In any case, movies don't cut it in this discussion because movies have actors playing the protagonists. If you really don't like an actor, then you won't be likely to enjoy a movie which stars that actor anyway, and if you do like the actor, then there is something likeable about the protagonist, even if it is only the actor playing that character.

So with a movie this question is a Catch-22. If you liked the movie, then it is almost certain that you liked the performances of the actors playing the main characters. Therefore, the protagonist was likeable in some very important respects.

I might have mentioned this before, but that is one of the key differences between movies and books. In a movie, you can simply cast an attractive actor to play the character, and the audience will feel a great deal of personal connection to that character. Such is a matter of human instinct. In a book, you simply do not have this option, and attempting to do it by lame tricks like describing the physical attributes of a character will only make the reader sneer.

Note the recent hit movie Napoleon Dynamite. Even though the character is an unpopular...something or other; the actor playing the character is tall, physically coordinated, and has a good voice and a face without serious defects.

Could the movie have worked if the actor had been as unattractive as the character is supposed to be?

To be sure, part of the themeatic appeal of the movie is the idea of "a diamond in the rough", the hidden potential that nobody else is seeing. Casting a guy who is fairly attractive and having him act less attractive lets the audience "see through" the surface whateverness of the character to the underlying whateverness. It's an important part of the movie's appeal, that ordinary humans can sit there and see that there is more to this guy than the other characters are seeing in him.

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If you really don't like an actor, then you won't be likely to enjoy a movie which stars that actor anyway, and if you do like the actor, then there is something likeable about the protagonist, even if it is only the actor playing that character.

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That's not always true. The best example for me would probably be Gangs of New York. Ever since Titanic I hated DiCaprio. I couldn't stand him. But he was great in Gangs, and the role was such that I got over the fact that I hated him. Then comes the Aviator to do it again. (maybe it's just Scorsese. I dunno.)