The first game was pretty clunky and just like you I found the whole concept weird as hell. Like seriously, why does a dragon with wings need to hop from platform to platform? Why doesn't he just fly across? On top of that, Spyro design looks pretty goofy and his persona is bizarre to say the least (not in a good way either, more like annoying)
I remember that game and I once had a demo of it - I don't think I even played for 1 minute before switching to something else so I can't confirm how good or bad the game is.