HOLiC partially subverts it, however, as Mokona turns out to be a total booze-hound just like Yuuko.
 * xxxHoLic also has Tanpopo, Himawari-chan's almost painfully adorable little bird. And Chibi Kitsune.
 * Am I the only one who found the tube fox, which agrees with the -mon stuff mentioned above, cute?
 * No, you're not the only one. That was my favorite character in the whole show.
 * Daa! Daa! Daa! has Pepo, Luu's adorable, stuffed animal-like alien space pet that's a Peponian...from the Planet Pepo. Guess what it says? That's right. Pepo!
 * Wizz from D.N.Angel; cutest floppy-eared rabbit-like thing ever.
 * Not so cute, but definitely plushie-like squishy: Saizo, Okita's pet pig in Peacemaker Kurogane.
 * The Puuchus from the Excel Saga anime are meant as a parody of this. They're actually evil alien invaders and when you hit them they bleed purple and take on the haggard features and guttural tones of Golgo 13.
 * Domesticated Puuchus on the other hand turn into heroes from shows like Captain Harlock or Gundam. Not ugly, but definitely weird.
 * There's also Kuriboh from Yu-Gi-Oh!!, which is where LittleKuriboh of Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series gets his name from.
 * GX takes it to the next level with a winged version of the fluffball as Judai Yuki's duel spirit partner.
 * And in 5Ds, Ruka has yet another variation, Kuribon.
 * Chopper from One Piece's half-human form is definitely an example. Even though creatures of his type (animal zoans) look like adult humans crossed with animals, Chopper ends up looking like a three-year-old cosplaying as a plushie, for reasons of Cute, and possibly because he was actually an animal that became half-human.
 * Ladies and gentlemen, Baby Laboon.
 * AAAAAAWWWWW!
 * And the Spaceys in Eneru's cover story.
 * In Onegai My Melody, Mari Land is a world entirely populated by Ridiculously Cute Critters.
 * The Kodamas from Princess Mononoke.
 * For that matter, most films by Miyazaki have at least one ridiculously cute creature: the soot spirits in Spirited Away, the forest spirits in My Neighbor Totoro, Jiji the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service, the title character in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, the fox-squirrels creature from Laputa: Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind!
 * Non-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli example: the tanuki in Pom Poko.
 * Guvava, Mylene Flare Jenius' Empathy Pet from Macross 7. Basically a Tribble with eyes.
 * It's easy to forget how late in Azumanga Daioh it is before Maya shows up.
 * Botan, the baby boar in Clannad. When it first appears, Tomoya and Sunohara aren't quite sure what it is, though they both agree that it's ridiculously cute.
 * After the time-skip Botan is grown, but is still depicted as cute. Doesn't hurt to have kindergartners playing around it as if it's a living stuffed animal.
 * The big dango family, of course; they could be described best as small rolls of bread with Super Mushroom eyes.
 * Kirara from Inuyasha. At least until she transforms.
 * Thus becoming Badass Adorable
 * Ryo-Oh-Ki from Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: a fluffy little cabbit—a cat/rabbit hybrid. She also turns into a spaceship.
 * She also
 * In Tenchi in Tokyo, she can become Mini-Mecha Ryo-Oh-Ki! And she is the cuuuuuutest Mini Mecha you ever saw!
 * Boota in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Appropriately enough, when.
 * The little green alien creature that steals Sheryl's panties and which Ranka befriends from Macross Frontier.
 * Later on, Ai-kun (the green critter) molts and.
 * The critters from every incarnation of Pretty Cure. They're so damn puntable cute!
 * The main character of Princess Tutu is actually one of these! Ahiru's (which means 'Duck' and is named that in the dub) true form is that of a yellow duckling with big, big blue eyes. Even the resident Tall, Dark and Snarky can't resist her cuteness.
 * Pani Poni Dash! spoofs this with a cute but incredibly depressed bunny that's the pet of the main character.
 * Then there's the giant salamander.
 * Kuroneko-sama from Trigun.
 * Jonathan the baby seal from Kaleido Star.
 * And we can't forget P-chan, Mr. Panda, Shampoo-neko and MuMu-chan from Ranma ½, even if they'd rather not suffer from Jusenkyo's Involuntary Shapeshifting curses.
 * Along the same lines, Pokota from Slayers Revolution is the a prince, bound into the bizarre but adorable shape of an alien bunny looking thing with gigantic wing-hand-ears, a cape, and a zipper up his stomach that opens on to L-space. He is, of course, Tougher Than He Looks.
 * Potemayo and Guchuko have all these beat. None can stand against their moe.
 * Both Alexander (a Big Friendly Dog) and Nina (an adorable little girl) arguably served this purpose on Fullmetal Alchemist...
 * Say what you will about it, but... is actually quite cute too.
 * And in the manga, Xiaomei, the midget panda actually stunned Scar into silence with her cuteness.
 * Hope that they don't talk about any important plot points in a scene that has her in it (there's at least one), because I guarantee all you'll pay attention to is the little panda.
 * Why does everybody forget the poor Black Hayate?
 * Den is one of these too, being a Big Friendly Dog.
 * The Ham Hams from Hamtaro, and they know it.
 * In Axis Powers Hetalia, most of the Non Human Sidekicks. Hanatamago and Pochi are some that are named, both being fluffy little dogs. China has a little panda, England has his little spirit friends and so on. There is also a recurring white bunny with gray ears seen with America, England and Japan (probably based on the author's pet rabbit). Tony the alien is also rather cute.
 * Let's not forget Kujimarou the bear cub (with drastic memory problems!) belonging to Canada.
 * Kumajirou's just joshing. He really does know who Canada is, eh?
 * Greece's cats, too. And Iceland's puffin. Not to mention America's whale friend, and the cat that "ferociously attacks" Italy in a training session.
 * What, no mochis?
 * Johnny Joestar's stand, Tusk, from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure story "Steel Ball Run".
 * Katekyo Hitman Reborn has been recruiting a lot of these lately. And they're loads more deadly than they look.
 * The Por Vora from King of Bandit Jing are made of adorable. Too bad they're also Made of Explodium.
 * Kero in Cardcaptor Sakura, much to his chagrin, as powerful magical guardians are not cute.
 * Chibisuke from Dragon Drive. Well, he's not as small as a few others, and he turns into a much bigger dragon later, but still.
 * ChuChu, the little purple marmoset from Revolutionary Girl Utena (Particularly in the manga.).
 * Bonta-kun from Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu.
 * Isako from Dennou Coil uses a group of virtual pets to do some of her chores. They are all extremely adorable fluffy round things, but underestimating their abilities would be a big mistake.
 * The Bearbees from Kyou Kara Maou. They're snuggley embodiments of love that sprinkle glitter, say 'Nogitsu!' and concider Yuuri and Wolfram to be their parents, making them Greta's siblings, I guess. They're highly endangered and their poop makes very high-quality, but very smelly, paint.
 * Unless they're the mudhybrid ones. Then they'll turn into monsters that will viciously attack your children if you get them wet.
 * Pero Pero from Kare Kano, the dog that gets around by rolling around.
 * Moyashimon features one of the few successful attempts at making bacteria and mold spores cute. This especially goes for the series mascot, an anthropomorphic spore of Aspergillus oryzae.
 * The devolved dragon... slime... THING... Nyo-Nyo from Lilim Kiss.
 * Sodom from Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru looks like a winged black hamster/guinea pig... who can also transform into a powerful dragon when needed.
 * 07-Ghost has an incredibly cute little pink dragon, that can only say brrrrupyah but also
 * Mad Scientist Watari from Yami no Matsuei has his fluffy little owl 003.
 * The sheep and the bunnies in Karneval. All characters (apart from Gareki) seem to find them adorable as well.
 * Diana—Luna and Artemis's adorable kitten from the future—from Sailor Moon.
 * In Star Driver, we have Wako's little fox kit named Vice (as in Vice President...of the drama club).
 * The adorable Shikigami paper dolls from Kekkaishi. How can you not see these little fellas doing a dance in the end credits and not go "Aww"
 * The sunekos and the "lord chickens," chickens that wander in the Ayanoi Gakuen campus, in GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class.
 * Kurara/Clara the spotted jellyfish from Kuragehime.
 * Kyuubey of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is this combined with Weasel Mascot.
 * Deconstructed to hell and back with Maromi in Paranoia Agent, a symbol of Japan's persistent refusal to grow the hell up.
 * Doraemon
 * The ludicrously adorable blue penguins in Mawaru Penguindrum.
 * The Keronians in Keroro Gunso including Keroro, Tamama, Giroro, Kululu, Dororo and every other that shows up over the course of the series. There's also pop-star alien girl Sumumo who isn't Keronian but might as well be.
 * Hime-Chan's stuffed lion Pokota from Hime-chan no Ribon.
 * The Animal Soldiers from Tentai Senshi Sunred. Their attempts at fighting Sunred are commonly thwarted by squealing schoolgirls picking them up and hugging them.
 * Polly, Francine and the Ninja Crows from Samurai Pizza Cats.
 * THE iDOLM@STER - Hamzou
 * Almost all the puppies shown in Inubaka

Comic Books

 * Every creature in the Owly comic, including Wormy the earthworm.
 * The baby golden gargoyle adopted by Abel in The Sandman.
 * Chaffies. They are fluffy little bunny-like critters who are always smiling, with only 1 1/2 ear after a simultaneous lawnmower accident. Also, they like to wander off absolutely everywhere, getting themselves hidden amongst other Ridiculously Cute Critters.
 * One page in the Find Chaffy book has them hidden in a whole group of pandas.
 * In the main Marvel Universe, Tigra has recently gotten pregnant by Hank Pym and given birth. Her baby, William, seems to combine the best cute features of babies and kittens.
 * Gnutten & Gnuttarna from the Swedish comic Bobo.

Eastern Animation

 * Cheburashka, from several Russian/Soviet children's stop-motion cartoons of the late 60s and early 70s. Sample on YouTube (subtitled)

Films

 * And of course the race of Ewoks from the Star Wars universe.
 * The Star Wars Bestiary informs us of the Voorpak. It is a tiny, almost spherical Pomeranian-like animal that Naboo nobility use for companionship and warmth. It is basically a cross between a Pomeranian for its size and fluff, a fuzzy spider for its hidden legs, and a Vampire Bat for its face.
 * In the Expanded Universe are the catlike race Kushiban, who look like this. They're a sentient species. This particular Kushiban? Jedi Master Ikrit.
 * Fizzgig from The Dark Crystal. Basically a Tribble crossed with a pomeranian and a shark.
 * Mogwai from Gremlins. As long as you stick to the rules.
 * Kitten Tai Lung. Oh GOD, kitten Tai Lung.
 * Who could resist this face? Or this one? They weren't kidding when they said they wanted to make the characters "look like plush toys".
 * Baby Po from Kung Fu Panda 2. No wonder Mr. Ping adopted him!
 * Don't forget baby Tigress!
 * The caterpillar in The Fox and The Hound.
 * Gurgi from The Black Cauldron.
 * Considerable Disneyfication there, as in the book, Gurgi was a hairy beast-man covered in leaves and twigs, and smelled like a wet dog.
 * Henwen from The Black Cauldron is just about the cutest animated pig you'll ever see.
 * Saphira, during her infancy, from Eragon. The one good part of that movie, and she was almost adorable enough to make it worth it.
 * Thumper and Flower from Bambi.
 * Puss from Shrek could stop an advancing army with his ginormous eyes.
 * Rover from Planet 51 is an insanely cute robot with a fetish for rocks.
 * The Chipmunks and Chippettes from Alvin and the Chipmunks and its sequels.
 * Subverted in Galaxy Quest, when the creatures resembling human children suddenly reveal their murderous and cannibalistic tendencies (despite Guy foreshadowing their transformation).
 * babies in Up. Cuter have never been seen.
 * Dug the dog. "I am Dug! I just met you and I love you!"
 * Lilly from Alpha and Omega, without a doubt. Click on that outgoing link, and try telling me she isn't the cutest wolf you've ever seen.
 * Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon may very well be the most adorable fire-breathing lizard in any movie ever.
 * The Terrible Terrors, big-headed tiny dragons that act like house cats.
 * From Rio, we have Baby Blu. Not to mention . Just...the CUTE!!
 * F.T in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes qualifies since it is completely useless : its only role is to make Tara say "it's so cute" and try to protect it from the baddies.

Game Books

 * The Jib-Jib from Fighting Fantasy is a subversion, being small and fluffy, and possessed of a loud screech that can be heard for miles. They're used as living burglar alarms by some people in the setting.
 * JubJubs (and Meekins) from Neopets were inspired by these critters. No, really.

Literature
"A whelp that found me as I stood, / That had a-followed, and could do no good. / It came and crept to me as low, / Right as it had-a me a-know, / Held down his head and joined his ears, / And laid all smoothly down his hairs."
 * Martian flat cats from Robert A. Heinlein's The Rolling Stones, which may have inspired Tribbles.
 * The "pygmy puffs(keins)" from Harry Potter 6. Basically a miniature Tribble dyed girly colors.
 * Also nifflers, furry little black things with long pointy snuffly noses. D'awwwww....
 * Geoffrey Chaucer, in Book of the Duchess, has a puppy beckon the narrator because it wasn't yet trained for hunting (meter-preserving Blind Idiot Translation) :

"On the planet Tranquille around KM849(G-0) lives a little animal known as a "knafn." It is herbivorous and has no natural enemies and is easily approached and may be petted---sort of a six-legged puppy with scales. Stroking it is very pleasant; it wiggles its pleasure and broadcasts euphoria in some band that humans can detect. It's worth the trip. Someday some bright boy will figure out how to record this broadcast, then some smart boy will see commercial angles---and not long after that it will be regulated and taxed. In the meantime, I have faked that name and catalog number; it is several thousand light-years off in another direction. Selfish of me---"
 * Treecats from the Honor Harrington series. Yes, they are as deadly as thay are sapient, but they are as cute as they are deadly. How else could they endear themselves to those people they haven't bonded to in order to obtain celery?
 * Lazarus Long gave this observation in the Robert A. Heinlein novel Time Enough For Love:


 * Mouse of The Dresden Files started out this way. Harry acquired him by accident when he was hired to rescue a bunch of puppies and one of them crawled out of the box and hid in his car. Harry proceeds to spend the rest of the book carrying around the little gray furball in the pocket of his coat, and several characters are reduced to cooing over it due to the sheer cuteness. However, he doesn't stay tiny for long.
 * One of the protagonists of The Skins of Dead Men has tamed a creature that he refers to as a "coon cat" (probably a ringtail from context.) Reactions are about what would be expected given the linked picture.

Live Action TV
"Jamie: They were kinda cute, weren't they? Adam: They were very cute. Cute For Science!!"
 * And of course there are the Tribbles from Star Trek.
 * The Klingons disagree.
 * But they're the only ones, and their revulsion for tribbles is mutual and probably genetic.
 * Also, probably a direct reference, the Nubbins from Sanctuary.
 * The adorable, burping yeast sock puppets that appear on many episodes of Good Eats.
 * So popular are they on the show, in fact, that many fans have attempted to make their own.
 * Actually, Alton Brown's upcoming "Good Eats 3: The Later Years" comes equipped with a "Make your own yeast puppet" kit!
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a genetically engineered fuzzy cute thing called "Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter" that the Mads sent up to the Satellite. Mike fell under its/her spell, but he was forced to send it/her back because 1. she had a shedding problem that really rankled the Bots, and 2. Frank was missing her desperately.
 * Doctor Who: People want plush Adiposes now.
 * So be it.
 * Daniel Striped Tiger.
 * Chicken puppet Chica on PBS Kids Sprout is this. One blogger compares her and the network to crack, and every other post on Sprout's Facebook page is requests for a plush Chica toy.
 * Many of The Muppets would count (With their big, bulgy eyes and fluffy bodies- specially if you live on Sesame Street), Bean Bunny stands out, as he's supposed to act cute so the rest of the Muppets wouldn't have to.
 * MythBusters: For the Breakstep Bridge myth, Jamie Hyneman created a set of little marching robots—pretty much army helmets and boots.

Music

 * Lied ohne Worte (Song without words) by Rolf Rudin could be called a musical example. Not exactly a "critter" but sounds ridiculously cute.
 * If we are already at brass music:
 * Kwaki Kwak by Boris Hajdušek is about this trope.
 * Baby Face by Lex Abel, although this is arguably more about the human variant.

Newspaper Comics

 * Shmoos, in the Li'l Abner comic strip. They're not just cute, they're also very tasty. And want to be eaten.
 * Cheche from The Stupiders is a perfect example of this. He's a furry boa constrictor, consisting almost entirely of fluffy fur and two huge googly eyes, tiny cute fangs and to top it off, he's always smiling. His brother, however, has issues.

Tabletop Games

 * * Mortasheen has Chainsaw Kid, for a certain definition of the word "cute", and some of the others could fit under a combination of this category and Grotesque Cute.
 * Another good example is the Schmeep, which is the most conventionally "cute" thing in Mortasheen and also one of the few that isn't likely to try and murder you. It is also designed to be eaten, and take joy in doing so in order to heal your other monsters. Albeit, they can regenerate from only a skeleton, but still
 * Meeps from GURPS Illuminati University.
 * The Dungeons & Dragons supplement Book of Exalted Deeds has some very cute celestials: the fairylike coure eladrins and the musteval guardinals, who resemble bipedal ferrets. Hollyphants in their small form would also count.
 * Now, now. Cute eladrins (including coure) are legacy of AD&D -- Planescape Monstrous Compendium appendix II.
 * Pseudodragons. They look like dragons, but they're the size of house cats. Small house cats. Faerie dragons are much the same, only with butterfly wings. (Awww.)
 * Wastems and Wastits from Human Occupied Landfill. Wastems are cute little creatures whose bodies are filled with a tapioca-like substance that can be used for anything from food to motor oil. Wastits are cruel, psychotic, and make most grown men wet themselves in terror if they know what they're dealing with. And the worst part? If you don't have the "spot wastit" skill, you can't tell the difference between the two, even if the wastit is walking away from a bloody corpse with a skull in one hand and a bloody butterfly knife in the other.
 * Silvanshee Agathions from Pathfinder, which are basically sapient, Neutral Good, angelic kitties with magical abilities. They're also available as familiars.
 * It also has lyrakien azatas, which are much like the aforementioned coure. And brownies, although they're somewhere between adorable and creepy.
 * Pathfinder goblins are the epitome of Ugly Cute.
 * And now, Leshies. Save for the rather frightening mushroom-based ones, anyway.
 * The RPG Rogue Trader introduces us to the Gyrinx, a mid-sized cat that hangs around psykers. Of course, this being 40k, they serve as conduits to increase their master's already considerable psychic power and tend to explode if a Daemon takes interest in the relevant psyker.

Toys

 * Apparently, Headcrab Plushies exist. These little monsters from Half-Life latch onto humans and zombify them. Yet, plushies have been made. One of the characters in the game actualy has a de-beaked one as a pet. Lamar is kind of cute, mind you.
 * For those who want to further the illusion, they also have hats.
 * To one-up the above with a rare inanimate example: literal plush Weighted Companion Cubes!
 * Supposedly, plush turrets also exist, but no pictures are forthcoming.
 * The Facehugger of Alien fame comes in plush. Who would hug it is another matter entirely.
 * There's a plush Predator as well. Personally, if I had a kid and they wanted a stuffed animal tough enough to protect them from monsters, that would be my go-to choice.
 * Cacodemons from Doom have been converted into a couple of plushies as well.
 * There are many many different cute-ified plush versions of Cthulhu, Nyarlethotep, and other Great Old Ones from the Lovecraft Mythos.
 * There are also cutesy toy versions, plush and otherwise, of various parasites, bacteria, and viruses; such as Parasite Pals and GIANTmicrobes. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary on how cute you think they are.
 * Tarepanda (pictured above)
 * OOKPIK!!!
 * Squishables!! They manage to make everything adorable, up to and including Cthulu

Video Games

 * Pokémon: Pikachu! And Mew. Frankly, about half of all Pokémon start off like this, then get bigger and (slightly) less cute as they evolve. (Kind of like real baby animals.)
 * Some evolved forms still remain incredibly cute such as Dewgong and Floatzel.
 * JOLTIK. An absolutely adorable fluffy four-legged spider. What's not to love about this thing?
 * I'll see your Joltik and raise you Deino. It's a blind baby dinosaur with an ahoge, that bumps into things!
 * Woobat and Swoobat from the latest games. The former is a blue puffball with black wings, heart-shaped snout and a single cute little fang and Swoobat, its evolution takes it up to eleven with big sparkly eyes, big ears, the former's fluffyness, heart-shaped snout, cute little fangs and a heart shaped tail. Truth in Video Games as they are based on the Honduran white bat, which is this trope incarnate.
 * When you think of cute, you normally don't think of living ice cream cones. But just look at Vanillite's face!
 * Sentret and Furret. Try to deny it.
 * Eevee tops them all, hands down.
 * Wait, no mention of Skitty?
 * Audino.
 * Solosion and its evolutions, who are the most adorable unicellular creatures you'll ever see.
 * Minccino and Cinccino.
 * Just because it needs to be said: any Pokemon can qualify as this if the right person finds the right 'mon. The phenomena was even commented on in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl with a trainer complaining that Amity Park wouldn't admit him and his Steelix because they didn't think it was cute. He, obviously, begged to differ.
 * Bomberman is just OOZING with them, to the point of risking Cuteness Overload. Let's start listing them off:
 * The roois/Louies from Bomberman '94/Mega Bomberman onward, adorable kangaroos that give Bomberman a ride. White Bomber in Bomberman Jetters also has a small one as a pet companion.
 * The dinosaurs that also serve as mounts. In Super Bomberman 4, they start off as generic enemies early in the game until you blast them, at which point they turn into eggs. Walk over your first egg and you get to ride one, as well as gaining spike bombs. Any additional eggs you collect follow behind, Yoshi-style. Saturn Bomberman instead features different dinosaurs as general Louie replacements, also with unique abilities.
 * The Charaboms in general, but especially Pommy, debuting in Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! He even introduces himself to a few Mooks as "the cutest hero in the galaxy"!
 * If Bomberman B Daman Bakugaiden IV qualifies, there's the B-Darons; mostly Funny Animals that don't talk, but clearly show intelligence nonetheless. And many of them are indeed adorable, to the point of young Bomberwomen getting Cuteness Proximity reactions around them right in the third episode!
 * See something at the start of the stage that looks innocent and adorable? It'll probably kill you on contact. They might be kid mice holding balloons at an amusement park or weird panda umbrella things, but they're still every bit as deadly as everything else.
 * Bomberman himself also qualifies to some people.
 * The Final Fantasy series has several:
 * Most iconic are the Moogles, little white fuzzballs who say "kupo" all the time.
 * Not even Terra can resist the cute.
 * Chocobos, yellow birds used as mounts, may or may not be ridiculously cute depending on the Art Shift of the game.
 * In Final Fantasy XI, not only do you have cute chocobos, you also have the even cuter BABY chocobos. Recently, baby chocobos have also made it as merchandise as a noisy but oh so cute toy.
 * On the topic of XI, you also have Shantotto who would come across as completely adorable...were it not for the fact that she is totally batshit insane.
 * There's a number of Final Fantasy spinoffs known collectively as the Chocobo series, all featuring the same ridiculously adorable protagonist.
 * Final Fantasy VIII has Moombas, apparently an evolved form of the big ugly Shumis.
 * As far as enemy creatures go, the Cactuar stands out as adorable with its simplistic design and constantly shocked expression.
 * Tonberry is certainly cute as he slowly waddles across the battlefield, pokes you with his cute little knife, and you fall over dead.
 * Final Fantasy VII has Cait Sith.
 * The Carbuncle, in the games where it is portrayed as a cat (or fox)-like mammal with huge ears, beady eyes, and rounded snout, like Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy XI. Not so much in Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy VI, where it's more reptilian (and is actually a large and menacing boss monster in the former.) Or Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, where it looks like something entirely different.
 * Double Subversion with Final Fantasy V: You have to fight a very feral-looking one at first, but then you summon it and instead get the adorable, Reflect-buffing, shiny-Espeon-esque creature that's pretty much standard for the later games. Yes, including Final Fantasy VI.
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy outright lampshades how increasingly adorable it gets with each game.
 * In Final Fantasy XII, they threw in some literal Killer Rabbits by introducing some bosses in the form of the game's terribly cute Dream Hare creatures. (Imagine a tiny bunny with a giant puffball tail and feathers for ears, and that's about the gist of it.)
 * The Ivalice version of moogles are pretty damn cute too, as are the Cu Sith. Just look at those rabbit ears!
 * Fury, one of the later mini-bosses in XII, resembled an extremely fluffy purple and white rabbit.
 * The Nu Mou race from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2. They got big furry tails, long and droopy ears like a dog, and their face finishes the rest of their cuteness. Of course, these cute factors run away when you start to see them slaughter your team with powerful magic spells if you find them as enemies. Their Final Fantasy XII incarnations goes the complete opposite end of cute.
 * From Final Fantasy XIII, Sazh's baby chocobo. It should be self-explanatory.
 * A good slew of Dragon Quest monsters also apply, particularly the iconic Slime creatures.
 * Flickies and Wisps (other than Purple/Violet Wisps, but Eggman twisted those ones anyway,) from the Sonic games fill this niche. Cream is pretty adorable too.
 * Sonic's original Genesis design. It started to leave the trope around Sonic 3 and it left entirely around Video Game/Sonic Adventure. It came back in Sonic Generations.
 * Tails, especially before Sonic Adventure.
 * Chao, the adorable little pet Mons from Sonic Adventure. So cute!
 * Especially the Hero Chao!
 * The irritating, yet loveable little Chip!
 * Amy Rose in the classic titles.
 * Charmy Bee from Sonic Heroes.
 * Sonic Generations has brought back classic Sonic and Tails, and they are both adorable.
 * Even the Modern forms can be cute in the right hands.
 * Bean from Sonic the Fighters.
 * Mieu from Tales of the Abyss.
 * While we're still in Tales Series, the Oresoren.
 * Rabites, from the World of Mana (Seiken Densetsu) franchise. They are usually the earliest and weakest enemies in each game, but Seiken Densetsu 3 features the Black Rabite as the ridiculously powerful Bonus Boss. Evil in its cutest form!
 * Flammie from the same franchise.
 * Yoshi from the Super Mario series easily falls under this. Being a small dinosaur with huge but adorable eyes, a big nose, shoes, and possibly sounding cute whenever he "speaks" (saying "Yoshi!", various exclamations such as "Wow!", "Whoa!", "Yay!", "Ha!" and "Wah!", and several unintelligible noises), who's to say he's not cute? Though he does get less cute when you find out how exactly he can whip some ass in the Mario and Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Taken to the next level if you consider that he's not a dinosaur. He's a dragon.
 * Aside the original one, some Toads also qualify as well, such as Toadsworth (both young and old), the Toad Brigade, and Toadette.
 * The Koopa Troopas and Koopa Paratroopas have qualified for this ever since Super Mario Kart.
 * As irritating as Lakitus are, they are still downright adorable.
 * Other enemies like the Goombas have been cutened up enough in recent years to qualify, as well.
 * Even Bowser Jr. isn't immune to this.
 * Super Mario Galaxy has the Lumas and, of course, the Star Bunnies.
 * The Dayzees from the Paper Mario series and Yoshi's Island.
 * World of Warcraft has many "Vanity Pets" (as opposed to Combat Pets used by hunters) that fall into this category, including a panda cub (which ups the ante by falling asleep), dragon whelps and baby murlocs. Okay, not many consider murlocs cute, but the baby version is so much cutie-fied (and does a funny dance) that most people don't care. Now getting your hands on one of those is a different story... the first two are Collectors Edition goodies, the last one is given as a gift to people attending one of Blizzards big events.
 * Until this year's Blizzcon (or the Direct TV Pay Per View feed of Blizzcon), which gives you a Murloc... Riding a sunglasses-wearing polar bear which the owner can use as a Mount. Which somehow only makes it even cuter.
 * In Wrath of the Lich King there is a quest where you have to rescue baby murlocs being kept locked up in cages...and when you open them, sometimes they say, "Mama?" or "Dada?" and then they follow you in a little scampering group. Awwwww.
 * The titular character of the Kirby series... along with nearly everything else in the franchise. Exceptions are the final bosses, and Meta Knight who is Badass instead.
 * Unless he loses his mask, anyway. At which point the Badassery Uncanny Valley steps in and all the shoulder-pads, swirling cloaks, boots, gauntlets and BFS just accentuate the fact that underneath all of that badassery is a cute little guy just like Kirby. Only with deep identity issues.
 * The Mimigas of Cave Story. It would take a Complete Monster to do any harm to them.
 * Unless of course they're force fed a certain red flower...
 * Guild Wars has rollerbeetles, giant rolling beetles that make cute little chittering noises. During Canthan festivals, you even get to participate in Mario Kart-style rollerbeetle races.
 * Nobody's really sure just what Klonoa is, beyond the adjectives "cute", "long-eared", and "fuzz-covered". This really applies to most everything in his games, as well.
 * Word of God claims that Klonoa's a cat with long ears. Not that you can really tell by looking at him.
 * You can shove the entire franchise into this trope, to be honest.
 * The Raposas from Drawn to Life.
 * Shadows from Kingdom Hearts. The Heartless have never been so huggable.
 * A lot of the smaller Heartless fall into this category. They are so huggable you can almost ignore the fact that if you get within an arms' reach they will plunge whatever limbs they have inside your chest and rip your heart out.
 * Chibiterasu of Okamiden, a puppy replacement for Amaterasu of Okami, is undeniably cute.
 * Hell, Ammy herself is adorable when she's not being ferocious, especially when she gets bored listening to some of the other gods (or Waka) drone on and on, and just decides to ignore them and take a nap.
 * If you want to see cute, just take a look at pretty much all the brush gods' offspring. Especially Gekigami's.
 * If you have the right items, you can turn yourself into a small cute frog, rabbit, dog, etc. in Gaia Online. Cue the delight if you enter the Zomg! game as a frog. Not to mention all the fluffs in the game itself.
 * Several monsters from Monster Rancher count, most notably Mocchi.
 * The main Monsters you run into in Wario Land! are little banndana-waring red balls with feet and mouths known as Banditoes. They don't actualy do any damage, they just walk about and bounce off your fat gut, and grabbing them causes them to panic in a way that can cause just a little bit of empathy for them. Also, they come in multiple types - yellow, (They jump all about the stage.) Blue (They inflate and float, making a face that looks suspiciously like that anime "Hey-I'm-cute" face we all know and love (:3, to be exact) all the while.) and a lighter blue. (They have forks on their head which can actualy harm you, but cause them to get stuck to the cealing or walls when thrown, with struggling included.) It seems even the game likes them, as some missions to unlock the music soundtrack require you to get through a stage without killing a single baddie.
 * Nippon Ichi games have Prinnies, dood.
 * Prinny Asagi. I believe the phrase you are looking for is "X3".
 * Though not technically critters, the turrets in Portal have ridiculously cute death speeches. He who does not well up at least a little has no heart.
 * Nelly Cootalot has spoonbeaks from the Barony of Meeth, which are not only cute for their eponymous spoon-shaped bills, but also serve to show.
 * The titular Pikmin.
 * Felynes from Monster Hunter
 * The Grunties from .hack games, oink! G.U. also adds Chim-Chims to the list.
 * Guars in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
 * Moglins from the Adventure Quest series of online games. With the exception of Zorbak.
 * To say nothing of Trobbles and Fuzlees.
 * The Pooka race from Odin Sphere.
 * Nall and Ruby from Lunar, being what appear to be adorable winged cats with high-pitched voices.
 * The Yordles from League of Legends count, pretty much being Moogles in all but name. Teemo in particular was the game's first designated cute champion.
 * The Loco Roco, and some of the creatures in their world.
 * The Patapon. Even some of the creatures they fight are adorable.
 * Ghost Trick gives us Missile, the Badass Adorable Pomeranian.
 * Missile was previously featured in Phoenix Wright, where he looked more like a Shiba Inu, but with the same amount of adorableness.
 * Mr. Saturn.
 * Salsa from Mother 3 also counts.
 * The Zork universe has the minx, "an irresistibly cuddly animal which shares all the most ingratiating characteristics of kittens, koala bears, and piglets."
 * Cute little Kyu-Kyu of Vanguard Bandits, a platypus who's always hanging around his human Nana.
 * Om Nom, the candy-eating little green monster from Cut the Rope.
 * All of the mooks in Hello Kitty Online are even cuter than they are dangerously aggressive. As is pretty much everything else in this Sugar Bowl world.
 * The fluffy wamblers from Dwarf Fortress are described as, "known and beloved for their warm hearts, gentle natures, and stumble bumblings...They are widely held to be 'adorable,' and many dwarves consider them to be a delicacy." They're also respected as killers of bronze colossi.
 * The titular Knytt and his mouse-like scurring up walls. He is (and his species) cross between a kangeroo and a tiny T-Rex.
 * The Starfy series is chocked full of these.
 * The titular character of Dewy's Adventure.
 * The titular creatures of Elebits the Adventures of Kai And Zero, but a lot of the Omegas, especially. Take one look at the Ice Omega and try to say it's not cute.
 * The Djinn from Golden Sun. Look at this
 * The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword give us Remlits, little siamese cat-raccon things with big bat ears... at least, during the day. At night they're a whole different matter...
 * You can make the Remlits stay ridiculously adorable all the time if you complete a certain sidequest, however.
 * The Kikwis, who resemble a cross between a penguin and a beaver. Not to mention their Verbal Tic...
 * Furrikin in Lusternia. Bipedal, intelligent little fuzzballs, they resemble anthropomorphic archetypical animals. Furrikin can look like anything from a panda bear to a raccoon to a sheep, but don't let their appearance fool you - they're smarter than humans and very fast. And not all of them are peaceful, either.
 * And beware angering even the ones who are peaceful: they maintain close cultural ties to the Tae'dae.
 * Teddie from Persona 4, it's like this trope page is describing him on purpose.
 * Baby mobs in Minecraft. Just making the body smaller while leaving the head the same size should not produce such cuteness!
 * The Baliflids in Ascendancy—although judging from the art, this is a case of either Ugly Cute or Informed Ability. They are so cute they can force all other species to make peace with them at once.
 * The Nopon in Xenoblade Chronicles. They stand out in stark contrast from the other denizens of the world with their overly cute looks.
 * Undertale: Temmie, Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, Flowey, and the Dreemurr family (just to name a few examples from said game).
 * Bub and Bob, the bubble-blowing baby dinosaurs in Bubble Bobble.

Web Animation

 * The Cheat from Homestar Runner, though his larcenous personality is at odds with this.
 * Also Sterrance, whom Strong Bad considered so cute that he succumbed to a squeeing fit.
 * To a lesser extent, even Pom Pom fits the bill.
 * The Cheat's Animesque counterpart, The Cheatball is a tiny ball with big, blue eyes and a small mouth it never uses. This is a perfect fit for this trope.
 * All the facial expressions 1-Up (Homestar's counterpart) uses in that toon may make him this as well.
 * Lil' Strong Sad leans strongly in this direction.
 * The fact that almost every character fits in here is what makes Happy Tree Friends so disturbing funny.
 * Satina (from Hannah Daigle's Satina) is probably the cutest little demon baby that you will ever see.

Web Comics

 * Monster Food from A Moment of Peace are classically adorable. Big eyes and little else.
 * The Mows from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures. You can see them crawling around on the main page, even.
 * Those look a lot like Meerkas, fat squirrel things from Neopets.
 * DMFA also has Deebs (Short for 'Deathbringer' - yes, the original one). Basically, a baby bunny made from pink bubblegum. When combined with Jyrras' Bishonen-ness, it was cute enough to give Lorenda acute diabetes.
 * Dust Puppy from User Friendly.
 * The Jinxlets from Starslip Crisis are a rare, fur-free species. They compensate for lack of fur with overwhelmingly cute behavior.
 * Choo-Choo Bear from Something*Positive: a hairless, boneless, shapeshifting cat.
 * Uni from Unicorn Jelly is a cute jelly monster.
 * Unless you've read Skin Horse, you won't believe that silverfish, centipedes, and cobras can be utterly adorable. But they are. Especially the cobras.
 * The Marshmallow Kitty in Girly. It's squishy!
 * Reynardine in his plushie form, in Gunnerkrigg Court.
 * Even more so in his "inanimate" plushie form.
 * The titular character from the webcomic Weesh.
 * Fluffy in Hazard's Wake, whose cast page entry even states, "Does Fluffy have a point other than being the cute mascot-ish character?"
 * In a long defunct webcomic, Acid Reflux, we saw critters similar to those that now grace the image at the top of the page: Melting Pandas. They are almost Exactly What It Says on the Tin, although it's uncertain whether they truly are melting, or just completely boneless. Plus, oxygen is a powerful narcotic to them. Apparently, they only existed to be adorable. The only ones that were still alive were ones that had been put in stasis at an old museum. Upon hearing about the two main qualities of these creatures, one character commented that maybe there's a reason that they were extinct.
 * RED Scout's pet chicken Peep-peep in Cuanta Vida certainly qualifies.
 * Squiddles from Homestuck's Show Within a Show.
 * Tinkerbull, Tavros's lusus is a delicate, flying, fairy bull.
 * The Shadowchild from Digger. more so if you consider it's dialogue.
 * "Feel cold? Can I really? Would that be all right?" "Ummm, sure. Knock yourself out." "Yay!" and “I just ate a sock!” come to mind, as does the “ What’s A [amusing blank] Am I a [amusing blank]?” running joke.
 * Alien Dice recently introduced Otter Budgies. "Cute" is an understatement.
 * XZ/Nutsedge from Nature of Nature's Art
 * Fritz, the dog from Zombie Waffe.

Web Original

 * Neopets. All of them. Even the grumpy-looking gargoyle-things, the snarly Godzilla-Expies, the giant mantids, and flame-spewing dragons. Even the mutant and evil versions of same.
 * And they get cuter each time they are redrawn.
 * And they have baby forms.
 * To say nothing of the Petpets, pets for your Neopets. Or, hell, anything on that site, really, except the villains (or most of the villains, anyway...)
 * Almost every petsite falls in this category, like Subeta, Wajas, and others. Except Marapets.
 * Along the same lines as Neopets are the Webkins. Thus far, Gantz has managed to make every species imaginable into a Squee-worthy plushie covered in their trademark stringy fur (even, oddly, animals that tend to lack fur such as frogs). The things are designed to make kids scream, "OMG!!! WANT!!!" after all.
 * Okay, everyone, line up to make jokes about how the company is named Gantz in five, four...
 * Protectors of the Plot Continuum has CAFs—Cute Animal Friends—are the results of an author attempting cute and instead getting diabetes-inducing twee. Particularly bad examples end up as little more than big eyes, fur, and cute cooing sounds, like oversized tribbles. Some can be trained or educated into becoming productive members of the multiverse, but a particularly Small Annoying Creature may be better off simply fed to the nearest mini.
 * Speaking of which, minis can fall under this as well, from Ugly Cute in the case of the mini-Balrog or Camoudile, all the way to mini-Hounds of the Baskervilles.
 * I believe Dr. Insano's fluffy pink, freakish, orb-shaped son belongs here. Awwww.
 * The pet cow you can buy in Progress: The Game. It may not do anything other than sit there and look adorable, bur it does it so well that it's worth the price.
 * While not exactly a critter, Marshmallow from The Annoying Orange definitely qualifies. Midget Apple to a lesser extent.
 * From the SCP Foundation
 * The Puffer kittens (SCP-2558-J) are this, because of their cuteness and effect it has on the staff the actually have Euclid classification.
 * SCP-346, a teeny tiny pterodactyl. Some odd phenomenon (maybe its diet) has stunted this adult male pterodactyl's growth, making it friendly and harmless. SCP researches have even nicknamed it - "Pterry". Of course, the true danger with SCP-346 is that nobody yet knows where it came from, and the possibility that wherever that is, full-grown dinosaurs might be lurking around...
 * SCP-999, a tiny, bouncy, happy Blob Monster who loves everybody and is in turn loved by everyone. It seems impossible to become angry or annoyed at it. It even managed to make SCP-682, (the infamous "Hard-To-Kill Lizard") happy, an emotion SCP-682 had never felt before. Although, this might be because SCP-682 is SCP-999's sibling; many say that when SCP-999 becomes an adult, it will become the Anti-Anti-Christ and become a powerful warrior able to defeat its evil father, the Scarlet King.
 * Two words: Nyan Cat.

Western Animation

 * Guano from Kappa Mikey. Of course, it's obvious he's a parody of Pikachu
 * Extend this trope to mechanical 'animals' and you get WALL-E, whose huge adorable eyes seem custom-made to tug the heartstrings of all who gaze upon him.
 * Rhino the Hamster from Bolt, whose cuteness is potent enough to distract henchmen and save the day.
 * Mort, the little lemur in Madagascar.
 * The Powerpuff Girls had Beebo, a bio-engineered creature created as a pet. Unfortunately, overfeeding it caused it to become a giant monster who ate everything in sight. Even then it was still very cute.
 * Momo the Winged-Lemur from Avatar: The Last Airbender, a lemur/cat/bat cross that is all cute.
 * Don't forget Foo-Foo Cuddlypoops.
 * And Appa the Flying Bison X3
 * Koala-Sheep.
 * And that rabbit Aang initially thought was Flopsy.
 * And Flopsy himself!
 * Baby. Rabbaroo.
 * The Singing Groundhogs!
 * And the Enemy Birds!
 * What? No turtle ducks? For shame.
 * Especially the turtleducklings. So adorable!
 * Plus the Purple Pentapus.
 * The Legend of Korra gives us Naga the polar bear-dog and Pabu the fire ferret, a cross between a ferret and a red panda. That is a powerful combination of cute.
 * Ling Ling from Drawn Together is a subverted example in that while he is an adorable parody of Pikachu, he is a sociopathic killing machine (this is his in-show description).
 * Halfway subverted with "Cujo", the lovable ghost pup in Danny Phantom. It's friendly and adorable in small mode, but can turn big and aggressive if it needs to. "Yikes" is a far more appropriate word for that one.
 * Parodied on The Fairly OddParents with the Gigglepies, big-eyed, Carebear-esque creatures who speak entirely in rhyme. It's eventually revealed that they are actually alien conquerors who enslave worlds with their hypnotic cuteness.
 * Nibbler, from Futurama, probably qualifies—he's pretty weird looking, but he's small and squeaky enough to make the tough, no-nonsense captain Leela go to pieces and adopt him as a beloved pet. He later gets a little red cape and diaper.
 * Not to mention, in the episode "The Problem with Popplers",.
 * Cats have the power to mind control people by being just so cute. They even beat out the Nibblonians on the cuteness front.
 * Lily and Sparkles, the puppies of Barbie and the Diamond Castle.
 * Katie the little... uh... fuzzy yellow thingy (she doesn't match any of the other animals) from Horton Hears a Who!
 * The original Horton illustrations by Dr. Seuss also fits this trope. Admit it, your mind went "awwww!" when you first set eyes on him on the cover of the book.
 * Ding-A-Ling Wolf from the Hokey Wolf cartoons is arguably the most adorable Hanna-Barbera sidekick of all.
 * Chucklewood Critters is full of them.
 * Once The Simpsons were at a petting zoo and saw a cute little lamb with big eyes. They all let out an "Aw!", then saw an even littler lamb with even bigger eyes. They let out a bigger "AWWW!!", then saw the littlest lamb with the biggest eyes, and let out the biggest "AWWWW!!!" of all. Then the second lamb walked in front of the third one, and Homer shoved it out of the way.
 * Chuck Jones had a penchant for ridiculously cute critters that brought out protective impulses in unlikely characters - like the kitten to bulldog Marc Anthony, or the penguin to Bugs Bunny.
 * Early in his career he did shorts which starred ridiculously cute critters, such as Sniffles the Mouse among others. It wasn't until hanging around with the likes of Tex Avery that he began to use more humor.
 * Ridiculously cute critters have gone in and out of style when it comes to Western Animation as a whole, having their original heyday in the 1930's with Disney's Silly Symphonies shorts and the copy-cat series of just about every other animation studio at the time. By the time World War Two came around these were chucked out the window in favor of the Karmic Trickster and the Screwy Squirrel, but they resurface periodically.
 * Snap, Rudy's little chalk drawing in ChalkZone. Those huge eyes? Sweet nature? A bit of a daredevil? Fingerless hands? SO CUTE!
 * On Teen Titans, no one can resist The Face.
 * Despite being quite the trouble maker and all around annoying, Peri from Spliced (who seems to be the cross between a cuttlefish and a squirrel... or maybe a cat?... or a fox perhaps?... or maybeOH NEVER MIND), with his big eyes, huge grin, and buck teeth, seems to be a favorite among female fans.
 * Cerbee, Jimmy's pet "dog" on Jimmy Two-Shoes.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick, especially in their baby forms.
 * Baby Mr. Krabs.
 * Gary.
 * Meap from Phineas and Ferb.
 * Also, as we see in flashbacks, baby Perry
 * The Penguins of Madagascar has Mort the mouse lemur and Eggy the duckling. Private probably qualifies as well - he's made even King Julien go "Awwwww".
 * Private manages to attain a level weaponizable cuteness in one episode. Naturally, Skipper takes advantage.
 * Every living thing in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, but especially the parasprites.
 * Kneel before newborn Spike, bronies!
 * This is an interesting dynamic, in that the ponies are all adorable, so for anything to stand out it has to be absurdly adorable.
 * Dinky Hooves and another filly qualify in the Crowd Song from Winter Wrap-up, when they're hopping with the bunnies.
 * The My Little Pony franchise as a whole thrives on this trope.
 * Scaredy Bat and Doom Kitty from Ruby Gloom.
 * Shifty Dingo from Blinky Bill (and Blinky Bill and Nutsy).
 * Dot Warner and Skippy Squirrel from Animaniacs.
 * Furrball, Fifi, Sweety, and Little Sneezer from Tiny Toon Adventures.
 * Baby Pepe from Baby Looney Tunes.
 * Reginald the koala from American Dad. In his first appearance, he even had a theme song and a montage dedicated to his cuteness. The fact that he's a secret agent who works for the CIA probably makes him even more adorable.
 * Pos from Skippy Adventures in Bushtown.
 * Like the Futurama example above, the Phineas and Ferb episode "Meapless in Seattle" has the alien Mitch become a being so cute that he can entrance people,
 * Betty Boop's puppy, Pudgy, from the time when the Hays Code took effect.

Real Life

 * Cute Overload. It's in the name.
 * Best taken in small doses, as the cuteness has been known to cause tooth decay.
 * I take the token inanimate entry for the Smart cars.
 * The original Mini.
 * I see your original Mini and raise you The Love Bug, Herbie.
 * Being one can be a problem for child actors. Facial features that make children ridiculously cute such as round faces, tiny noses, etc... don't look so well when they grow up and enter adulthood, sometimes ruining their acting career.
 * Maru!
 * Bonsai trees! Okay, so maybe not a critter, but the uber tiny ones are just too darn cute.
 * Tiny beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks.
 * Fennec Foxes. They're much smaller than most foxes and have ridiculously oversized ears.
 * The Japanese Dwarf Flying Squirrel, Pteromys momonga, is probably the most ludicriously cute creature on the face of the planet. See the links below for squee-worthy examples:
 * Cutest Thing on the Planet
 * Cute Spotting
 * Jumping spiders. It says a lot that this little critter was used as a basis for Joltik, a Pokémon considered ridiculously cute.
 * OPOSSUMS! AND CATS! AND RACCOONS! AND DEER MICE! AND...
 * Canids in general (like Dogs, foxes, Wolves.) But for a good example, look no further than the dalmation!
 * Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys.
 * Pigs. Well, some of them...
 * Garter Snakes.
 * PENGUINS.
 * This. Look at all the puppies.
 * This.
 * Fruit Bats.
 * Baby harp seals
 * Ladies and gentlemen, baby tigers.
 * Damn kiwi! It's made even more cute in that it's white!
 * Lowland Paca, and while on the subject of unusual adorable animals, aardwolves as well.
 * The Honduran white bat is this trope.
 * As evidenced by multiple examples already, a lot of rodents are this. Here's one more for the road, the long-eared jerboa.
 * Barn owls. Their faces are shaped like hearts!
 * Small true owls too.
 * Many small marsupials are prime contenders for cutest mammals ever.
 * Mouse lemurs.
 * Elephant shrews. Especially the babies.
 * This strange little thing. Basically, it's a sheep born with a puppy's head. Way cuter than it sounds.
 * The Sand cat is the cuteness of the domestic cat turned Up to Eleven.
 * Sandpipers and plovers. Especially the tiny ones.
 * While the adults may be nothing to write home about but, surprisingly, baby alligators and crocodiles can go toe-to-toe with other animals in just how cute they can get. Not only do they look like little lizards, they even chirp like baby birds!
 * BUNNIES!
 * Especially Baby Holland lop bunnies.