Tricky Protagonists

 

One of the keys of making a good story is having a likable protagonist, who is the main character of the story, the one we’re supposed to root for, the one we’re supposed to relate to, the one we want to support in their darkest hours and much more! We don’t want to make them too perfect otherwise they’ll be too boring, though if they feel insecure or have silent moments it can work, with characters like Charlie in the 2005 adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Rodney Copperbottom from Robots, Flik from A Bug’s Life or Po from Kung Fu Panda, credit to one of my favourite YouTubers Mr. Coat for mentioning a few of those characters I mentioned, he said that we do need more decent and good hearted protagonists, I agree. It also works if certain protagonists have flaws, like being a bit selfish or can be a bit of a jerk, shows that we are all human and not perfect, as long as we learn from our mistakes and try to be better. This can be tricky however, if the characters are written poorly, then their bad traits could make them too unlikable, but if they are written well, we can still like them and want them to learn their lessons. Today’s article will be about good examples of likable protagonists with bad qualities and ones that don’t work.

 

          Likable Ones

One of the best examples of an “unlikable” likable protagonist could be Woody, in the first Toy Story. He is shown to be a good leader, he cares about the safety of the toys and always tries to stay strong for them when they’re scared like whenever it’s Christmas or Andy’s birthday because new toys could mean they could get replaced. However, once Buzz Lightyear comes along, we see another side of Woody, once Potato Head starts teasing him for being old fashioned, Woody begins to get jealous of Buzz, making snarky comments and being a bit too over critical. It gets worse, once Andy starts playing with Buzz more than Woody, his jealousy increases, he starts acting rude, pushing Slinky off the bed, kicking the checkers when he gets mad, like a child throwing a tantrum, he acts possessive towards Andy to Buzz like a child can be when a new baby comes, and he makes fun of Buzz’s delusions. He was even rude and insulted Buzz when they were watching Sid blow up a Combat Carl through the window. Then, when Andy is allowed to bring one toy to Pizza Planet, Woody tricks Buzz so he can knock him behind the desk, but accidentally knocks him out the window instead, causing the toys to turn on him. Then, when Andy takes him, Buzz hitches a ride and when the Davis Family makes a stop at the gas station, Buzz comes to Woody and they get into a fight, which leads to them getting lost when the car leaves without them. When this happens, Woody and Buzz act like children, blaming each other for it instead of talking it out. Those are negative qualities for the cowboy, so why should we like him? Well, the film does a great job condemning him for his actions while also having us understand him, we saw his relationship with Andy and see how much they adore each other, he is shown to get along well with his friends, like he plays checkers with Slink and he has a nice and rather naughty relationship with Bo Peep. Plus, while he was possessive about Buzz being on his spot, the bed, he did try to be polite to give him an “Andy’s Room Welcome,” and when he Buzz asked if they had fossil fuels, Woody simply misinterpreted that he needed batteries and told him what kind they have. Like I said before, it was only once Potato Head was making fun of Woody’s pullstring is when he started to get jealous. Plus we can feel for him when Andy starts playing with Buzz more, he sometimes acted like Woody was the villain, he replaced his cowboy things with spaceman things, even his bedspread went from western style to space ranger, he looked sad when Buzz took his spot on the bed at night too. Plus, the window fiasco showed that Woody did at least have standards, he may have been jealous of Buzz, but he wasn’t willing to get rid of him for good, even he knew that was going too far, plus, when his plan backfired he looked really shocked and was horrified when Buzz fell out the window. As the film goes on, he starts to realize the error of his ways, and admits to his jealousy towards Buzz and is the one to tell him how great he is as a toy and why Andy loves him, and he even tells Buzz to go without him, taking full responsibility for his actions. By the end of the movie, Woody had truly grown as a character, he becomes friends with Buzz, he’s willing to share Andy’s love with Buzz, to the point where they become co leaders, which earns the respect of the toys back, and sees that Andy loves them both equally. In the sequels it shows more how Woody has grown, he gets along better with Buzz, and is still loyal to Andy, even when Andy tries to do things with him, like taking him to Cowboy Camp or being chosen to go to college with him, he doesn’t rub it in the others’ faces and for the latter, he was willing to save them from being thrown away and when he later realizes that he can be with Andy even if not physically, he decides to write Andy a note to donate the toys to Bonnie, so they can be played with again and also give Andy the choice to give them away, plus in the fourth film, you see his growth, when Bonnie makes Forky, every time Forky tries to throw himself away, Woody keeps doing everything he can to make sure Forky is in Bonnie’s hands, even if it means he’s not the favourite. Sure, those times he can still have a bit of an ego, but he still cares about his kids and his friends. It’s refreshing to have Woody likable, especially when you realize how awful he could’ve been, if you remember my “Follow Your Heart” story you might remember I mentioned that when Pixar gave into executive meddling, they ended up making Woody too unlikable, he was more of a bully than a flawed but likable character, to the point where Woody intentionally threw Buzz out the window. This lead to the movie nearly being cancelled but thankfully Pixar fixed it and Woody became the lovable character we all know and love today, thank goodness they changed it, if they didn’t there would be no Toy Story or Pixar in general.

Another good example would be Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove, the movie paints him as extremely spoiled, selfish and egotistical, he treats everyone like servants and wanted to take down Pacha’s home to turn it into a waterpark with no second thoughts or remorse about it, and his narration was really self serving. What makes him likable? Well, the filmmakers do a good job making him lovable, they don’t go too overboard, we also can see why he is the way he is, being raised by an evil woman, Yzma who never showed him the one thing he deep down wanted, love, resulting in him being a spoiled brat. Once he turns into a llama, he is still his egotistical self, but as time goes on we see a sweet side slowly but surely, like when Pacha gives him his cloak as a blanket. After he gets into a fight with Pacha when he tries to warn him about Yzma, and then overhears Yzma berating Kronk for failing to have him killed, this is what makes him realize the error of his ways. Even when he narrates that he’s the victim, the real Kuzco calls him out, showing how much he’s changed. It gets better when he finds Pacha, hearing him say that he can still see some good in him, after Kuzco apologizes, he’s touched to see Pacha forgive him and want to help him turn back into a human. This results in a series of comedic gold moments, from Kronk playing jump rope with Pacha’s kids, a comical chase sequence, a call back to one of the funniest jokes, involving a certain lever, funny transformations, Yzma turning into a cat, Pacha and Kuzco climbing the walls together like they did before, Kuzco finally turns back into a human, and a happy ending where Kuzco join’s Pacha’s family getting the true family he needed to be more humble and Kronk teaching the kids and kitty Yzma how to speak squirrel. Seeing Kuzco go from a spoiled ruler, to a humble man is such a nice transition and thanks to David Spade’s voice acting and great writing, they succeeded in making his transformation believable instead of making him too unlikable to be redeemed.

Another one I could think of is Coraline. Usually, she could be hard to like, she can be rude, complain a lot, acting ungrateful towards her parents and would act snippy if her mother wouldn’t let her buy a nice pair of gloves and she can be pretty mean to her neighbour Wybie Lovat, calling him Why-were-you-born, and seemed so eager to leave her real life for the other world. What makes her likable? Well, the film does succeed in helping us understand why she’s acting up, she and her family moved to a new home, so she misses her friends, her parents are too busy, because they’re making a garden catalogue, she’s having trouble adjusting to a new home so suddenly. Plus, she can have contagious emotions, we can feel her curiosity as she explores her new home or the other world, even if we might feel a bit creeped out knowing something isn’t right, also, once she finds out how dark the other world is, we feel her fear, from when the other mother grows tall and skinny, when the other spink and forcible grab her hand when she tries to take the pearl and especially when she has to escape from the spider like beldam, I recommend you cover your eyes for that last one. Plus, once she discovers the dark secret, we see her positive traits, she feels sadness and empathy for the ghost children, when she finds out that the other mother sewed the Other Wybie’s face into a permanent grin and even tried to get him to come with her when he tries to help her escape. Once she discovers her parents have been kidnapped by the other mother, she is determined to save them and the ghost children, she was afraid but she wasn’t going to let her get away with kidnapping them, she was willing to face her for them. After braving the other world and with Wybie helping her stop her, when her hand comes to the other world to kidnap her, she gains a better appreciation for her parents and the life she has and decides to make things more colourful too, when she and her neighbours have a garden party. The filmmakers knew how to make Coraline act like a real child, let’s be honest we as kids could all act bratty and spoiled every now and then, but it keeps her bad qualities from making her unlikable, thanks to Henry Selick’s directing taking inspiration from Neil Gaiman’s novel and Dakota Fanning’s excellent voice acting, she’s a great example of how to make a bratty kid, a lovable and feisty heroine.

One more example I can think of is RJ from one of DreamWorks’ underrated movies, Over The Hedge, the movie’s not a masterpiece but it is decent and I have a lot of nostalgia from it. Unlike another DreamWorks movie from the past that had an unlikable protagonist, plus, it has a "liar revealed" story, this one does a better job. RJ does have bad qualities. He eats his feelings with junk food, he steals food from Vincent the bear, always taking more than he needs to, which is what leads to him accidentally waking him and losing the food, putting his own life in danger. Then, when he has a week to pay off his debt, he comes across from some woodland creatures who are foragers, this gives him the idea to con them into helping him from bribing them with a bag of nacho chips or using emotional manipulation to tug at their heartstrings (think of him as an anti-Flik from A Bug’s Life, both characters recruit a group to help pay a debt but the difference was, Flik simply misunderstood, he thought the circus bugs were warriors and the circus bugs thought he was looking for a show.) These actions lead to them stealing food, which puts them in danger when the Karen President of the homeowner’s association calls an exterminator and it also causes a family rift too. There have been a couple of times he would’ve come clean, but he didn’t. Plus, after he accidentally reveals the truth, he abandons the other animals causing them to get captured. What makes him likable? Well, the folks at DreamWorks did a good job, making him charming, the way he describes how humans love food and how he enchants the animals with the way the world works, even if he’s conning them. Plus the filmmakers made it clear that while it’s true he was being greedy with food, he was initially trying to survive. Plus, as time goes on you see he has grown to care about the animals. Another thing is, he is shown to have a guilty conscience, there’s a scene where he turns on the television and the programs consist of lines about betrayal, including a Dr. Phil segment where he calls someone a dirtbag, this shows RJ feeling guilty for what he’s doing. Plus, when losing the food causes a rift between Verne the turtle and all the other animals, one of which leads to Verne lashing out and calling his friends stupid, which hurts everyone, especially Hammy (showing how sensitive he can be) RJ has his back turned  and clearly feels very guilty for what he’s been doing, especially when Verne says that RJ is using them and Penny defends him, he knows he was right making it sting even more. Once the two talk things out, RJ does come close to telling Verne the truth but even when he gets an idea, he does at least try to help Verne patch things up with his family before the plan. His true growth shows once he finds Vincent to give him the food, he sees that his friends got captured by the exterminator and he feels really awful for that. When he sees how self centered Vincent is, this makes him realize he needs his new found family and uses the food wagon to stop him. Once everything is cleared up, this results in a bit of a tense climax, where Dwayne and Gladys try to kill them on the suburban side and Vincent is attacking them on the forest side, leaving them stuck in the hedge with nowhere to go, at one point RJ orders Verne to get everybody out so he can distract him, willingly trying to sacrifice his life for them, but Verne refuses because he wants everyone safe, luckily things end well when they give Hammy some soda making him go as fast as Sonic, trapping the villains into an illegal animal trap, leading to them getting burned, the humans getting arrested for having an illegal machine and Vincent getting taken away by animal control. This leads to a happy ending where Verne tells RJ that if he had just told them he needed help to pay back Vincent, they would’ve done it anyway, because families help each other, and invites him to join them, which RJ willingly accepts. While it would’ve been interesting to see why he’s all alone, DreamWorks still succeeded in making him likable enough for us to believe his change as a character, especially when they gave him a guilty conscience.

 

Unlikable Protagonists

Now, these are good examples of characters that can have bad qualities and still be likable to the point where we buy their growth and want them to change for the better. However, sometimes that might not always work, there can be times where certain lead characters can be so unlikable that we don’t buy their growth nor care about them whatsoever. Here are some good examples of horrible protagonists.

Since I mentioned Over The Hedge, let’s talk about the protagonist of a pure Over The Hedge rip off, Surly the squirrel from the Nut Job. Oh my gosh, I remember when I saw the trailer, I could already tell it was bad news. Once I saw reviews and I saw some clips, it confirmed my fears, it sucked! Surly is shown to be way too unlikable, he shoves birds and tries to take all the nuts for himself, in his haste to steal from a nut cart, he ends up blowing up a tree, which is the home of many animals and doesn’t show any remorse for it, making a joke about it, causing him to be banished from the forest, we don’t feel sorry for him at all. He even acts mean to his best friend Buddy, (a rat who looks a lot like Remy from Ratatouille). When he finds out about the nut shop, he wants to get them in his own way and hogs them, never really thinking about his friend or the other animals he harmed. Even when he finds out that their leader, Raccoon is double-crossing the animals he still treats Buddy horribly. Once he does have a change of heart and sacrifices himself for the other animals, at this point it’s too late because he spent most of the movie being too selfish and unlikable that we don’t really buy it nor do we care when he survives, he should’ve died.

Another example of an unlikable protagonist is Oscar or Will Smith fish from Shark Tale. If you remember my low point post you might remember I talked about how unlikable he is, here’s a summary of what I said. Oscar is too unlikable, whether he’s rich or poor, from using Angie’s pearl money to bet on a seahorse race instead of paying off his debt, lying to the reef and shoving Angie aside for a gold digger, once he does seemingly change, it’s too late, not once did he show any signs of guilt or anything whenever he did any of those actions, and even then he still acts like an idiot and an incompetent moron, putting Angie’s life in danger and causing Lenny to accidentally reveal himself through his disguise. This makes his rewards, getting the Whale Wash and getting together with Angie so unbelievable and unearned, he should’ve been doing time for fraud.

Another good example I can think of an unlikable protagonist would be EB from Illumination’s Hop. When we first meet him, we could sympathize with him, he’s next in line to be the new Easter Bunny but he doesn’t want to be one, he wants to be a drummer, he has an argument with his dad and then he decides to run away to Hollywood. Once he comes across Fred, a man who’s looking for a job and is in charge of house sitting his sister’s boss’s house, he starts making a nuisance of himself, from guilting him into letting him stay, making a mess in a bedroom upstairs, overflowing the jacuzzi, risking Fred getting in trouble with his sister and her boss. When he tries to hide from the Pink Berets, he causes trouble for Fred, from ruining his interview, upstaging his adopted sister’s Easter play leading to his father being disappointed in him and fakes his death causing Fred to take the fall, and yet we’re supposed to like him? Sure, he does help Fred train to be an Easter Bunny but that’s before he indirectly gets him in trouble with the pink berets. And him accepting his Easter Bunny responsibilities seems forced, like he’s giving up his dream, on the other hand he said, he would still drum since the Easter Bunny only delivers once a year, but still. They probably should’ve given Carlos the job, since chicks seem like an ideal Easter icon than a bunny, though it’s still cute having a rabbit do it. EB is so unlikable, whiny and selfish that I just wish Elmer Fudd would dispose of him, heck even in the movie, Fred threatens EB that if he screw up, it will be rabbit season. Thankfully, one year later, DreamWorks gave us a really awesome and badass Easter Bunny, Bunnymund or Bunny from my favourite DreamWorks movie, Rise Of The Guardians, he was tough but also sweet and cool and made a lot of us see that he does more than deliver eggs and candy, but he also gives everyone hope, plus he’s also kind of hot too, helps that he’s voiced by my darling Hugh, I love you Bunny, continue to give us hope!

Okay, technically I’m cheating on this one, because this character is actually the deuteragonist but he does become a protagonist in one of the crappy sequels, so I think it’s fair to talk about this one. That character would be none other than, Elliot from Open Season. As a child, I felt bad for him getting hit by a truck and losing his antler in the process. I also remember loving this movie, my dad took me to see it, my family and I would call each other “six-toed gun monkeys,” I remember watching it at my friends cottage when it was raining, I even remember one time my family and I did shadow puppets, my dad did a deer and then he did an Elliot by having only one antler. However, as I got older, i realized this movie isn't very good, though I will say, it’s definitely better than a certain animated movie Sony Pictures Animation released 11 years later, I think we all know what it is. One of the reasons my love for this movie deteriorated was because of Elliot, I had grown to despise this character, he’s basically Donkey from Shrek but not funny and more annoying. At first we might feel bad for him, getting hit by a truck and he’s possibly dead, however, once Boog wakes him from his coma, and he starts talking, that’s when all sympathy is thrown out the window. When he goes around bawling about looking hideous due to having one antler, we feel exactly like Boog, extremely annoyed, once the latter does free him, and calls him “little buddy” Elliot uses that to make Boog be his friend, he messes around Boog’s garage home, he bribes him to go outside with him with a chocolate bar, when they both raid and trash a convenience store, Elliot abandons Boog and gets him to take the fall when the sheriff Gordy comes, he invades during Boog’s show, (leading to an admittedly funny gag where Boog fights with Elliot while the silhouettes on the curtains make it look like Boog is killing him, scaring the audience) which is what got him kicked out of his home. Even worse, once they do end up in the woods, Elliot offers to show Boog how to get back to town, but even then, he’s still terrible, when Boog is struggling to climb a rock, and he asks for help, he doesn’t even notice and corrects him by calling him by his nickname, dude your buddy is struggling and you don’t care! Once Boog realizes Elliot had lied and after they survive a flood, Boog decides to go off alone and leave Elliot and the rest of the animals in the hunting grounds (they got there from the flood) serves most of them right for teasing them, and Elliot deserves it. Yet, we’re supposed to like him, just because he got hit by a car, yeah, thanks but no thanks! Boog however has a strange change of heart and decides to bring Elliot home, even though Elliot is the one that should apologize. This leads to an admittedly clever climax where the animals fight against the hunters and a final boss with Shaw, which has Elliot sacrificing himself, but at this point it’s too late, he hasn’t done enough to show he is a good friend. This is why I’m not really happy when Boog decides to give up his domestic life and stay in the woods, these animals treated him terribly, he’s better off away from them or in a different part of the woods. Elliot does get worse, he is the protagonist of the second movie, he boasts about his new antlers (which end up breaking) and he finds that losing them meaning he can’t be manly for a relationship, as he’s set to marry Giselle the doe, and he acts like a childish man, he uses looking for Mr. Weenie as an excuse for running from the alter, when Giselle asks him what’s bothering him he doesn’t even bother telling her, he undermines her plans to save Mr. Weenie and treats her like she’s his mother rather than his wife, which is just stupid, at this point Giselle should’ve dumped him and stayed with Ian. Once Elliot does realize how much he needs Giselle, it’s honestly too late, it even involves him horribly singing to her, makes me want to wear ear plugs. He gets worse in the other sequels, in the third movie, he lies to Boog about being able to go with him on a trip, when he agreed to look after his kids, two weeks before he told Boog, and he had the nerve to tell Boog to apologize, yes Boog should’ve been understanding but it would’ve worked if it was a last minute thing or an emergency, but no, Elliot knew about this for two weeks and didn’t say anything. Then in Scared Silly, he agrees to help Boog overcome his fears, only because he wants to go on his precious camping trips not because he cares about his friend, and he even eats squirrel poop, gross! I can’t believe I used to like this character, I wish Shaw had killed him, he deserved to die. He deserved to be kicked out of the herd and be called Smelliot by Ian. Let’s be honest, the movies could’ve been better without him, it would’ve saved our ears from bleeding.

Conclusion

It can be tricky to have protagonists that habe negative traits but can still be likable, however with good writing, it can work to the point where when they learn their lessons and change their ways, it feels believable, with bad writing however, it can make the changes feel unbelievable and can mess up the movie. I hope you enjoyed my story and hopefully these examples can help anyone know what to do to make “unlikable” characters likeable.

Do you know any other protagonists that have negative traits but are still likable, or those that are poorly written? Feel free to answer.

Before I go, here’s a shout out to this Ted Talk that can tell you more about it. Make sure you have tissues near the end.

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story | TED Talk