Dreamworks has given us some interesting stories over the years.
Some that held a more serious tone and others that were just ridiculous.
But the studio has also given us plenty of great father characters.
So, in honor of Father’s Day, we want to know which the Dreamworks dads are a cut above
the rest and which falls short.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Dreamworks Dads : Good to Evil.
For this list we'll be ranking based on how well of a father-figure these characters are.
Dads that have performed a heroic feat will be given a higher ranking while anyone that
caused harm to befall their children will drop lower on our list.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character and working our way
down.
These characters are The Good.
Taking the first spot as most good, we have the Viking chief Stoickthe Vast.
He had a lot of expectations for Hiccup from the beginning, always wanting his son to learn
how to be a real Viking rather than working on his contraptions.
But as much as Stoick wanted Hiccup to toughen up, he also sheltered his son from a lot and
had to be persuaded by Gobber to let Hiccup join in on the classes to learn how to kill
a dragon on his own.
There are a few people out there who will no doubt claim that Stoick deserves a lower
ranking due to how he disowned his son before seeking out the dragon’s nest, but we personally
feel like Stoick more than made up for this judgement call.
Since then, he saved his son from drowning, saved his dragon from drowning, apologized
for his words, allowed the dragons to stay in Berk while trusting Hiccup to find solutions
to any dragon related issues, and followed Hiccup’s lead on making new saddles and
weapons for the dragon riders.
Not to mention the greatest sacrifice in the films: rushing to save his son’s life when
he saw Toothless was being controlled and about to attack.
There’s no doubt that Stoick’s death is one of the most tragic in all of Dreamworks
if not all of animation.
The silver medal of good goes to King Zuba.
When Alex and his friends find themselves in Africa, the lion is reunited with his family
he couldn’t remember being separated from.
When he asks what had happened, Zuba and his wife reveal that he blamed himself for losing
the young cub to poachers, having been distracted with sparring with a rival.
Zuba then tells of how he followed the poachers for days until he was forced to come to the
conclusion that his son was already dead before returning home.
Having Alex alive and well, Zuba showed nothing but love and pride for his son, even when
he didn’t really understand the whole idea of being King of New York or why Alex was
able to make a living dancing around.
He gave up his place as ruler of the animals that had come to rely on him because he couldn’t
stand the thought of banishing his own child.
And when they were nearly killed by the tourists that were left in the wilderness, Zuba saw
first hand how Alex was praised by them, accepting his son’s different way of doing things
and even picking up a few tricks.
We're giving the bronze to Po's adoptive father, Mr Ping.
We see in flashbacks that Mr Ping had come across Po by accident after finding the small
panda hidden away with the vegetables that he bought.
But even though he knew that it would be a challenge to raise a panda, he just rolled
with it.
So well that Po never questioned Mr Ping being his father until he had finally got old enough
to notice the key differences between them.
When Li showed up, Mr Ping was understandably defensive, demanding to know where Li had
been all this time and how could they trust that Li was really Po’s father.
The heartbreak on Mr Ping’s face was clear when he felt like he was being left behind,
stating in a soft voice that he was already proud of his son.
When Po left for the panda village, Mr Ping didn’t hesitate to come along to make sure
his son was taken care of and even eventually warmed up to Li, stating Po needed both of
his dads to be there.
The next spot goes to the genius dog Mr Peabody.
While a little overwhelming with his Hugh standards for everything, he did love Sherman
wholeheartedly and only wanted the best for him.
After finding Sherman abandoned, it would have been pretty easy for Peabody to just
let Sherman go up for adoption, but instead he fought to be able to raise the child himself.
Peabody tried to teach Sherman everything he knew, from painting to fencing to history
and credited Sherman as being the inspiration for the invention of the time machine the
Way-Back.
The only time Peabody was shown to lose his composure in any way was when he saw Miss
Grunion trying to drag Sherman away and Peabody lashed out and bit her.
Next is Zipporah's father from The Prince of Egypt, Jethro.
Two things become clear during his time on screen: he adores his daughters and shares
what he has with others.
When Moses showed up to their small village, Jethro didn't see why Moses held no value
for himself.
He was proud to see his daughter finally find a husband that she would be happy with and
instilled in his younger daughters to always be charitable and welcoming to anyone, regardless
of status, as seen with how they warm up to Moses almost right away.
We felt we couldn't have a complete list without Master Shifu.
Shifu took in Tai Lung and was labeled as a father to him, but we would also argue that
Shifu was a fatherly figure to the other fighters.
He was shown to have been the one to help Tigress control her strength and anger when
playing with the other children at the orphanage before letting her live at the Jade Palace.
He’s strict but also gives praise where it’s due when it comes to the rest of the
Furious Five.
When Shifu trained Po, he used what he was able to learn and observe, knowing just how
to motivate the panda to become the Dragon Warrior.
And we can’t deny how difficult it was to see Shifu face Tai Lung, admitting that he
was unable to see what the other warrior was turning into.
Next we have Po's biological father, Li Shan.
It's hard to not feel bad for Li.
The man spent years thinking he lost his wife and son before Oogway's message reached him.
And there's something to be said for how he went out on his own to find Po regardless
of the danger that was likely still lingering for pandas.
Li lured Po home on false pretenses, but we can’t say that we blame him.
He was finally reunited with Po only to see his son engage in a fight with some odd villain
made of jade.
Fighting was already a forgien concept to Li since the village was peaceful save for
when they were attacked all those years ago.
It makes sense that Li would want to get his son away from a dangerous situation, even
if it meant lying to him about teaching him how to use his chi.
We also give Li a lot of bonus points for being the one to urge the pandas to try using
their chi again to help Po in the other realm as he fought Kai.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory.
These characters fall in The Grey Area.
Next from Sinbad : Legend of the Seven Seas is King Dymas.
He does not care much for Sinbad or the pirate life he's adapted to, but he did trust his
son.
So when Proteus insisted Sinbad could be trusted to retrieve the Book of Peace, Dymas reluctantly
allowed Proteus to take Sinbad's place in imprisonment.
On the surface anyway.
When we Dymas again, he had wrangled a team to sneak Proteus out of his cell and as far
from Syracuse as possible.
We can at least give Dymas some credit for trying to save his son’s life.
It’s understandable why he didn’t trust Sinbad-or any pirate’s really- and it would
be hard to believe that a goddess stole the Book of Peace, even if it was the Goddess
of Chaos.
Especially when Eris covered her tracks by disguising as Sinbad and leaving his knife
at the scene.
Next up we have the chatterbox himself, Donkey.
The expression typically goes ‘a face only a mother could love’ but Donkey adored his
kids regardless of how odd a mix dragon and donkey was.
Or how much of a fire hazard they were.
And we aren’t too surprised he made for an affectionate dad.
After all, Donkey was shown time and again to be the level-headed one of the group.
Though he was silly and had some odd solutions, he was still loyal and patient.
And during Shrek’s misadventure, after Ruplestillskin sent him in a world where he and Fiona don’t
fall in love, there’s no denying the way Donkey’s face lit up at being informed he
was a dad with half-dragon babies.
There’s fewer things purer than that.
Plus we want to mention the odd mix of dad and uncle role Donkey took when it came to
Arthur, explaining that Shrek was protecting the boy by lying about why he was there in
front of Charming.
Following after his friend we have the ogre himself, Shrek.
He was clearly unsure about the idea of having kids when Fiona revealed she was pregnant.
But we don’t think that makes him a bad dad.
After hearing some of the stories about how his own father was trying to eat him, we totally
understand.
Not to mention that Shrek also brought up being afraid his children wouldn’t be accepted
because of how long he was the angry ogre in the woods.
After all, Fiona was half-human and while the kids might have been ogre’s themselves,
they would definitely have been treated differently by other people once the other kids learned
about their home life.
But Shrek was able to come around after having to deal with Arthur, realizing that though
he may screw up, the important part of parenting was to just try and be there.
And we see that by the time his kids are born, Shrek is able to roll with it and learn how
to have fun and be the nurturing caregiver he wished he had growing up.
However, we do knock him a little low on the list because like with Donkey, we don’t
really get to see many interactions between him and his children.
Next we have Rita’s father in Flushed Away, Mr Malone.
He isn’t shown for long, but we learn a lot about him in his time interacting with
Rodney and the family.
At first he mistakes Rodney as being a boyfriend, and teases Rodney about making an honest woman
of Rita over dinner.
When Rita explains that her companion is from the surface and was offering to pay to get
him home, Mr Malone shows immediate concern.
Not just because of the journey itself but because of the rats that patrol the sewers.
Being in a full body cast, he’s not able to perform much as far as heroic feats go,
but he was quick to scold his son who suggested they simply turn Rodney in for the reward
money, stating he was not going to allow his son to act like a rat.
Next we’re ranking a couple of dads together from Over the Hedge: Lou the porcupine and
Ozzie the possum.
They follow Verne’s lead when it comes to foraging, trusting the turtle’s instinct
up until RJ shows up after they discover the hedge.
We rank them a little lower for following RJ’s lead without question, persuaded when
they feel like the raccoon had the know-how to take food from the surrounding housing
development.
They even allowed their children to take part in helping to forage from the humans.
But that didn’t mean they loved their kids any less than many other dads on this list.
One of the most memorable moments in the film was when Ozzie thought his daughter was dead,
grieving over her before praising her on finally playing dead as he had been trying to get
her to do.
Finally, we've reached the dark side.
These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
Next on our list is the ever critical Seti the First.
Father to both Ramses and Moses, he is shown during the beginning of The Prince of Egypt.
In this version of events, the Pharaoh is well aware that Moses isn’t his son through
birth like Ramses is, but that didn’t stop him from raising the young man just like he
would his other child.
Still, Pharaoh placed far more expectation on his oldest son as Ramses was meant to be
the one to take the throne.
Which was why he demanded so much of the family, wanting them to always be at their absolute
best.
Having a parent that is overbearing and doesn’t allow their offspring to really enjoy their
childhood is harsh, but we give some leniency to the Pharaoh since they weren’t simply
rulers to the people of Egypt.
They were seen as Gods and so had to show their best to the public and strive to be
without fault.
And we can give the Pharaoh some credit for hearing Moses out when he suggested Ramses
just needed a way to prove himself.
Next we have the most feared shark in Sharks Tale, When it came to Frankie and Lenny, he
had a clear favorite.
He wanted Lenny to learn to not be a pushover and to adjust to eating fish and other sea
life, not understanding why Lenny was fighting it so hard.
He made it clear that he didn’t want his son to be walked all over once they took over
the family business, which is pretty understandable.
Don Lino was in clear grief after Frankie was killed and was stuck believing that a
similar fate had befallen his only other son.
So we do grant him a little leeway for taking his grief out on the fish that was bragging
about killing the two heirs to the mob family.
In the end, he did reluctantly accept Lenny as it was better than not having his son in
his life at all.
Next we have Fiona’s father and the king of Far Far Away, King Harold.
Now many can already guess as to why he’s so low on this list.
After all, not many dads in movies featuring princesses nowadays are known for simply locking
their daughters away in a dragon’s keep waiting for someone to come along, sweep them
up and marry them.
Not only that, but Harold had agreed to it as a way of pleasing the Fairy Godmother after
she turned him into a human so he could pursue Lillian.
When he met Shrek, he could have just learned to accept the relationship, but instead he
tried to get his daughter’s husband killed.
And when that didn’t work, he attempted to trick Fiona into marrying Charming.
We will give him some credit for stepping up in the end.
He stood up to the Fairy Godmother and saved Shrek from her wrath, helping to give his
daughter the happy ending that she deserved.
But we still had to drop him low since this was after a lifetime of teaching Fiona to
be ashamed of becoming an ogre at night.
Had she grown up being accepted, things would likely have been a lot easier for her, but
that’s a whole rant on its own.
It was a tough call, but we feel we have to give a low spot to the next father on our
list: Jacob from Joseph : King of Dreams.
Though not as popular as the Prince of Egypt, this also tells the story of someone from
the Bible.
In this film, Jacob really set things up to not work in Joseph's favor, which is the exact
opposite of what he was trying to do.
He taught Joseph how to read and write in Egyptian, spending days having Joseph study
rather than work the fields.
While we can see the value of teaching Joseph more than hard labor, Jacob was well aware
of the rift he was creating between his sons.
Though he didn’t exactly mean to, his coddling of Joseph is what led to the other sons being
jealous and eventually selling Joseph off into slavery.
And as Jacob had been lied to, led to believe Joseph was eaten by wolves, he repeated the
mistake when Benjamin was born, insisting the youngest son was to never leave his side.
Next on our list we have Barry’s dad Martin Benson.
Like his wife, he was very demanding about getting Barry to pick a career, which is understandable.
But it was shown in the movie that Martin was not the best listener.
He wanted Barry to follow in his footsteps as a Stirrer and wasn’t interested in hearing
about how the humans were using their honey.
When Barry kept fighting the humans in court, Martin was reluctant to get involved and didn’t
make much of an impact.
We don’t think he ever meant to be malicious, but he wasn’t exactly supportive of his
son striving to think outside the box and make a difference, which is pretty surprising.
Why wouldn’t you want your child to fight for what they thought was right?
This was a tricky listing to place, but we decided the gold medal of most evil Dreamworks
father had to go to Ramses the Second.
Raised alongside Moses, he was the far more responsible of the duo, wanting more than
anything to be a proud ruler like his own father.
Moses deciding to leave tore him up and seeing his brother return was bittersweet as it was
followed by Moses demanding the slaves be set free.
Rather than take Moses seriously, he brushed off all of the warning and pleas and simply
went out his daily life, his young son still at his side.
As the plagues worsened, causing starvation and illness to ravage the land, Ramses stayed
stubborn as he was able to rise above a lot of the worst of it due to his status.
But the final plague was one that robbed him of his son.
Though we do understand Ramses’ side of things, we ultimately had to place him in
our bottom ranking.
Had he not been stubborn, he could have saved his son’s life.
But who do you think is the best Dreamworks Dad?
Let us know in the comment section.
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Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked!