movie review of matilda

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Roald Dahl was by all accounts a singularly unpleasant person, which may explain why he wrote stories that are so fascinating to children. He nursed the grudges of childhood, he distrusted adults, and he was unmoved by false sentimentality. Kids may not feel cuddled by his books, but they sense Dahl is the real thing: He's writing out of strong emotion, and not just to be cute. Consider the character of Trunchbull, in the darkly comic new film “Matilda.” Trunchbull must be a woman, because she is someone's aunt, but she is never called “Miss”--and we see at once that “Mrs.” would be out of the question. She was a champion shot-putter and hammer-thrower in the 1972 Olympics, we learn, before moving on to her current career as the school principal and dominatrix at Crunchem Hall, a fearsome grade school with the motto: “When you are having fun, you are not learning.” To this school comes the heroine of the story, Matilda Wormwood ( Mara Wilson ), a very, very smart little girl whose parents neglect her when they are not insulting her. Matilda, left at home alone all day, has taught herself to read and walked to the library, where by the time she is 6 she has read not only “Heidi” and “Ivanhoe,” but also “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Moby Dick.” When she tells her parents ( Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman ) she's old enough to go to school, her dad replies: “Nonsense! Who would sign for the packages?” But when he meets the redoubtable Trunchbull he announces that he has at last found the right school for Matilda. Trunchbull, played by Pam Ferris with great zest and well-hidden but genuine humor, is not a nice person. “Sit down, you squirming worm of vomit!” she says to the hapless Matilda at one point, and later calls her “You villainous sack of dog slime!” When a cute little blond girl dares to wearer hair in pigtails, Trunchbull seizes the child by the pigtails, swings her around and hurls her through the air like a hammer in the Olympics--and of course the movie does not neglect to show the girl narrowly miss a spike fence before landing safely in a flower bed. Trunchbull is the kind of villainess children can enjoy, because she is too ridiculous to be taken seriously and yet really is mean and evil, like the witch in “Snow White.” And since most children have at one time or another felt that their parents are not nice enough to them, they may also enjoy the portrait of Matilda's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood and their older son spend all of their time gobbling food and watching television, and when Matilda says she would rather read, her incredulous father cries, “Read? What do you want to read for when you got a perfectly good TV set right here?” Crunchem Hall is a school that would have appalled Dickens. Children are punished by solitary confinement in a steamy closet with nails sticking through the walls. But redemption comes in the person of a saintly teacher, Miss Honey ( Embeth Davidtz ), who is amazed when little Matilda does difficult math problems in her head, and eventually becomes her guardian and best friend. “Matilda” is not in any sense a “children's movie,” although older children will probably like it a lot. It is a dark family comedy about stupid parents, cruel teachers and a brave little girl, and it is no surprise to find that Danny DeVito not only stars but directed it. Consider that his previous directing credits include “Throw Momma From the Train” and “ The War of the Roses ,” and you sense that he has some kind of deep mordant fascination for dysfunctional families (the family life in his “ Hoffa ” was not exactly functional, either).

There is never a moment (except toward the happy ending) that we sense DeVito is anything other than quite serious about this material. He goes with Dahl’s macabre vision. Whatever it was that hurt Dahl so deeply, he never forgave it, and his children's stories (like “James and the Giant Peach” and “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ”) are driven by it. DeVito seems to vibrate on the same wavelength. “Matilda” doesn't condescend to children, it doesn’t sentimentalize, and as a result it feels heartfelt and sincere. It's funny, too.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Matilda (1996)

Rated PG For Elements Of Exaggerated Meanness and Ridicule, and For Some Mild Language

100 minutes

Rhea Perlman as Mrs. Wormwood

Danny DeVito as Mr. Wormwood

Pam Ferris as Trunchbul

Embeth Davidtz as Miss Honey

Mara Wilson as Matilda

Directed by

• Danny DeVito
• Nicholas Kazan
• Robin Swicord

Based On The Book by

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DeVito does Dahl in "Matilda," a delightfully twisted fairy tale that artfully juggles broad tomfoolery and sly drollery, along with a generous serving of sight gags enhanced by special effects. Even though it's being pitched primarily at younger moviegoers and their parents, pic is exuberantly quirky enough to please almost anyone.

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DeVito does Dahl in “Matilda,” a delightfully twisted fairy tale that artfully juggles broad tomfoolery and sly drollery, along with a generous serving of sight gags enhanced by special effects. Even though it’s being pitched primarily at younger moviegoers and their parents, pic is exuberantly quirky enough to please almost anyone. Indeed, “Matilda” has definite sleeper potential, and could very well outgross many more highly publicized and star-studded summer releases. Ancillary prospects are even brighter.

Director and co-producer Danny DeVito has remained faithful to the subversive spirit of the late Roald Dahl’s popular children’s novel about a little girl who uses her formidable intelligence — and her telekinetic powers — to triumph over stupid and/or sinister adults. There has been very little effortto homogenize the edgy source material.

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The title heroine, played with impressive self-assurance by Mara Wilson (“Miracle on 34th Street”), is an extraordinarily bright child who has had to fend for herself practically since birth. Neither her larcenous car-dealer father, Harry (DeVito), nor her crassly self-absorbed mother, Zinnia (Rhea Perlman), has any time for Matilda. And things only get worse when Matilda is enrolled at the hellacious Crunchem Hall, an oppressively bleak school operated by the fearsome Agatha Trunchbull (Pam Ferris).

DeVito and screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord have transported Dahl’s story from England to California, no doubt hoping to make it more “accessible” to U.S. moviegoers. (A few bits of slangy dialogue from Dahl’s original — “You lying little earwig!” — sound jarring in this Americanized context.) Fortunately, the filmmakers have preserved enough of the novel’s mischievous wit and straight-faced absurdism so that the change of setting has relatively little effect.

Right from the start, DeVito and his collaborators hit the right note of comic exaggeration, so that audiences will not be unduly upset by a comedy that, on a very basic level, is a story of child neglect. Matilda is smart enough to start cooking her own meals while still a toddler. By the age of 3, she is reading newspapers and magazines. In no time at all, she is devouring Dickens, Melville and other great authors while her parents and older brother (Brian Levinson) are glued to their TV.

Trouble is, none of this impresses her parents. The one time Matilda works up the nerve to ask her father to buy her a book, he explodes, “There is nothing you can’t get from a book that you can’t get from television faster!””Matilda” is an extremely funny comedy, but it has a poignant undercurrent that should not be ignored or underestimated.

At Crunchem Hall, the violence is as much physical as psychological. Here, too, DeVito wisely overstates the case. When the hulking Miss Trunchbull grabs a bothersome little girl by her pigtails, spins her around, then tosses her over a fence and into a nearby flower garden, the scene is as stylized as a Tex Avery cartoon (or DeVito’s own “Throw Momma From the Train”). And yet, for all that, Miss Trunchbull remains the most terrifying headmaster to stalk a schoolyard since Wackford Squeers in “Nicholas Nickleby.” DeVito wants to have it both ways , and he succeeds remarkably well.

As she begins to appreciate the full extent of her telekinetic abilities, Matilda learns to stand up for herself. At first, she is content to make life unpleasant for her dad. But then Matilda befriends her first-grade schoolteacher , Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), the first adult to treat her with love and respect. When Miss Honey reveals some unpleasant details about her past dealings with Miss Trunchbull, Matilda launches a plan to avenge her new friend — while having some naughty fun in the bargain.

Wilson is charming as Matilda, particularly during a key scene in which she makes various objects dance around a room to the tune of “Little Bitty Pretty One.” Davidtz adds just a slight touch of ditziness to her performance as Miss Honey, so that the character isn’t just a goody-two-shoes.

Davidtz even manages to hold her own in scenes opposite Ferris’ marvelously menacing Miss Trunchbull. With her imposing girth and her vaguely fascist-style uniform, Ferris strikes dim echoes of Shirley Stoler’s concentration camp commander in Lina Wertmuller’s “Seven Beauties.”

In addition to DeVito and Perlman, who are deliciously sleazy, supporting players of note include Kiami Davael and Kira Spencer Hesser as Matilda’s best friends at school, and Paul Reubens and Tracey Walter as FBI agents who are very interested in Harry’s business activities.

As a director, DeVito once again proves to be an audacious stylist with an extravagant visual flair. With the invaluable assistance of production designer Bill Brzeski, cinematographer Stefan Czapsky and costumer Jane Ruhm, he manages to create a world that is slightly larger and considerably funnier than life. It is a joy to visit.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release from TriStar Pictures of a Jersey Films production. Produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Liccy Dahl. Executive producers, Michael Peyser, Martin Bregman. Directed by Danny DeVito. Screenplay, Nicholas Kazan, Robin Swicord, based on the novel by Roald Dahl.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor), Stefan Czapsky; editors, Lynzee Klingman, Brent White; music, David Newman; production design, Bill Brzeski; art direction, Philip Too Lin; set design, Sharon Alshams, Andrew Neskormomny, Barbara Mesney; costume design, Jane Ruhm; sound (Dolby SDDS), David Kelson; visual effects supervisor, Chris Watts; assistant director, Cara Giallanza; casting, David Rubin, Renee Rousselot. Reviewed at TriStar Screening Room, L.A., July 12, 1996. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 93 MIN.
• With: Matilda Wormwood - Mara Wilson Mr. Wormwood - Danny DeVito Mrs. Wormwood - Rhea Perlman Miss Honey/Miss Honey's Mother - Embeth Davidtz Trunchbull - Pam Ferris FBI Agents - Paul Reubens, Tracey Walter Michael - Brian Levinson Hortensia - Kira Spencer Hesser Lavender - Kiami Davael

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Matilda (United States, 1996)

Arriving in the latter half of the summer, Danny DeVito's Matilda beats out such worthy contenders as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Harriet the Spy for best family fare of the season. In fact, I haven't enjoyed a so-called "children's film" this much since last year's Babe or Toy Story . Although Matilda , which is based on a story by Roald Dahl (whose James and the Giant Peach reached screens earlier this year), is primarily aimed at the under-10 crowd, DeVito has crammed this movie with elements designed to appeal to adults. The result is a highly-satisfactory black comedy/fantasy that will find fans of all ages.

Matilda contains numerous elements of traditional fairy tales - a wicked step-aunt, a true friend with a pure heart, and more than a little magic - but "traditional" is about the last word that comes to mind when describing this quirky film. DeVito, whose previous efforts include the viciously wacky War of the Roses , is in fine form here, exaggerating characters and situations to the point where they lose their more terrifying edge without going so far that we no longer care about any of the inhabitants of this world. It's a fine line to walk, but Matilda rarely falters.

The basic material may seem odd for a family film, dealing as it does with issues of child neglect, abuse, and revenge. By removing the story from conventional reality, however, DeVito pulls it off. This is a world where adults (except two) are bad and children (except one) are good. It's a place where television is a force of mind-numbing evil and where books represent escape and solace. And, most importantly, empowerment is genuine, not just a slogan.

Matilda (Mara Wilson) is the youngest child, and only daughter, of Harry and Zinia Wormwood (Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman), who are described as living "in a very nice neighborhood in a very nice house", but not being very nice people. Mr. Wormwood is a used car salesman with the police tracking his every move, and Mrs. Wormwood is obsessed with bingo parlors and television game shows. Both parents are extremely neglectful of their little six-and-one-half year old daughter, even though she shows signs of amazing intelligence and various remarkable powers (she and John Travolta's character in Phenomenon could have long, meaningful discussions).

Eventually, Mr. Wormwood notices his daughter long enough to send her off to Crunchem Hall, an elementary school lorded over by the ogre-like Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), whose motto is "Use the rod, beat the child." She practices what she preaches, taking delight in punishing her charges and informing them mercilessly that her idea of a perfect school is one where there are no children. Fortunately for Matilda, her first grade teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), is kind and good-hearted, and immediately recognizes her new student's amazing gifts.

Mara Wilson, who lit up the screen as Robin Williams' daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire , and captured the Natalie Wood role in the remake of A Miracle on 34th Street , is enchanting without being either sickeningly adorable or unbearably irritating. She has a natural charisma, and seems the perfect choice for the perky, indomitable Matilda. Wilson causes us to care about the title character, and that identification is necessary to Matilda 's success. It's rare for an actor this young to give such a polished performance.

DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman, are effective in their cartoonish roles. Embeth Davidtz ( Feast of July ) radiates sweetness and vulnerability. And Pam Ferris takes on the Herculean role of Trunchbull by sinking her teeth into it and going as far over-the-top as the director lets her (which, in most cases, is pretty far). She reminded me forcefully of Ursula from Disney's animated The Little Mermaid . Meanwhile, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) has a cameo as one of the cops shadowing Harry Wormwood.

Matilda is not politically correct - it is, after all, a pint-sized revenge fantasy - but, in this case, that's a definite plus. Besides, for those who want bland, "wholesome" family entertainment, there's always Disney. Children aren't likely to understand much of the black comedy and satire here, but they'll be so involved in the story that they won't notice that a lot is going over their heads. Hardly a moment of Matilda can be described as either juvenile or condescending, and, compared with many of this summer's so-called "mature" features, that makes for a delightfully refreshing change-of-pace.

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Review: Never a dull moment (but many Dahl moments) in the charming ‘Matilda the Musical’

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“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” — an unwieldy title but a better one, surely, than “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical: The Movie” — is an enjoyably bright and chipper adaptation of a moving, melancholy story I’ve loved since childhood. I wasn’t alone; I imagine “Matilda” was catnip for a lot of bookish kids with latent Anglophile tendencies and dreams of overthrowing their bullies and escaping humdrum reality.

More grounded and less outlandish than some of the author’s other juvenile fiction, Dahl’s 1988 novel tells of a child genius in a small English village who’s blessed with the kind of extraordinary brainpower that can change the world. It’s spawned a few adaptations already, including an entertaining if bluntly Americanized 1996 film and a justly popular Olivier- and Tony-winning musical that has now directly inspired this new movie.

All that aside, there may be something inherently contradictory about any filmed version of “Matilda,” since the novel itself is something of a children’s cautionary tale about the perils of too much TV watching. (The same logic surely applies to too much Netflix, where this bouncy, bright-colored adaptation will begin streaming Dec. 25, after a brief theatrical run.)

Sit around watching the idiot box night after night and you might become as crooked, ignorant and unrepentantly vulgar as Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, both garishly amusing), the most unworthy parents of a young girl of astounding intelligence and imagination named Matilda (the winning Alisha Weir).

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Given the fairy-tale extremes and cruel ironies that tend to govern Dahl’s storybook universe, the Wormwoods’ exceptional stupidity may be precisely what gave Matilda her prodigiously gifted mind.

And for a young reader, her gifts inspire pride, protectiveness and no small amount of wistful envy. To read “Matilda” is to wish your brain could multiply triple-digit numbers as swiftly as any calculator and to feel freshly inspired to plunge headlong into “Nicholas Nickleby,” “Crime and Punishment” and the many other classics that Matilda has managed to plow through by age 6.

The new movie, for all its charms, doesn’t achieve or encourage anywhere near the same buzzing pro-literacy excitement. Neither, to be sure, did the stage show, but it was also sufficiently fresh and transporting that it scarcely mattered. A lot of its pleasures have happily made it to the screen intact, doubtless because its central creative trio — director Matthew Warchus, book writer Dennis Kelly and composer-lyricist Tim Minchin — have retained their equivalent roles behind the camera.

And beneath those pleasures is a potent underlay of feeling: As pastel hues fill the screen and perky melodies and wicked-smart lyrics flood the soundtrack, a tale of a child’s tragic neglect and deep longing comes into focus. At the same time, one of Matilda’s most appealing qualities is her allergy to self-pity, her calm insistence that every kid deserves, and can exact, a measure of justice.

“Just because you find that life’s not fair, it / doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it,” Matilda sings in “Naughty,” brilliantly advancing an airtight case for a child’s revenge. But her parents, however in need of discipline, are too-easy targets.

Once she starts attending school, Matilda has a much bigger fish to fry in the form of Miss Trunchbull, the towering, terrifying headmistress who rules with an iron fist and the credo “Bambinatum est maggitum” (Children are maggots). Played by a sneering, barking Emma Thompson, who donned a fat suit and fascist military garb for the role, the Trunchbull is a memorably exaggerated monster. She’s also prone to extreme acts of child abuse — solitary confinement, pigtail assault — that seem even more outlandish, for better or worse, in this movie’s cheery, effervescent presentation.

Fortunately, even before the story’s clever swerve into Stephen King territory, Matilda has two benevolent adult counterweights to the meanness and indifference that her parents and the Trunchbull represent. One is Matilda’s kind-hearted teacher, the aptly named Miss Honey (a moving Lashana Lynch), who does her best to protect her students from the headmistress’ psychotic wrath. The other is Mrs. Phelps (Sindhu Vee), the traveling bookshop proprietor who enables Matilda’s passion for literature, even as she encourages the child to concoct madly inventive stories of her own.

That leads to one of the movie’s more strained conceits, borrowed but not improved from the stage show, in which Matilda cooks up a romantic tall tale — a circus-set love story — that holds up a fictional mirror to the main action. Onstage, the device had a deft, gossamer-light magic; onscreen, it’s leaden and obvious, one of those strange cases where seeing isn’t quite believing.

And it’s not the only instance in which this “Matilda the Musical” loses something in the transition from magically inspired stagecraft to solid, proficient screen craft. Even some of the more riotous song-and-dance numbers feel more mechanical here, more artificially polished and hemmed in, especially when Matilda and her classmates seize the day with a joyous anthem of liberation called “Revolting Children.”

For a movie that bristles with more revolutionary fervor than Dahl’s quieter, more inward-focused story, “Matilda the Musical” could use a little messier, more rambunctious energy.

The focus and discipline of Warchus’ direction is undeniable, perhaps to a fault: It’s hard not to feel that a 2½-hour show has been whittled down to within an inch of its upbeat, family-friendly life. The surges of emotion are still there, the final comeuppances still rousing, even if the climax itself smothers its most electrifying twist with some predictably ostentatious visual effects. It all can’t help but reinforce Dahl’s point — as well as Matilda’s own steadfast conviction — that the screen really has nothing on the printed word.

‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’

Rated: PG, for thematic elements, exaggerated bullying and some language Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 9 at Regal L.A. Live; IPIC Theaters, Los Angeles; available Dec. 25 on Netflix

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Matilda review: Read EW's original 1996 take

Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) loves to read. At the age of 4, she’s sneaking to the library; by 6, she’s onto Moby Dick . Yet Mom (Rhea Perlman) is a bottle-blond home shopaholic and Dad (Danny DeVito) is a used-car salesman who thinks TV is better than books because it’s faster. Worse, Matilda wants to go to school. So Dad packs her off to Crunchem Hall, run by Agatha Trunchbull (British actress Pam Ferris), a monstrous former Olympic shot-put champion with a penchant for launching her charges out of windows.

Clearly, a lot of grown-up types are going to despise Matilda : gym teachers, school psychologists, used-car salesmen, critics who like their family fare immobilized by homiletic virtue. But kids will understand. They already know that Roald Dahl books like Matilda , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , and James and the Giant Peach are, for all their dark fantasy, subversive manifestos about preserving childhood’s grace against the caprices of authority figures.

As a director, Danny DeVito knows a thing or two about subversion too. But Matilda would be one bitter pill of a kiddie flick if not for the serenely unflappable Wilson (Mrs. Doubtfire) and the relationship Matilda establishes with her fragile teacher Miss Honey ( Schindler’s List ‘s Embeth Davidtz, glowing from within). Their emotional bond is so strong, in fact, that when the movie resorts to gimmickry — it turns out that Matilda has the power to levitate objects — it feels like a cop-out: Carrie for the Hello Kitty crowd.

Still, there are terrible pleasures to be found here, especially Ferris’ Gorgon-size Trunchbull — maybe the most frightening movie villainess since Margaret Hamilton slathered on the green paint for The Wizard of Oz . Ultimately, we see her through the heroine’s eyes — as a dangerous fool, but a fool nonetheless — and it may be Matilda ‘s most welcome notion that self-assurance can sometimes be armor enough. Should you take the kids? Of course. Then duck. B

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Roald Dahl’s Matilda Review

01 Jan 1996

Roald Dahl’s Matilda

Matilda is a blackly comic, delightfully off-the-wall picture that both kids and adults will lap up. The titular Matilda (Wilson) is the child genius born into a family of no-hopers, headed by crooked car salesman pop (DeVito) and flirtatious, white trash mom (Rhea Perlman). Left to her own devices from an early age, Matilda is soon digesting the entire contents of the local library, discovering latent telekinetic powers and whipping up culinary masterpieces in the kitchen even though she has to stand on a chair to reach the work surfaces.

Her folks, on the other hand, are less convinced of their daughter's talents and pack her off to Crunchem Hall, a nightmarish school headed by the sadistic Miss Trunchbull (Ferris). It's here that Matilda's abilities really come to the fore, her brain power attracting the attention of sickly sweet schoolmarm-with-secret Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), and her object-flinging tendencies exacting horrible payback on the headmistress from hell.

In the wrong hands, this could have been an overblown mess, but thankfully there's taut, clever direction at work here, DeVito weaving hilariously twisted set-pieces (a nail-gnawing trek through the Trunchbull residence, a cake-scoffing marathon guaranteed to make even chocoholics lay down their Mars bars) and scrupulous attention to detail around this fantastical whimsy of a story.

In fact, this is exactly how you would expect a jaunt into Dahl's work to look — all kitsch chintzy furniture skewed overhead camera angles making everybody look enormous of bonce and gaudily-attired, larger than life characters. DeVito and Perlman excel Ferris is a menacing hoot, but the real lynchpin here is the endearing Wilson proving after Miracle On 34th Street that she is one of the few child actor: who really can deliver the goods.

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'Matilda' movie review: A fantastical reboot of a beloved classic

Matilda (1996) is one of those rare cult children’s films that work for people across generations. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel of the same name, the film managed to appeal to a wide range of children and a wider range of adults who were happy to go down memory lane back to their good old days. 

In fact, in a recent watch of the classic, it was clear that Mara Wilson’s cuteness, Danny DeVito’s eccentricity, and Pam Ferris’ villainy which might even make Dolores Umbridge quiver in fear, still worked like magic. So one is forced to ask the big question when a reboot of sorts was announced. Why bother rebooting it when the original still is just as good? But after watching 120-odd minutes of Matilda the Musical, colour me impressed. 

Director Matthew Warchus and composer Tim Minchins join forces to give us a flamboyant and fantastical adaptation of Matilda. At some points, the musical might seem over the top when compared to the 1996 original, but it is clearly the plan. Only such extravagant theatrics have the legs to take the reboot the distance. Points to the makers for not assuming that all their audience members are aware of the world of Matilda. 

They take an extra minute or two to convincingly establish the world, and it helps in both acclimatising and reentering Crunchem Hall and meeting the inhabitants of the school that is ruled with an iron fist by Agatha Trunchbull.

While the shoes of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman are too big, Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough are perfect as Matilda’s parents who don’t give her the time of day. We also have standup comedian and actor Sindhu Vee play the affable Mrs Phelps, and the brilliant Lashana Lynch be the much-loved teacher Mrs Honey. But the real challenge in the casting of Matilda the Musical was in getting the titular character and Trunchbull right, and the makers have hit the jackpot.

As Matilda, Alisha Weir is equal parts curious, cunning, charming, and cherubic. She holds her weight opposite one of the most talented actors of this generation, Emma Thompson, who is almost unrecognisable but is menacing as Agatha Trunchbull. There is a very thin line between being a cartoonish villain and a caricature, and the veteran aces it.

The real strength of Matilda the Musical is its strong supporting cast, and the music. Matilda’s classmates are all such enthusiastic actors who effortlessly turn on the charm quotient of the film. And the real highlight of the film is of course the wonderful songs School Song, Bruce, When I Grow Up, Revolting Children, You Were Still Holding My Hand choreographed to animated perfection. 

In recent times, we have seen many classics being rebooted for the internet generation, more often than not, forgetting what made the original a classic. Thankfully, Matilda the Musical manages to not just stand its own against the original but uses updated technology to give the present generation their own Matilda, and the previous generations a fancier and more musical walk down memory lane.

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‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’ Review: Youth in Revolt

This musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel is a jolt of sour candy guaranteed to make you grin.

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By Amy Nicholson

Bitterness never tasted so sweet as it does in “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” a jolt of sour candy guaranteed to make you grin. Roald Dahl was 72 when he published his tale of a telekinetic girl genius avenging herself upon on a school headmaster who shot-puts kids out of the classroom window. The novel was Dahl’s righteous payback for his own British boarding school education where the instructors freely beat the students and slipped slivers of soap into boys’ mouths at night if they snored.

His writing forever burned with a youthful sense of injustice, and among the many smart decisions the director Matthew Warchus and the writer Dennis Kelly have made in adapting “Matilda” for the stage, and now screen, is reimagining their title character, played with empathetic ferocity by Alisha Weir, as a bit of a proto-Dahl herself, a bright child bursting with stories that take aim at the adults who try to trod on her intelligence. When Weir, just 11 when she filmed the movie, narrows her blue eyes and sings, “Sometimes, you have to be a little bit naughty,” you believe she’s capable of conquering anyone who blocks her path.

Matilda’s parents (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) are dimwits and cheats. Her school’s motto is “Bambinatum est magitum” — “Children are maggots” — and its headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull (a go-for-broke Emma Thompson), is the type of monster who gets introduced chin hair first, the camera then tiptoeing backward to gawk at her broken capillaries and drab olive dress, padded at the shoulders and bosom until she resembles a tank. “Discipline! Discipline! For children who aren’t listening!” Trunchbull croons into a bullhorn while forcing her charges through a muddy obstacle course littered with barbed wire and explosives. The only moments of cross-generational kindness come from one teacher (Lashana Lynch), who is too tremulous to stand up to her boss, and from a traveling librarian (Sindhu Vee), who allows Matilda to spin fictions instead of entrusting her with her fears.

The songs, written by Tim Minchin, are marvelously witty, and Warchus directs them at a clip. The seven-time Tony nominee, who also serves as the artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London, is clearly overjoyed to be able to send his cinematographer, Tat Radcliffe, sprinting down school hallways in pursuit of his ensemble of skilled young actors as they skulk through Ellen Kane’s sharp-elbowed choreography, which seems influenced by movements as varied as zombie hordes and dressage.

For a film that takes this much glee in cruelty — Matilda is called “a brat,” “a bore,” “a lousy little worm” and “a nasty, little troublemaking goblin” in her first three minutes onscreen — it also includes scenes of genuine loveliness: a hushed number set in a hot-air balloon above the clouds, a jazzy sequined show of support for a tortured fellow classmate, and even a soft focus fantasy sequence where Trunchbull imagines a better life for herself. The children disappear, a herd of white horses gallop into frame, and for one moment, our villain is no longer the tyke tyrant, but a woman who wishes she could let her hair down and smile.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical

Where to watch.

Watch Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical with a subscription on Netflix.

What to Know

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical brings the classic story back to the screen with a delightful Emma Thompson, dazzling dancing, and a suitably irascible take on the source material.

Some viewers will still prefer the first film adaptation, but with catchy songs and impressive choreography, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is plenty of fun in its own right.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Matthew Warchus

Alisha Weir

Matilda Wormwood

Emma Thompson

Miss Trunchbull

Lashana Lynch

Stephen Graham

Mr. Wormwood

Andrea Riseborough

Mrs. Wormwood

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• A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.
• Matilda Wormwood is an exquisite and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents, Harry and Zinnia misunderstand her because they think she is so different. As time passes, she finally starts school and has a kind teacher, loyal friends, and a sadistic headmistress. As she gets fed up with the constant cruelty, she begins to realize that she has a gift of telekinetic powers. After some days of practice, she suddenly turns the tables to stand up to Harry and Zinnia and outwit the headmistress. — Blazer346
• Sweet and bright little Matilda Wormwood, a child of wondrous intelligence, is different from the rest of her family. Misunderstood by everyone and ignored at home, she escapes into a world of reading, honing her skills, and exercising her mind so much that she develops telekinetic powers. When she is sent off to the Crunchem Hall Elementary School headed by the cruel, hulking headmistress, Miss Agatha Trunchbull, Matilda needs all the help she can get. But amid darkness, Matilda finds a single light in warm-hearted Miss Jennifer Honey, her first-grade teacher, who recognizes her remarkable skills--including a very distinctive talent that allows her to turn the tables on the wicked adults in her world. Will they ever see how extraordinary she is? — Nick Riganas
• A young female who is part of a mean family is allowed to attend a school. Instantly, she becomes friends with her peers and her teacher, who has a horrific past with the principal, who is viciously mean and treats children in an awful and terrible way. — RECB3
• A grouchy couple named Harry and Zinnia Wormwood are parents to a very sweet 6-year-old daughter named Matilda. Unlike them and her bratty brother, Michael, she becomes a very sweet and extremely intelligent girl who can't wait to go to school and read books. After a while, Harry and Zinnia send her to the school with the worst headmistress in the world, a very sweet teacher, and good friends. While trying to put up with her parents' and headmistress' cruelty, she starts to unwittingly unleash telekinetic powers, destroying a television and making a newt fly onto the headmistress. With enough practice, she learns to control her telekinetic powers and is soon using them on the headmistress so she can drive her away from the school. — anonomys

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• Parents say (84)
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Based on 122 kid reviews

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Report this review

Abusive movie, this movie was very good. but sometimes scary., pretty crap.

I loved Matilda!! One of my favorites growing up. all I wanted to do when I was little was to repeat the scene of her mom dropping the cereal over, and over, and over again!! What parents need to keep in mind is that the family Matilda is raised in is a bad influence towards young children with the dream of having a family when they are older. The principal says very disgusted things about children calling them smelly, piss worms, mistakes and other horrible things. Harry (Matilda's father) also comes off as an alcoholic. There is something that the principal uses to punish children called the chokey. The chokey is a room with small space for the children and it was filled with sharp nail things. The movie is really good at the end though. Matilda gets adopted by her caring teacher, Miss Honey. Please make sure to talk to your children afterwards saying that the way the Wormwood family treated Matilda and Mikey & how the principal treated the students is not okay at all.

sweet, cute, pure, and innocent

What You Need To Know:

(Pa, B, O, V, A, D, M) Pagan worldview with moral elements encouraging reading, learning and friendship and discouraging child neglect with elements of telekinesis and extraordinary powers & a portrayal of parents as stupid; no obscenities or profanities but lots of name calling; many scary scenes including threats to children, woman spin girl by hair & throws girl, woman throws boy out window, woman kicks cat, threats to lock-up children, & threats with a whip; no sex; no nudity; brief alcohol use; smoking by disreputable parents; and, spitting & punishing child by force-feeding him until he almost vomits

More Detail:

The next adaptation of a Roald Dahl book is MATILDA. Matilda Wormwood is a six-year old girl of great intelligence. Her parents send her to school at the terrible Crunchem Hall, operated by the fearsome Agatha Trunchbull , who abuses the children. Matilda’s kind-hearted teacher Miss Honey, stands quietly by, unable to do anything about the cruelty. Matilda discovers that she has the power to move objects with her mind. As her parents neglect her and Ms. Trunchbull abuses her and her classmates, Matilda begins to execute a plan highlighting her powers which will teach all the stupid and mean adults a lesson.

Director Danny DeVito crafts an artistic and stylistic story about child neglect, child abuse, learning, love, and regrettably magic. Little children will be scared by Ms. Trunchbull . Her cruelty can be unrelenting. Many parents will be concerned about the portrayal of parents as stupid and the use of telekinetic powers in the movie. Matilda makes it appear that a deceased person from Ms. Trunchbull’s past will come back and haunt her, if she doesn’t leave the school. If she was so smart, she could have thought up a plan without floating objects or ghost threats. It is an intelligent movie, more intense than HARRIET THE SPY, and similar to JAMES IN THE GIANT PEACH in mood and creativity.

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‘Matilda The Musical’ is a total must watch

It is a lesson in the victory of good over evil

Never before has the story of the fight against injustice―of free-spirited rebellion against bullying and shaming―been so impactful and poignant than when told by a young and spunky six-year-old girl who loves books.

Having read Matilda ―the 1988 children’s novel by British author Roald Dahl―at an early age, I was always fascinated and inspired by Matilda , a smart but lonely school girl with secret X-Men-type superpowers, the clarity of her thought and the gumption to stand up to authority. So, watching Matilda The Musical , put together by The Royal Shakespeare Company, was a moving, nostalgic and a memorable experience.

The play opens with the famously enchanting number―‘My Mummy Says I'm a Miracle’―where pampered and happy children prance about joyfully at a birthday party, standing out starkly against the dark and obnoxious ma and pa of the story's titular and pint-sized lead, Matilda , who loathe her for being born a girl. They cannot fathom her affinity towards Bronte, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Eyre, all of who she finds more appealing than television. While that's the situation at home, her school is no better, run by the appalling, huge and grim Miss Trunchbull (James Wolstenholme), a hideous disciplinarian, who hates children, calls them maggots, grabs them by their pigtails and whirl them around their heads. Matilda , played by Donna Craig, seeks refuge in Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch)―a gentler and loving teacher at the school―who’s delighted to learn of Matilda 's talent and abilities and nurtures her, in the face of parents who are uninterested.

The story is a lesson in the victory of good over evil, of faith over self-doubt, of love over hate, shown beautifully over the course of two-and-a-half hours, as Matilda liberates the school from Trunchbull’s tyranny and her ignorant parents hand her over under Miss Honey's care forever. The performance pulls one in, especially Matilda ’s own talent for composition and storytelling, each time she starts inventing a story at the library which she frequents. Craig has pulled it off brilliantly as she essays the lead girl's mannerisms. This is accentuated further by fantastic sound and music that surrounds the audience inside the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre’s (NMACC) The Grand Theatre and the stagecraft that is finely managed across seamlessly changing sets.

One thing I felt could have added to the experience was to have Trunchbull seem more menacing than she was in the character played by Emma Thompson. Every experience was beautifully captured for the stage. The lights, especially when they hit the eyes, was a put off, but at other times they added to the drama. At times I felt the accent was not clear enough for me to understand what was being said. Music is all-encompassing and inspiring with its scores, and a multitude of styles. My personal favourites were ‘Revolting Children’, and ‘When I Grow Up’, both hilariously lyrical. Everything was brilliant and worth gaping at―from the music to the costumes and set design.

Penned by the inimitable Dennis Kelly with original music and lyrics by comedian-songsmith Tim Minchin, Matilda The Musical , which plays till June 2 at NMACC, is a total must watch. Is it better than the book? Well, if the book led you to imagine Matilda 's world, the play is the real manifestation of that imagination.