The Most Overqualified Kids' Movie Villains

In The Witches, a boy travels with his grandmother to a lovely vacation along the coast. While there, the young man uncovers a large gathering of witches intent on turning the world's children into mice. He's discovered and is transformed, forcing him to fight against the witches with his grandmother's help. The witches are led by a terrifying Grand High Witch, played by Angelica Huston.

While the film has notable stars, including Rowan Atkinson, Huston is easily the biggest name in the movie, and she won several awards for her performance. She is frightening and brilliant in her portrayal, which sees her transform into a grotesque mouse at the film's climax. While The Witches isn't the most popular adaptation of Roald Dahl's work, it's one of the best and deserves more attention due to its cast, effects, and story.

101 Dalmations is one of Disney's earliest attempts at transforming one of its classic animated films into live-action, and it is done remarkably well. Unlike the animated movie, the dogs don't speak, making the people the true characters in the film. Right at the center of everything is, of course, Cruella de Vil, played by Glenn Close.

Close steals the show as de Vil, turning in one of the most indelible performances of her career. Now, Close has played some seriously exceptional villains in the past, such as Fatal Attraction's Alex Forrest. While that role was excellent, there's so much more to de Vil that made 101 Dalmations a genuinely worthy adaptation.

Interestingly, when Disney rebooted the character for 2021's Cruella, starring Emma Stone, Close came on as an executive producer, so she clearly has continued love for the character.

Holes is an interesting film in that it involves incarcerated children in a Texas work camp, where they have to dig holes. These aren't just any holes; they must be a specific diameter and depth. While the children don't know why they're digging throughout the day, it's later revealed they are being tasked to find a treasure thought to be in the area. The film's primary villain is the camp's overseer, Warden Louise Walker.

Sigourney Weaver plays Walker, and she's joined by an exceptional cast that includes Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, and Shia LaBeouf. While Weaver is known for playing many incredible roles, she's not often cast as the villain. Despite this, she is fantastic in the part, and you really want to push her into one of those holes and throw the dirt on top of her for how she handles the children. She's mean, bitter, and relentless – all the things a great villain should be.

In Home Alone, young Kevin McCallister is left… well, alone when his family travels to Paris for Christmas vacation. Kevin manages to take care of himself pretty well for a kid. Unfortunately, a couple of burglars plan on hitting Kevin's street, with his house number one on their to-do list. He manages to keep them at bay until Christmas and sets up various traps throughout the house to injure and deter them until the police arrive.

Home Alone quickly became a holiday classic that's played every year in many households around the world. It was also the highest-grossing action comedy when it was released and one of the most profitable children's movies ever. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern play the bad guys. While Stern was no stranger to the genre, Pesci was far better known for working with Martin Scorsese than anything else. His inclusion was strange, but the man is a master of comedic timing, making his performance as Harry one to remember.

The Sandlot is one of those coming-of-age movies you can't help but love. It's about a group of baseball-loving kids in the summer of 1962 who go on various adventures and enjoy playing ball at the sandlot. When one of the kids borrows a ball signed by Babe Ruth from his stepfather, and it gets hit over a fence into Mr. Mertle's yard, they struggle to free it from “The Beast,” which is the name they gave to his dog.

Mr. Mertle turns out to be a lovely man who played baseball and was a personal friend of Ruth's. He trades the children for one of his signed balls and asks them to visit him weekly to talk about baseball. The film features a lot of new actors, thanks to the large cast of children, but at the very top of the pile is James Earl Jones, playing Mr. Mertle. It's surprising to see such a high-profile actor in a random kids' movie, but he lent his gravitas to the film helping it achieve the status of a cult classic.

In Big Fat Liar, Frankie Muniz stars as Jason Shepherd, a 14-year-old with a penchant for lying about anything and everything. He even tries to lie his way out of a creative writing assignment and is forced to churn out a paper in just a few hours. He puts together a story called “Big Fat Liar,” but he's hit by a limousine carrying a Hollywood writer/producer before he can turn in his work. The jerk who hit him, Marty Wolf, who is also a compulsive liar, steals Jason's script to produce it as his own story.

Paul Giamatti plays Marty Wolf, and seeing as the film came out in 2002, the man was at the top of his game. At that point in his career, he'd already been in Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show, My Best Friend's Wedding, and much more. It was odd for someone like Giamatti to play the role of a villain in a kids' movie, but he did it with ease… and even had his skin dyed blue for the part! Still, the film wasn't a massive hit, but many recall it for Giamatti's performance, which was masterfully well done.