>>149225896Megamind fits in the comparison on why Shrek succeeded where Ruby Gillman failed.
It'd risk being hackish to have Metro Man be evil (the same way it would've been hackish to have Fix It Felix Jr. be evil) because when you have "evil = misunderstood" meaning "good = pure evil", you're not creating nuance.
You're simply replacing one binary with another but having the gall to pretend you're smarter than you really are.
A series like Shrek has the hideous ogre as the hero and Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother as the villains but the subversion isn't entirely universal (even with how dumb Shrek The Third's ending was)
Shrek's allies mostly consist of traditional fairy tale protagonists