It has been a while since I have done one of these.This is another article series that I have came up with. In each article, I am going to describe a movie that is underrated, perfectly rated, and overrated. It will say why I think it is so, and why it has a reputation that it either rightfully or does not rightfully deserve, but this time, I am going to do DreamWorks Heroes instead of movies. I know I have not done an addition of this in a long while, since I was focusing on the DreamWorks Reviews, but I promise I will make more posts to this series as well.
Underrated: Spirit
Why I think he is an underrated character?
I think he is an underrated character because he does have a lot of personality, and is shown to go through growth and to take more responsibility. He is a free spirit who does not need to have responsibilities, but becomes more serious and responsible without losing his original personality (which is very hard to pull off in animated films.) And he does all of this without uttering a word except for a Matt Damon narration which is not that often.
Why I think he has the reception he does as a character?
I think one of the reasons why he is ignored as a character is because he is practically silent. Sure he has a narration of his mind, but it is different when the character is speaking out loud. Also, people tend to pay less attention to personalities of animals than human characters, so that is a factor too. Another huge reason he is snubbed and not given credit is because his film barely made a profit from it’s budget, and still probably lost money for marketing costs. It is one of the films DreamWorks bury under the depths of the Earth, so forgotten movie=forgotten character.
Perfectly Rated: Seinfeld (Yeah, I am still calling him that)
Why I think he is a perfectly rated character?
If you read my Bee Movie review, I rip Seinfeld bee a new one, and went hard on him, for many reasons. I called him a blanded-down, unfunny Seinfeld (person) who’s personality goes with the plot, meaning it changes completely just to fit the plot and weeks later, that still stands. He is forgotten about, and should be, which I wish I could. I never watched such an inconsistent character who is so bland and because of his lack of personality, he changes unexpectedly when he needs to. His motivations are stupid; his ideas are stupid; and his crush on a human is stupid.
Why I think he has the reception he does as a character?
He has the reception of being bland, inconsistent, and forgettable because for the most part, he is. He never does anything that is worth remembering to most, and he is a corny, bland version of Seinfeld the person. His film not making a lot of money and being a critical failure helps as well. Nothing more to say that eh deserves to get no recognition, as he is a bunch of bad-jokes, and no strong traits to make him stand out.
Overrated: Alex
Why I think he is an overrated character?
It amazes me when people talk about how deep and developed Alex the lion is. In Madagascar, he is a selfish ego-maniac and starts to become an actual lion, wanting to eat live animals, but that is tossed away, and he gets over that (cannot develop into something you were beforehand. He develops the most in the second one since he learns about family and becomes a bit more responsible, and does not develop at all in the third one. After everything he goes through, we do not see how it changes him as a character. If he goes back to the way he was, or does nothing interesting at all, how can he develop? It seems like he follows the plot instead of it making an impact on his character.
Why I think he has the reception he does as a character?
He has the reputation he does because his films are popular, a franchise, and are one of DreamWorks’ biggest cash makers. Since he goes through so many adventures, we are expected to learn something new about him every time, but nope. It is great that he has his family and such, and that does give us more insight about us, but from what we see, it does not really make him much stronger or change him much, if at all. He is overrated compared to all the other DreamWorks males, since there is almost no depth in him, but people go on and on about him like there is because of his backstory and popularity.
animatedkid 
Great list! I never got into Alex myself.
I think the problem with Spirit is the dubbing…the narrator just can’t pull it off.