Movie Kids You Don't Want To Mess With

17 October 2014

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael are back as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles returns to the big screen this Autumn.

They may be adolescent reptiles but these heroes in a half shell sure know how to beat a bad guy. To celebrate the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on October 17th, we take a look at film’s toughest minors...

- Kevin McAllister - Home Alone (1990)

You’ve got to feel sorry for Kevin McAllister. He’s got pretty rubbish parents (who remembers to lock the garage but forgets to bring their 8-year-old son with them when they’re flying across the world for Christmas?

Surely social services should be all over that?) and to make matters worse, a pair of darstardly burglers begin terrorising his house. Any other child would crumble under that kind of emotional turmoil, but not Kevin.

This savvy young’un sets a maze of ingenious (and slightly twisted) traps to thwart bumbling bad guys Harry and Marv and protect his home.

- Daniel LaRusso - The Karate Kid (1984)

Daniel LaRusso is not even 1% bad-ass at the beginning of 1984 family favourite The Karate Kid. The new kid in town, he is soon picked on and beaten up by a gang of local bullies, who study martial arts at the Cobra Kai dojo.

Luckily for Daniel, caretaker Mr Miyagi takes him under his wing and teaches him the art of Karate.

Miyagi’s unusual teaching techniques - most notably asking him to paint his fence and wax his car - initially frustrate Daniel but he soon realises that the skills his mentor is teaching him are much more valuable than he thought.

By the end of the movie, Daniel LaRusso is one teenager you would not want to mess with.

- Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games (2012)

As you can imagine in a film which sees 24 children thrown into an arena and forced to fight to the death, there are actually several characters from the Hunger Games franchise who could feature on this list, but we’re going to be all predictable and celebrate ‘The Girl on Fire’, Katniss Everdeen.

Not only had Katniss been hunting and providing for her family since the death of her father, she also made the ultimate sacrifice but volunteering in the Hunger Games in place of her younger sister Prim.

In the arena, she showed off her impressive bow and survival skills and even pulled off a plan to thwart the Capitol’s games.

- Carmen & Juni Cortez - Spy Kids (2001)

It’s usually the parents who protect their children from any scraped knees or potential kidnappers, but in 2001’s Spy Kids the tables are turned when Carmen and Juni Cortez must save their Mum and Dad from the clutches of evil children’s TV host Fegan Floop.

When retired spies Mr and Mrs Cortez are kidnapped by Floop’s minions, Carmen and Juni find out the truth about their parents’ former profession and follow in their footsteps, becoming spies themselves and kicking some baddie butt.

- Dash & Violet - The Incredibles (2004)

From one pair of super tough siblings to another, Dash and Violet Parr are next up in our list of kick-ass kids.

As his name suggests, Dash possesses super-speed, while Violet is able to project powerful protective force-fields.

After suppressing their powers for years, the Parr family finally comes out of retirement to protect the world from evil villain Syndrome.

When the brother and sister team up to make the most of their individual strengths they become a junior duo to be reckoned with.

- Hit-Girl - Kick-Ass (2010)

She is perhaps the most foul-mouthed movie child in existence, but she is also one of the most lethal. Schoolgirl Mindy McCready lives with her dad Damon in New York, but she is no ordinary 11-year-old - she’s masked superhero Hit-Girl.

While most girls her age would ask for a puppy or a doll for their birthdays, Mindy would much rather celebrate getting one-year-older with a lethal butterfly knife.

Trained to kill from a young age, Mindy and Damon (aka Big Daddy) form a deadly team, and it’s safe to say that Hit-Girl is not a child you would want to get on the wrong side of.