As for the characters, I've had comments from people who think they are cute, and those who think they are creepy. I don't think it's a style everyone likes, and I'm fine with that :D

Right, but we're talking uncanny valley territory here (meaning it's not a matter of aesthetic preference, but of you using geometry that will actively repulse some (small?) number of people due to the brain's difficulty in processing it). I'm not saying change the style, I'm saying reduce the elevation of the heads by maybe a third, round or texture the faces a wee touch, and add some depth to the eyes. None of those have to be major changes, and if you haven't already, I think it's worth doing a mock-up of to see how it compares.
From another perspective, Little Big Planet shows well how to make moppet doll characters that still are expressive and endearing, while not feeling out of touch.

(In my opinion:) You're on the right track to being cute, but it feels like you left off development on the design early. And it doesn't feel like a matter of stylistic preference, since the issue is mainly a lack of design depth- thus making the designs feel cheap, even where they don't actively creep someone out. :P

It's certainly your prerogative to approach it however you see fit, but I do hope you'll at least try the mock-up for comparative consideration before dismissing it without giving it any real thought. :)

Namely, the issues that are causing that uncanny valley vibe are based in: The lack of sloping to the heads when combined with lack of facial features causes the brain to not as easily automatically interpret the head to be a face. The lack of eye depth causes the characters to feel unrelatable and doll-like. The slightly-too-extended elevation between the component body parts causes difficulty in automatically associating them as parts of the same whole, especially when the head is such a significant portion of the body size.

In other words, regardless of whether they're considerations you feel are important or not, my thoughts are at least partly based on actual objective components, not simple aesthetic preference. Again, if that's a style you favor exactly the way it is, over the considerations of potentially improved user accessibility, then that's your call to make. But taking an evening to make a different visual mock-up just for a moment of casual musing wouldn't hurt much, right? :)

The rest of the aesthetic style seems very user-friendly, which only makes the oddity of the character dimensions and lack of texture depth stand out all the more. :X

Thank you :D

D