DreamWorks has brought us some of the best cartoon feature-length films from the past 20 years, with movies that shaped our childhoods ranging from Shrek to Kung Fu Panda. Drawing in an audience of all ages from little kids to their parents, DreamWorks movies were always a little more than your average kid's movie, putting smiles on the whole family's face. With all those eyes watching, it was unavoidable that a few fans would catch some plot holes. Where there are plot holes, there's also an internet full of theories as to why they are there. Some are so good that they are accepted as canon to those who know them, and sometimes they hit the nail on the head and the creators to come out and confirm them. These are far and few between and you have to go through a mountain of random and confusing theories to find the hidden gems.

Now, not all legitimate fan theories get recognized by the creators, most of them go unnoticed and brushed under the rug. Creators neither confirm nor deny any of them and eventually, they are washed away by the tides of the internet. Luckily, the few that make the most sense are usually the few that survive. These give you a little bridge to connect the storylines and confirm some things that everyone already suspected. For years people have had that one point in a movie that has annoyed you, and now we have the scratch to your itch.

20 A Mysterious Past

Shrek was one of the hit movies of the past 20 years, and it came with one of the best characters that DreamWorks has given us in Donkey. Everyone loves his quick-witted lines, but do we really know anything about him? He's a random talking donkey that we meet out of the blue after being rounded up by Lord Farquaad's goons. Luckily, someone gave us this theory with some pretty solid backing.

Pinocchio was once taken to Pleasure Island, an island badly-behaved boys would be sent to live with no rules.

They were turned into donkeys and sold back to the mainland. Except for the talking donkeys that were kept on Pleasure Island and that is when Donkey comes into the picture. Everyone seemed shocked to see a talking donkey in the first place so we can guess they are not walking around on a daily basis.

19 The Peaceful Warrior

It was made pretty clear at the beginning of Kung Fu Panda 3 that Kai used to be pretty close with our wise old tortoise, best friends even. With Kai walking many miles and spending days to save Oogway. From here, everyone assumes that Kai turned evil in his quest for power, forcing Oogway's hand and ending up with him being forced into the spirit realm.

When they were young, Kai and Oogway weren't the peaceful types and before he was injured, he said he was an ambitious young warrior at the head of an army. Hardly the monk-like tortoise we knew from the first movie! It was actually Oogway who changed during their visit to the panda village as they showed him a new way to live and to use his powers for good instead of always looking for power.

18 The Skin Of A Legend

Here we have the evil dragon hunter Drago, who used domination as a tool to control pretty much anyone and everything that he came across, including dragons. He wore a black cape that had a shocking resemblance to Toothless's skin. It wouldn't be a big stretch of character for him to have a dragon skin wrapped around him.

He seems pretty attached to it the entire movie which means he must be proud of it for some reason. It would also explain the whole "nobody has ever seen a Night Fury" thing. If Drago is trophy hunting the rarest and most dangerous dragon of all, then why would you? His aim to be seen as the strongest won't stop at just fear, he needs to own everything he wants and show off his power.

17 Someone's Got Daddy Issues

This is Eugene, Francis's right-hand man in baby corp. Again, small hints were dropped throughout the entire movie. Starting with his promise to "raise him right this time," supposedly he's an adopted brother to the child but Eugene and Francis hold a big age gap between them, more of a gap than your average brotherly relationship.

The more likely story is that Eugene just had a kid younger than most, this is backed up even further by the fact that the kid's entire name is Francis E Francis. The middle initial happens to be E, which probably stands for Eugene. Now, even though Francis is on a whole other level of intelligence compared to Eugene, clearly he didn't get his brains from his father.

16 The Ageless Alien

As an alien anti-hero, we really don't know much about Megamind throughout the movie besides his genius-level brain power. That was pretty obvious due to the watermelon-size head he's sporting. When he's locked up in prison, the guard tells him that he will be late by "several thousand years," This is usually a throwaway line that is often said as an exaggeration.

The facility also has samples and tests that they did on Megamind (you see the scans next to his cell). While we know he's not Wolverine-style immortal and can be taken out physically, age doesn't seem to effect Megamind the same way that it affects the rest of us, and why would it? He's a different species.

15 Horses Of Many Shades

Throughout this wholesome movie, we see horses of all colors galloping around and doing their own jobs. The key difference is that the colours of the free horses are bright vibrant colours that match their personalities, while all the working horses are a dull, either grey or brown.

While it might be some mundane outlook on the your average 9-5'er, there is another explanation.

Working horses are bred specifically and are bred from the same horses, usually creating a uniform-like pattern and color through the working class horses. While this is true in real life, it was clearly an artistic choice by the creator to show the broken spirits of those horses in comparison to the individual and wild horses.

14 The Medusa Serum

This odd-looking octopus is seeking his slippery revenge on the penguins for taking him out of the spotlight and into the cruel world of being a regular old zoo animal. He has a potion called the medusa serum that mutates the affected animal into being a dumber and uglier version of themselves.

Now, Dave is a genius level scientist so him being affected would be like taking some IQ points off of Stephen Hawking. In other words, I doubt you'd notice. They would still be much smarter than you. He looks different than all the other octopuses in the movie, then he gets blasted by the cute ray and becomes a tiny little squid. It took a lot to turn that creature into something nice but they pulled it off.

13 The Forgotten Dragon

One of the best moments in the Shrek movies is when they turn themselves into a handsome man and his steed after taking the Happily Ever After potion. The potion that changes you and your true love into a far more beautiful version of yourself, also starting the timer to midnight when you have to kiss your love to make the changes permanent.

We followed Shrek and Fiona of course but what about Donkey's true love?

If Donkey turned into a stallion then what did Dragon change into? Directors said that they made her a Pegasus at one point but then decided against showing it to keep the attention on the plot. A big let down for viewers when they heard this because Dragon was impressive enough but who doesn't like a Pegasus?

12 The Long Lost Brother

Aaron knew that he had once had a brother that was no longer with them. He was far too young to remember his mother sending his brother down the river, and had no clue what actually happened, leading him to assume the worst. His parents would tell him the elaborate story of how he grew up in the Pharoh's palace, but it all sounds a little far-fetched to anybody listening.

We all know our parents beat around the bush when trying to tell us something terrible. It makes it all the more surprising when he finally appears. Knowing he wasn't taken by the Egyptian soldiers but that he actually lived the far-fetched story was a big shock to him, besides the fact that he's seeing his brother for the first time in years.

11 What Goes Up Must Come Down

While Susan is stuck being 49 foot 11 inches, she has shown some pretty solid evidence that she can change, whether it be a little or a lot. Even if it only is a little, that opens the door to learning how to control it. When Susan was being experimented on by Dr. Cockroach she seemingly grew a few inches and that tore the electrodes from her head.

Also, the wedding scene when she initially grows to her massive height happens right before they are about to say their "I dos." Whether it's conscious or not is the question, but its clear that her body has some control of when to grow, and what goes up must come down, meaning she should be able to shrink as well.

10 Evolution Of Man

Here we have The Croods, a family of cavemen that live in an uncivilized time. In this world, Humans aren't around yet, or are they? The character Guy comes in, walking all upright and with a little more smarts than the rest of them, enter homo sapiens. He has the smart ideas and a space between his eyebrows.

If this is in our universe then it plays nicely too because science tells us that Cavemen and humans lived side by side before the wipeout of the less evolved species. It's not all doom and gloom for our caveman family though, as they now have a human on their side to figure all the technicalities out for them. They've created a kind of prehistoric Avengers here that might let them make it through.

9 Straight Jacket Or Genius?

While King Julien is widely considered the craziest character in Madagascar, it is mostly because of his eccentric personality and odd tendencies. Julien has actually had some fairly ingenious plans over the years we've known him. Tricking the gang into scaring away the Foosa problem they already had was the only way they would have solved that issue for a long time.

If you think about it he's not some huge hulking Lemur that everyone is scared of, and he definitely isn't some fighter that can't be beaten.

He's the leader because he comes up with some pretty great ideas that have saved the lemurs from a lot of tough situations. Maybe smart isn't quite the right word but he's definitely had some ingenious moments throughout the movies.

8 Bibo The God

The armadillo that Tulio and Miguel save on their way to El Dorado was shown to be helpful. When you take a closer look, though, there were some skeptical powers that no normal armadillo would have. He uses them to protect the pair from being found out at every turn. When they were playing the ball game he seemed to be pretty good at flying around the place for no reason. This saves them from being exposed as regular humans.

Then, when the volcano was about to explode, he is seen dancing around and when he stops the volcano stops itself from erupting. Coincidence? I think not. The creators have said that it was an alternate ending for them to reveal the armadillo as a god, a guardian angel for the guys to help them bring about change to El Dorado.

7 An Old Flame

During the movie we see Megamind kidnap Roxanne over and over again. The surface layer reason is to use her as bait, forcing his nemesis Metro Man to come and save her. However, his fish Minion suggests that Megamind only takes her regularly because seeing her always cheers him up. He also gets a little jealous when she's talking about Metro Man, as it's rumored that the two are in a relationship.

Clear to anyone who's been in the same position, he has had a crush on her long before the movie starts. Its an odd way to go about trying to get a lady but if its working for him then the old adage applies "if it ain't broke don't fix it.'' It seems to have worked out in the end.

6 Better Off Alone

Shrek is actually a loner that is rejected by the rest of the Ogre community he is from. He didn't like the way the other ogres did things and the other Ogres shunned him and forced him out of the social groups. This was after he stopped joining in on their attacks on villages and towns. Sadly, he couldn't join the human villages because everyone was running him out with pitchforks.

This slowly made him more and more isolated, bitter, and a loner.

We all know where he ended up, the swamp where he now hides from the world after being shut down so many times. We see Shrek at the lowest point, alone in his house, fending off everyone that gets close to him.

5 Tai Lung's Greatest Enemy

Maybe the most hated Peacock in all of movie history is Lord Shen, the villain that wiped out our loveable Panda's family home. Shen had received a prophecy that "he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white" that led him to take out the Panda's home. We also know another warrior of black and white that we met in the first movie, Tai Lung the snow leopard.

Someone left him on the doorstep of Master Shifu's palace when he was a baby. When Lord Shen was wiping out animals that matched the description it's guaranteed that he would be taking out snow leopards as well, especially if Tai Lung was an example of how good their warriors could be. Shen orphaned Tai Lung and lead him to Master Shifu and his eventual destiny.

4 When The Moon Created The Frost

Jack Frost became the newest member of the guardians by choice of The Man in the Moon, who is the original guardian, the observer. He created Jack because he knew that Pitch was coming back, giving Jack the immunity to the effect it has on the other guardians when the children don't believe in them. It doesn't weaken him, which means that Pitch cannot affect him in the same way as the other guardians. Even if it did have a big effect on him, it would be a pretty big task to convince someone that he doesn't exist.

Apart from belief, Jack also has a whole different approach to interacting with people. While the other guardians just stand back and don't give the kids too much to go on, Jack is there talking to them.

3 Toothless The Invader

While the Night Fury is a legendary dragon in Berk and well-known by all the Vikings, we have only ever seen one in all the movies. In fact, no one has ever seen one in Berk besides Toothless. T, this could be due to their dark color and them only coming out at night. It's clear they are far and few between in Hiccup's small town.

This is because they are from a place outside of Berk, in a land far away. The occasional drifter flies into the area and then the legends began to spread like wildfire. The Vikings of Berk have no information on Night Furies other than what they have learned from some shady drawings and Toothless, suggesting that he's the only one around.

2 Which One Of These Things Doesn't Belong?

While Tai Lung and Tigress were fighting on the other side of the battlefield in the first film, there are some striking similarities between the two. Tigress was left in an orphanage while Tai Lung was left on the steps of Master Shifu's palace. Both were abandoned by their parents and they know each other from having grown up for at least a short time together at the palace.

They were both raised with the same mindset of being the best warrior in the place and believing themselves to be the Dragon Warrior before Po claimed the title. While the previous theory of Lord Shen wiping out Tai Lung's family was brought up, maybe the families went through the same terrible event. As much as they are on different sides of the story, they're obviously connected in some way.

1 Blank Scroll, Fake Title

With everyone fighting for power in the world of Kung Fu Panda, at least from almost every story we've been told from Master Shifu and Oogways past, it seems that some order was needed to bring the conflict down a few notches. People were constantly battling for the top spot and leaving a trail of unrest and destruction in their wake.

Oogway had to come up with a way to calm the battles and give some order to the land.

So he made the Dragon Warrior title, stating they are the most powerful warrior in the land. This did create some other troubles. It gave the people a protector to rely on and showed other fighters a goal instead of a street brawl to the top. This explains why the dragon scroll is blank, you give yourself the power and there was never power to give.