Disney may be widely viewed as the top of the animation studio ladder, but
DreamWorks has also carved out it’s own reputation as one of the industry’s top dogs.
Telling stories of unlikely heroes facing tremendous odds and villains who give the
baddies at the House of Mouse a run for their money.
But sometimes even the most capable heroes need a helping hand. Among these
reliable helpers and sidekicks, who is truly the most good and who is the most evil?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Dreamworks Sidekicks: Good to Evil.
For this list, we'll be covering characters in the DreamWorks films that fall under the
category of sidekicks. Like with our Disney lists, some of these characters have also
earned the spot of being a vital protagonist or enemy, but also fit nicely into the sidekick
category as well, regardless of where they fall on the dichotomy of good and evil.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character and working
our way down. These characters are The Good. Starting off our Good list with the best of
the best, we have Donkey. The first to warm up to Shrek, he's gone from the simple comedic
relief to being a much needed companion. Donkey is the one who pushes
Shrek to admit his feelings for Fiona in the first film, even if it meant challenging Shrek
and getting the ogre angry. He's not a confrontational creature, speaking up
only when he thinks people need to be set straight. He called Arthur out for abandoning
Shrek, making it clear that the ogre was only trying to protect the young teen. Even
without any memory of Shrek under Rumplestiltskin's deal, Donkey still
warmed up to Shrek and sympathized with his struggle. He was also the one to get the Dragon
of the Keep on their side, making her a valuable ally for the rest of the movies.
Next up we have the Night Fury Toothless. The beast that made a whole generation of
kids want a pet dragon, he was not fond of Hiccup initially, but he can't be blamed for
his fear and anger considering Hiccup was the one to shoot him down. But once the
young Viking gained the dragon's trust, Toothless was willing to do whatever it took to
protect his rider. Time and time again during the films and shows, Toothless risks his
well-being to save Hiccup as well as other riders. The only time Toothless goes against
Hiccup is when he’s protecting his new mate the Light Fury, but we can understand
why, with it being clearly stated that Night Furies only have one mate their entire lives.
Up next is a lesser known ally, Little Creek from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
A Lakota Native, he met Spirit as they were both being held captive. Little
Creek had a clear admiration of the stallion from the beginning and was shown to have
a deep respect and understanding for the creature’s need to be free. He was shown to
be attached to his own horse Rain, making sure he was with her as she tried to heal
from her injuries. After the Native was saved by Spirit, he travels to find the stallion
again and saves the horse from being killed while used for labor on the railroad. It’s
finally trusting one another that they are able to finally escape their enemies and each
return to their homes to live out their lives. This film is one of
the moreunder-appreciated of the Dreamworks releases. Though it isn’t the most historically
accurate, like many animated films that play with history, we would highly recommend
giving it a watch for the friendship Spirit and Little Creek develop if for no other reason.
Next we have another familiar face from the Shrek movies, Puss in Boots. Though he
was originally meant to assassinate Shrek on behalf of the king, Puss had changed his
tone when Shrek spared his life. He repaid his debt to the ogre by assisting in stealing
the Happily Ever After potion from the Fairy Godmother and helped to get Shrek back
together with Fiona when Charming tried stealing her away. Who didn’t get chills when
he told Shrek to go on ahead as he held back the oncoming troops?
Even after his life debt was repaid, Puss went on to help retrieve Arthur to take the
throne. When everything was erased due to Shrek’s contract with Rumpelstiltskin, Puss
had been hesitant to help, happy with the lazy life he had among the ogres. When he
saw how Shrek and Fiona connected, he decided to help save the ogres and get Shrek
and Fiona to share true love’s kiss to break the contract. Whether he’s looking out for
Fiona’s happiness or Shrek’s, Puss always has the well-being of his friends in mind.
Next we have to include the infamous Furious Five. We covered all of them separately
in our Good to Evil of the Kung Fu Panda films, but we wanted to discuss them as a
team for this list. All of them have a unique method of utilizing kung fu and have a lot of
respect for Shifu for taking them in and giving them a chance to be protectors of the
valley. We dropped them a little lower due to their first reactions towards Po, making it
clear that he didn’t belong with them and had no place being the Dragon Warrior even if
he had been chosen. Though they do eventually come around to accepting a panda on
their team, they still clearly struggle with following orders from time to time, with Mantis
being the one to get himself and Crane captured by Kai and being used to take the rest
of their team down. But there’s no doubt that when they have a common goal in place,
they work in perfect sync as seen when they confronted Tai Lung. We also grant them a
lot of points for Tigress being able to get to Po all the way up in the mountains to warn
him about Kai and being there to help Po through his trauma when taking on Shen.
We are fans of canine companions on this channel, so we felt we had to mention Spike.
He’s Sinbad’s pet and was shown to be very at home living on the high seas and even
helping with taking on various obstacles. He is clearly having the time of his life while
flying at enemy ships and rushes to keep the men from going overboard when they’re
tempted by the sirens. Spike was also one of the first of the crew to warm up to Marina,
guilting Sinbad for being cold towards her. Just an overall good boy to all he meets.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The
Grey Area. Taking our next spot on our list is Branch.
Even after the first film, Branch is seen to be the least approachable among the trolls.
His experience of losing his grandmother
caused him to feel such guilt he tried to give up singing and partying, opting instead to
hide away from the Bergens. But he was also the one to travel and come to Poppy’s aid
to make sure she didn’t take on the challenge of saving everyone herself. Even though
Branch firmly believed everyone was already eaten, he still refused to let Poppy fight
alone. In the second film, Branch took the hit to protect Poppy again, this time from
being turned into a zombie of rock-n-roll. Though he can be difficult, he’s a determined
guy and a valuable friend to have. Next up is Oscar’s friend Angie.
Sharktale was a hit and miss film among many, but whether you like the film or not, Angie is a fun
character. She was always torn between enabling Oscar and his bad habits of
being late to work, slacking off and trying get-rich-quick schemes while also calling
him out for hiding Lenny and lying to everyone. Angie was the main motivation
that revealed everything Oscar and Lenny had lied about and was also the one to get Oscar
to realize what was really important in life.
Next on our list is Belt. Before Guy had met the Croods family, Belt was his only
companion. By the time the events of the first film come around, Belt is shown to be on
par with Guy’s energy and takes an active role in helping to gather food and ward off
predators. He’s also seen showing clear understanding for how Eep and Guy feel
towards one another, even in the very beginning of their journey, showing concern at
the start and then trying to give them reasons to grow closer.
Next up we have Adam Flayman from Bee Movie. Barry’s long-time friend, we had to
place him lower since he causes some issue for Barry before aiding in the trial. Adam
was content with having one job the rest of his life and couldn’t understand Barry’s
fixation on wanting more. When he finds out that Barry is involved in humans and trying
to take them to court, he calls out the other bee in front of Barry’s family. Eventually,
Adam did come around to help during the trial and was vital at one point to buy them
time to gain evidence even though he had just gotten out of the hospital. He also was
the reason Barry was able to finally win his case and, when things began dying off,
Adam had been the one to get Barry to appreciate how important the role of a bee was.
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.Next on
this list, we have Chel. The Road to El Dorado is one of the older Dreamworks
films that deserves all the praise it gets. Not only because of the art and music, but
because of the fun characters that become more relatable the older you get. Chel is one
of those female leads that knows exactly what to say to get what she wants from
people. She assists Miguel and Tulio in scamming the city to get as much gold from
them as possible. She’s able to use her knowledge growing up in the culture to explain
away any odd choices the duo makes and is happy to have a chance to hook up with
Tulio even if it meant breaking apart a long time friendship. However, we also give her
some slack since we never fully learn her reasoning for wanting to leave El Dorado so
badly. When we first see her, she’s already on the run with some treasure hidden in a
piece of fabric. And when Tulio and Miguel question her, she states she wants to be
able to explore the world, but hints that there might be more to it. Since we never see
her family or see her speak with anyone that can be deemed a long time friend, we can
only imagine that Chel grew up an outcast and wanted to seek a better life for herself.
While she was a main motivation for the conflict, we feel Penny from Mr Peabody and
Sherman earned the title of sidekick after tagging along on their adventure back home.
We can’t place her lower on the list since she is a small child who likely doesn’t fully
understand the weight of her actions. She does get a lot of redemption points for
helping Peabody and Sherman by the end of the film, but her behaviour in the beginning
was appalling. Penny took to bullying Sherman simply because she was no longer the
shining star in her class. She wasn’t able to stand being out of the spotlight and so
degraded Sherman in front of everyone, provoking an otherwise sweet kid to lash out.
The whole reason she gets trapped in Egypt in the first place is because she insists on
Sherman showing her the time machine and then refuses to leave the ancient city when
she gets the idea to marry King Tut and keep all of his money. Thank goodness she
changed her tone in the end. Up next we are going to place Maurice
from the Madagascar films. If ever there was a fun portrayal of a corrupt advisor, Maurice
is it. He knows good and well that Julian is not fit to be in charge of anything. But unlike
many who try to rise to power by killing off the people employing them, Maurice is
content with being on the sidelines where he doesn’t have to be liable personally if things
mess up. He knows that Julian, despite his weird antics, is generally well liked.
All Maurice is really concerned about is living a comfortable life where he doesn’t have to worry
about how to find food or being hunted by predators. Maurice was even okay
with the idea of sending an animal as a sacrifice into a volcano just to give the other animals hope
that it would bring back the water. Which leads us to question just how
many other dangerous and insane ideas he okayed for Julian to carry out, only speaking up to
remind the others that success was only a fifty-fifty chance.Taking our second place
of evil we have Minion. While his friendly smile and upbeat
attitude may make him come off as a good guy, we have to acknowledge that for a large
portion of the film he was happy doing evil at Megamind's side. He was shaken when
Megamind wanted to change his ways after becoming close with Roxanne, demanding
that Megamind go back to being the great villain he was, stating that the bad guy never
gets the girl. Plus, we have to take into account the crimes Minion pulled off:
overthrowing a government, vandalism, theft, breaking into a maximum security prison,
impersonating an officer… Luckily by the end Minion was able to take on the role of a
hero. We cut him some slack since we get that he likely didn’t understand that there
were other options to life. After all, he and Megamind took to being evil simply because
they were labeled as troubled children and raised in a prison surrounded by guys who
applauded their misdeeds. Taking our last spot, we have to mention
the Witches that worked for Rumplestiltskin. While the fairy tale villains have been utilized
before, this was different from the average mob mentality we saw under Charming's influence.
The Witches seemed to enjoy having Rumplestiltskin in power,
not only because of their freedom to do as they pleased, but we get the impression that the
relationship wasn't completely professional, with numerous witches acting like groupies.
But however the method used, they delighted in being able to hunt down
the ogres under the contract-maker's orders. The only reason they failed was because Shrek was able
to successfully pull off the loophole that had been written in.
But what do you think? Who are the most good and evil sidekicks of Dreamworks? Let
us know in the comment section. Don't forget to hit that notification bell and binge our
Good-to-Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your
favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!