# The 17 Greatest Child Characters in Movie History

> Kids who carried whole films: a few won Oscars, a few were possessed, and at least one set traps for burglars.

*By YPB Team · Published October 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-17-greatest-child-characters-in-movie-history*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Kevin McCallister** — score 1000/1000
   Macaulay Culkin's eight-year-old who defends the family home from burglars in Home Alone (1990).
2. **Regan MacNeil** — score 814/1000
   Linda Blair's possessed 12-year-old in The Exorcist (1973).
3. **Matilda Wormwood** — score 642/1000
   Mara Wilson's book-loving, telekinetic girl in Danny DeVito's Matilda (1996).
4. **Mikey Walsh** — score 597/1000
   Sean Astin's asthmatic treasure-hunt leader in The Goonies (1985).
5. **Chihiro Ogino** — score 553/1000
   The 10-year-old heroine of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001).
6. **Wednesday Addams** — score 546/1000
   Christina Ricci's deadpan, poison-loving girl in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).
7. **Cole Sear** — score 546/1000
   Haley Joel Osment's boy who sees dead people in The Sixth Sense (1999).
8. **Carol Anne Freeling** — score 423/1000
   Heather O'Rourke's 'They're here' girl in Poltergeist (1982).
9. **Moonee** — score 423/1000
   Brooklynn Prince's six-year-old running wild around an Orlando motel in The Florida Project (2017).
10. **Hushpuppy** — score 423/1000
   Quvenzhané Wallis's six-year-old in the bayou of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
11. **Jojo Betzler** — score 349/1000
   Roman Griffin Davis's ten-year-old Hitler Youth recruit in Jojo Rabbit (2019).
12. **Scout Finch** — score 349/1000
   Mary Badham's narrator-tomboy in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
13. **Addie Loggins** — score 263/1000
   Tatum O'Neal's Oscar-winning con-artist kid in Paper Moon (1973).
14. **Elliott** — score 163/1000
   Henry Thomas's lonely boy who hides an alien in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
15. **Mathilda Lando** — score 163/1000
   Natalie Portman's 12-year-old apprentice to a hitman in Léon: The Professional (1994).
16. **Hit-Girl** — score 163/1000
   Chloë Grace Moretz's foul-mouthed 11-year-old vigilante in Kick-Ass (2010).
17. **Dorothy Gale** — score 163/1000
   Judy Garland's Kansas farm girl swept to Oz in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Tags: movies, children, characters, child actors