10 Most Underrated DreamWorks Villains

Founded in 1994, DreamWorks quickly established itself as a rival to Disney in animated films. They branded themselves as anti-Disney, openly mocking many of Disney’s iconic tropes and iconography, while also telling more mature and complicated stories. This led to one of their earliest CGI films, Shrek, winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Film.

DreamWorks has since built a large and well-loved catalog of animated films with plenty of beloved characters, many of whom are villains. As is natural with a large selection, some villains get forgotten and overlooked compared to their more memorable counterparts. Nevertheless, these villains do their job admirably thanks to a combination of interesting character traits, strong animation, and perfectly-chosen voice actors.

10 Gallaxhar

‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ (2009)

After destroying his home planet, the evil warlord Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) travels the universe, looking for a powerful element called Quantonium. He eventually finds some on Earth, where it is absorbed by a woman named Susan (Reese Witherspoon), transforming her into a giant. Gallaxhar unleashes massive robots to capture her, so he can extract the Quantonium and use it to create a clone army.

Monsters vs. Aliens is a love letter to pulp-fiction-style science fiction stories, and Gallaxhar is a fitting villain for such a story. His plan boils down to conquering the Earth and killing most, if not all, humans, for little reason other than he can, which fits with how many pulp-fiction villains had simple motivations to allow for fantastical situations. The writers also give Gallaxhar a sense of humor, which helps to give him more of a personality, best shown when he captures Susan and tries to intimidate her while also explaining his backstory.

Watch on Paramount+

9 Dave

‘The Penguins of Madagascar’ (2014)

Once the star attraction at the Central Park Zoo, Dave the octopus (John Malkovich) finds himself pushed aside and forgotten when four baby penguins named Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights) arrive. This happened at every new zoo and aquarium he was sent to, which planted in Dave a burning need for revenge. Disguising himself as a human named Dr. Octavius Brine and Dave creates a formula called the Medusa Serum, which will turn all penguins into ugly monsters.

For a villain present in a spin-off film, Dave could have been a lot worse. His animation is beautifully expressive, from his wide-reaching facial expressions to how slippery and fluid his movements are, allowing him to flip-flop between emotions with ease. Malkovich’s voicework is also beautiful: he speaks in a mixture of cold fury and unhinged madness that feels fitting for a character motivated by envy and spite.

Watch on Amazon

8 Mandible

‘Antz’ (1998)

Within an ant colony located in a public park, General Mandible (Gene Hackman), serves as the commander of the colony’s soldiers and is betrothed to Princess Bala (Sharon Stone). Believing in the survival of the fittest, Mandible wants to create a new colony without the worker class of ants. To achieve this, he convinces the Queen (Anne Bancroft) to let him attack the neighboring Termite Colony and instructs the workers to dig a tunnel that will flood the colony until only ants loyal to him are left.

For DreamWorks’ first film, Mandible serves as an effective villain. Hackman’s voice sounds authoritative and cunning, which helps to sell Mandible as an intelligent and charismatic leader able to fool others without drawing suspicion. His social Darwinist mindset also fits well with the movie’s main themes about individuality.

Watch on Amazon

7 Humpty Dumpty

‘Puss in Boots’ (2011)

As a child, Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) befriends fellow orphan Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and shares his dream of finding magic beans to capture a goose who lays golden eggs. When Puss begins forging his own path, Humpty tricks him into committing a crime, thus ruining his reputation and making Puss an outlaw. Years later, Humpty recruits Puss to fulfill their dream, but secretly wants to restore his reputation while destroying Puss’.

Humpty Dumpty is a fun villain who fits the more lighthearted feel of the first Puss in Boots film. His oblong body makes it difficult for him to move and perform physical tasks, so he uses his mind to come up with effective plans and manipulate others to get what he wants. His friendship with Puss also gives the film a strong emotional core and makes the audience wonder if Humpty has a sliver of goodness inside him.

Watch on Paramount+

6 The Toad

‘Flushed Away’ (2006)

Once kept as a pet, the Toad (Sir Ian McKellen) found himself flushed down the toilet when his owner replaced him with a pet mouse. He arrives in the mammalian sewer city of Ratropolis, where he establishes himself as a powerful crime lord. As the FIFA World Cup Finals draws closer, the Toad gets ready to enact a plan to wipe out the mice and rats so that amphibians can repopulate the city.

The Toad is one of DreamWorks’ funniest villains and a highlight of McKellen’s career. He’s a very flamboyant character, frequently giving into fits of manic laughter and dramatic soliloquies, while still maintaining a threatening disposition. Some of his funniest moments come when he is interacting with his minions, such as his French cousin, Le Frog (Jean Reno), who enjoys taunting him when he gets into one of his spirals.

Watch on Netflix

5 The Colonel

‘Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron’ (2002)

As America is building its transcontinental railroad, The Colonel (James Cromwell) is placed in charge of a cavalry fort to watch for Lakota natives. When his men capture a wild stallion called Spirit (Matt Damon), The Colonel tasks his men with breaking his spirit, but this proves to be more difficult than anticipated. Eventually, Spirit is freed with the help of a Lakota man named Little Creek (Daniel Studi), and they have several more run-ins with the Colonel as his men head further westward.

The Colonel is the perfect villain for the man vs. nature story in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. He represents America’s ideology of Manifest Destiny, believing that Spirit, representing the wild lands, can be tamed with enough time and discipline. However, he also isn’t without his sense of honor, and begrudgingly accepts Spirit as a worthy adversary.

Watch on Amazon

4 Rumpelstiltskin

‘Shrek Forever After’ (2010)

Just as King Harold (John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews) are about to sign away rulership of the kingdom of Far Far Away to Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), word reaches them that their daughter, Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) has been rescued by Shrek (Mike Myers). This causes Rumpelstiltskin to become bitter towards the ogre couple, but he gets his chance at revenge when Shrek, feeling the pressures of fatherhood, longs for the days when he could be “a real ogre”. He agrees to sign away one day from his life to Rumpelstiltskin, who chooses the day Shrek was born, creating an alternate timeline.

Rumpelstiltskin is a beacon of light in Shrek Forever After, which helps elevate the film to a good but not great follow-up to the disastrous Shrek the Third. He is a fun take on a trickster villain who feels right at home in Shrek’s fairy tale world, especially since he has no power until someone signs one of his contracts. This forces him to rely on his charisma to lure others in.

Watch on Amazon

3 Eris

‘Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas’ (2003)

As the Goddess of discord and chaos, Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer) is always looking for new ways to spread her influence among humans. Her latest plan involves using the thief Sinbad (Brad Pitt) to steal the Book of Peace from his best friend, Prince Proteus of Syracuse (Joseph Fiennes). When Sinbad ultimately refuses to steal the book, Eris steals it and frames Sinbad, with Proteus agreeing to take his place to give Sinbad ten days to reclaim the book before he is executed.

Eris is one of the most visually stunning villains ever seen in animation. She moves as if her body is made of smoke, constantly shifting and changing position and size, and her domain reflects the infinite universe. Despite her evil motivations, the film demonstrates that she will follow her moral code, and also bears no grudge against the heroes since she can always try another plan thanks to her immortal nature.

Watch on Amazon

2 Kai

‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ (2016)

In life, General Kai (J. K. Simmons) nearly conquered all of China but halted to heal his best friend and brother-in-arms, Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) at a Panda village. Seeing how the Pandas can manipulate Chi energy, Kai tries to claim this power for himself but is stopped by Oogway. Five hundred years later, Kai steals the Chi of all the Kung Fu masters in the Spirit World and returns to the land of the living to wipe out Oogway’s memory.

Though not as strong in personality as other villains in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, Kai stands out thanks to his design and Simmons’ voicework. The animators did a wonderful job making him look and feel like an otherworldly creature, giving him a spectral-like appearance, fluid movement for a creature his size, and a unique fighting style involving blades attached to chains. Simmon’s voicework is also one of the strongest in his voice-acting career, capturing the cold fury of a spirit whose memory has been erased, while still working in moments of humor.

Watch on AppleTV

1 Pitch Black

‘Rise of the Guardians’ (2012)

The Boogeyman, Pitch Black (Jude Law), once held the entire world in a net of fear until he was defeated by the Guardians of Childhood. In the modern day, he is forgotten by children and left invisible to them. To fix this, he creates an army of Nightmares to help spread his fear and works to undermine the Guardians, for as children lose faith in them, they turn to despair and make him stronger.

Pitch Black tries to present himself as a sympathetic victim of circumstance who was driven to his villainous extremes to stand as an equal to the Guardians, yet this motivation is as hollow as his heart. While the Guardians want to spread joy and encourage children, Pitch wants them to wallow in misery and despair and uses every trick from physical fears to psychological manipulations to get what he wants. His dynamic with the protagonist, Jack Frost (Chris Pine), is a stellar hero-villain dynamic, as he serves as a dark reflection of Jack’s desire for recognition.

Watch in Paramount+

NEXT: The 10 Most Quotable DreamWorks Movies