Hey Poptropicans! In this post, we’ve got Instagram highlights of fan art and more, plus a guest writer looking into a Poptropica character with history. Let’s pop in!
Also on Instagram, the Creators shared a new graphic to celebrate the 4th of July, aka US Independence Day last weekend. It’s a little ironic that Dr. Hare, Poptropica’s resident carrot slave owner, is out here proclaiming freedom. But hey, villains do love a good fireworks show! 🎆
In other news, the Creators’ Blog recently shared a guest post from a new guest writer, HappyStarfish, who gave a deep dive into an old Poptropica character that’s been making a few comebacks: Ishmael, the boy in blue winter clothes.
You may remember the guy from Fairytale Island when you were carrying Cinderella to the ball, or sometimes spot him in ad spaces promoting the Arcade. But if you’re a real Pop veteran, you may recognize him as the whale lover you saved on the now-gone SOS Island.
On Fairytale Island
Arcade promo on ad streets
On SOS Island
Although the post doesn’t mention the kid’s name, it does have significance: Ishmael is a nod to the first-person narrator in the classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, on which the story of SOS Island draws inspiration. Anyway, you can read more about this beloved blue character on the Creators’ Blog!
Call me, Ishmael.
That wraps up this post! Hope you enjoyed the fan art and archival look into the iconic Ishmael, and be sure to catch up below on all things Red Baron. Stay cool, Poptropicans!
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Barefoot Knuckle. Enjoy!
Hey everybody! It’s Barefoot Knuckle here and today I will be talking about the many similarities Fairytale Island has to other works in pop culture. Most of these are probably just a coincidence, but I think it’s very interesting to discuss, plus fun and hilarious at the same time!
Okay, this island has SO MANY similarities to other stuff, it’s insane. Of course there are the obvious easter eggs like the Poptropican Fairy Godmother being modeled after Shrek 2’s Fairy Godmother.
Fairy Godmother (Poptropica)
Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2)
But Fairytale Island mostly reminds me of the Happily N’Ever Afterseries from Lionsgate. Now although I only ever watched the first one, the second movie’s trailer was also reminiscent of the whole “Rumpelstiltskin causing Snow White to fall asleep” scenario.
The first movie (2006) was a lot like Fairytale Island though. You had one fairytale villain who seized power over all the happily ever afters and started messing them up so no one could have a happy ending. Then Cinderella learns how to be a strong, independent woman and everyone has different happily ever afters in the end.
Snow White and dwarves in Happily N’Ever After
Fairytale characters (Poptropica)
Prince Humperdink in Happily N’Ever After
Of course, they defeated the villain in the movie, and in the second movie as well, which was different from what happened in Fairytale Island. But other than that, Cinderella’s pink dress, Snow White’s purple and blue outfits, the dwarves’ tough looking design and the Prince’s personality and design all resemble how the characters are shown in Happily N’Ever After.
Another resemblance is the trend of showing fairytale princesses as modern, independent women. We saw this in Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), where all the princesses gathered in lounge wear. And in Fairytale Island, the princesses are working girls. You can’t be lounging around the house when there are animals to cure, guitars to play, and pizzas to deliver.
Snow White in Happily N’Ever After
Snow White (Poptropica)
Princesses enjoying comfort in Ralph Breaks the Internet
(Also, comment if you want me to draw Poptropica’s princesses with Disney’s princesses and I will include it at the end of my next post!)
When Fairytale Island was first released, some fans noted that it was rare to see Cinderella as a Black woman, but it has been done before. In The Wonderful World of Disney (1997) Cinderella, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was portrayed by Brandy (yes, that is her name). Although there isn’t much similarity in terms of dress design, her hair and crown does share a similar style to Poptropica’s Cinderella.
Combined with Happily N’Ever After’s Cinderella with her pink dress and story arc (though she never turned into a rock star), Poptropica’s new take on the classic princess had a lot of throwbacks to past concepts on the character. Also, is it just me, or does the pink hair and punk style remind anyone of the rock artist, Pink?
Cinderella (Poptropica)
Brandy as Cinderella in The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)
Ella in Happily N’ever After
Cinder (Poptropica)
Pink (singer)
Then there are the character designs in the “Red’s Food Delivery” side quest. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Red Riding Hood in a modern tomboy look, since the movie Hoodwinked (2005) (another movie I’ve only seen the trailer for) portrayed Red Riding Hood as a tough karate girl who wore jeans.
Fairytale characters (Poptropica)
Hoodwinked (2005)
Now Poptropica’s Red Riding Hood doesn’t seem like she’s specialized in any defenses, but she does have that tough girl look about her. And even though they don’t share the same personality, the grandma in Hoodwinked and the grandma in Fairytale Island share a very similar look. And from what I’ve seen in the trailer, the huntsman in Hoodwinked seems just as weird as the huntsman from Fairytale Island.
The whole island is kind of like a couple other middle grade book series about fairytales, like Whatever After by Sarah Mlynowski and TheLand of Stories by Chris Colfer. Red Riding Hood’s pet in Colfer’s series, Clawdius, is just about the equivalent of Fairytale Island’s Big Bad Wolf.
Concept art from Fairytale Island (Poptropica)
Clawdius (Land of Stories)
And what about that Gravity Falls similarity with these little guys, huh?
Dwarves in trench coat (Poptropica)
Gnomes (Gravity Falls)
The final easter egg I’ll bring up has to do with the island’s villain, Rumplestiltskin. You know that part where the player says his name three times and apparently he’s free? Well, the same thing happens in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) when this ghost couple and this goth girl say a creepy ghost’s name three times and he’s free to help them get revenge or something. It was recently adapted into a Broadway show (with a song called “Say My Name” — and that’s all I know).
Rumpelstiltskin in Poptropica
Beetlejuice on Broadway
But what do you guys think? Is Fairytale Island just a mashup of pop culture references? Is Cinderella’s pink hairstyle a nod to rockstar Pink? Did the creators intentionally put a Beetlejuice reference in the script? And what kind of pop culture reference would you like to see in Poptropica?
For more trivia, check out the PHB’s Fairytale Island Guide. Keep an eye out for my next posts! I think you’ll like them!
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Barefoot Knuckle. If you did, you might also enjoy other guest posts here on the PHB!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨
Poptropica released a brilliant, clever parody of itself and larger forces in game design and management with Mocktropica Island in 2013.
Idea Generator: Spin to win. Try your luck.
But then, as players have witnessed, it became Mocktropica in many ways. This week, former Poptropica publisher Jess Brallier revealed some of the details surrounding the game’s paradigm shifts in a blog post titled “The end of the Poptropica I knew.”
Operating System: When technology meets talent, anything is possible.
The saga picks up with the Pearson CEO’s sale of Poptropica. Specifics aren’t mentioned, but we know that Poptropica was sold to Sandbox, a London-based “edutainment” company, in 2015. (Sandbox still owns Poptropica, along with other brands like Coolmath Games.) But it was more than the sale itself that changed things for Jess.
With Poptropica, sure, I was not always going to see eye-to-eye with the new owner regarding priorities, investments, staffing, technology, growth strategy, and so on and so on. Yet decisions had to be made and they were no longer mine to make. Those were up to the new owner. I got that. Such is life.
But what I could not stand, and what I refused to further witness, was the dismissal of the team who smartly and lovingly built Poptropica.
Jess Brallier
Usual Suspects: This is where you line up for your turn.
Now, who was this new management who undermined the very people who had created so many Poptropica masterpieces? We’re not entirely sure, but we can piece together some details…
We know it was the then-new Pearson CEO, John Fallon, who didn’t see value in Poptropica and decided to sell it. He retired from Pearson in 2020. But Jess previously wrote that they only ever had one meeting about Pop, so it seems unlikely that Fallon would have been managing it.
New management invades Mocktropica. And Poptropica.
And Poptropica was sold in 2015, so current Pop CEO Abhi Arya would not have been involved, as he only began heading up Poptropica in 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. Perhaps in between Fallon’s arrival as Pearson CEO and the sale, new management was assigned to Poptropica whom we don’t know about.
Whoever they were (or are?), they were allegedly undervaluing the rest of the Poptropica team as early as 2013, the year Fallon became CEO of Pearson, and the same year Mocktropica was created and released. This revelation sure brings a new light to this classic island — it wasn’t just a mockery or a prediction, it was already unfolding.
Some of the beloved crew after launch of Wimpy Boardwalk
Drones: Replaceable parts. Cogs in the machine.
From the team pic (left), we recognize Jeff Kinney (top center) and artist Abe Tena (bottom center).
They developed content and an experience that kids actually loved. For the user/reader/viewer it was an emotional connection unlike I had ever, or since, witnessed. Yet I wasn’t surprised, because the team’s hearts were deep into the work.
They were ready to address the challenges and make Poptropica bigger and better than ever. If only they had been allowed to.
It was an ugly thing to watch.
Jess Brallier
Again, specifics aren’t given here, but we can gather that Jess had a lot of respect for his team that the new management didn’t. So he made the difficult decision to resign on July 14, 2015, right around when Timmy Failure Island was in the works. And he never looked back — literally, he never clicked on Poptropica.com or its apps ever again.
For me, personally, it was over when its remarkable team was torn apart. They built Poptropica out of heart and smarts. They resolved every business challenge. When they were gone, Poptropica was like a treasured childhood house with a loving family no longer in it.
Jess Brallier
In Pop We Trust: The genuine article. Accept no substitutions.
Jess concludes the saga with a final hope that all the pain and pleasure of creating Poptropica was worth it:
I just hope, as we imagined from the beginning, that we inspired kids to care deeply about art and design, and storytelling.
And that as they grow older, they’ll play it forward, making a difference in the lives of a next generation of good and curious kids. That would somehow make it all worthwhile.
Fingers crossed.
Jess Brallier
On that front, all of us at the PHB can affirm that Poptropica did inspire us, and likely all of you Poptropicans reading this too. We see it all the time in this community! And as wegrowolder, we definitely hope to keep building that blessing, whether here on the PHB or onwards.
Captains Courageous: Learning to appreciate poetry, one explication at a time.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won…
Poem by Walt Whitman (as featured in Mocktropica Island)
Jess’s blog post has attracted a few comments, including one from PHB guest writer Dangerous Dragon, who wrote that “Poptropica isn’t fun anymore.” Another comment from Kory (probably Kory Merritt, illustrator of the Poptropica comics and graphic novels) brought up how #Poptropica was trending on Twitter earlier.
“Poptropica” was trending a few weeks ago on Twitter. It was a bunch of twenty-somethings reminiscing about how much they loved Poptropica when they were in elementary school. I remember it being very popular with 4-6th graders when I first started teaching (2008-09). It was especially cool to see one amazing artist who posted art of a character she’d created, and then Tweet about how the character actually started as her Poptropica alter-ego.
It definitely made an impact.
Kory (probably Kory Merritt)
Scene from Poptropica comic illustrated by Kory Merritt
The PHB also sent a couple of tweets to Jess in response to his post, firstly to thank him for sharing and to let him know that all the heart that went into making Poptropica did in fact have the impact he’d hoped for. He responded: “WONDERFUL!”
The Yearbook is amazing. Nicely done and many good memories. And thanks for interview invite, but I'll pass. As I said, it's gotta be history for me. I've moved on. Again, all you've done is so impressive! Wow! https://t.co/71ViUAtxBm
That wraps up this post, and perhaps all of what Jess Brallier will be saying on record about the universe of Poptropica that he and his team lovingly built for over a decade. It’s been good to hear from him. Catch up on the saga here, here, here, and of course, here in this post.
Jess Brallier was first a publisher (book and online), a role he held at Funbrain, Poptropica, Planet Dexter, and Family Education Network. He has also served on the executive team at Harcourt, Little Brown, and Abrams, and has written 40 books for kids and adults. You can read more about Jess on his website and his insights on his personal blog.
Fun fact: In Shrink Ray Island, the book in CJ’s bedroom which you push down to create a ramp for the toy car is Tess’s Tree, an actual book by Jess M. Brallier.
Hey Poptropicans! Today in the Poptropica universe: a tag yourself challenge, petition to get Pop verified on Twitter, and mixing refreshing drinks. Let’s pop right to it!
On social media, the Pop Creators posted a collage of various Poptropica villains with the charge to “Tag yourself!” The lineup—Rumpelstiltskin, Mordred, Betty Jetty, E. Vile, Myron Van Buren, Dr. Hare, Black Widow, and Ringmaster Raven—misses some other iconic villains like Captain Crawfish and Zeus, but there’s only so much space. And hey, looks like Poptropica remembers Betty Jetty after all. 😌
Also on Twitter, Poptropica started a little petition to get their account verified with the tag #verifyPoptropica. We’re not sure why their account isn’t already verified, especially after over a decade’s experience as a well known site, but it’s up to Twitter to make it happen. In the meantime, plenty of Poptropicans have been liking and sharing their tweet to demand the coveted blue badge for this charming blue brand!
In other news, after a long while, there’s a new guest post on the Pop Creators’ Blog! A new guest writer, Golden Wolf, shares a neat trick hidden within 24 Carrot Island: you can change your hair color by mixing a drink in the Carrot King Diner with your desired color. 🥛🥕
What you might not know is that this Easter egg was part of the original 24 Carrot Island released back in 2008, but was removed in a re-release in 2013. When the island was ported over to Haxe (Flash-free Poptropica), the hair-dyeing drinks returned!
For more fun tips and tricks, check out our 24 Carrot Island Guide. You might learn something new from the trivia section, which is something we have for all of our island guides!
Hey Poptropicans! In this post: a TikTok video and fan art features with sweet jams. Plus, a hint at something big to come. Let’s pop right to it!
The Pop Creators finally made their second TikTok video after opening their account back in April. The new clip showcases the Pride costumes released this week in the store, with Diana Ross’s ’80s banger “I’m Coming Out” playing in the background. 🏳️🌈✨
Poptropica also shared the video on their Instagram story to promote their TikTok handle @poptropicacreator.
Also on their Instagram story, Poptropica shared tons of fan art! One particularly noteworthy post is happyclonetrooper’s sheet music for Fiona’s violin song from Ghost Story Island. Although she acknowledges it’s been done before, this is one melodious masterpiece that’ll never get old! 🎻 (Click to enlarge the pics below.)
At one point, Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Poptropica’s Mystery of the Map held down three of the top five slots on the New York Times bestseller list. I was the happiest publisher in the world.
Jess Brallier
Hold on for tomorrow’s post from the former Poptropica CEO, which will tackle the big topic on our minds: “What about today’s Poptropica?”
Tomorrow brings one more big event we have to mention before we wrap up: the PHB’s Pride Palooza! Join us Friday, June 18 at 8 pm Eastern in Poptropica’s Arcade and wear the colors of the rainbow. 🌈
We’ll also hang out on the PHC and in the PHB comments. See you there, loud and proud Poptropicans! 💖
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