History Awesome / Matilda

* The Flashback moments with The Escapologist[[spoiler:/Magnus Honey]] breaking down the door to where his daughter was. Given his profession, it was an easy feat but adding to the righteous fury.

** When Matilda is doing the hammer throw on Trunchbull, there’s a shot of Amanda smiling - she’s not unhappy that Trunchbull is getting a taste of her own medicine.

--> '''Miss Honey:''' You should be. She's dangerous.
--> '''Matilda:''' So am I.

* ''Revolting Children''. That is all.

** She also repeats the hammer-throw, with Trunchbull about to suffer very severely for it... only relent at the last moment and set her down gently, having already sent the message she'd intended. Unlike the original movie where Matilda's powers appear more restrained, there's no doubt that Matilda could put her through some FamilyUnfriendlyViolence .

-->Leave him alone! You [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Big! Fat! BULLY!]]
* The Trunchbull's show-stopping... eh, workout number "The Smell of Rebellion" definitely counts as one. She puts the kids through insane choreography involving landing mats and vaults, then uses InsaneTrollLogic to get one of them to call her "mad," then punishes them even more for it...[[CrossesTheLineTwice all to the music of Tim Minchin]]. If you're not head-banging by the end of the song, they're doing it wrong.

* Trunchbull gets chased off the school grounds with even more style than the 1990 film. Matilda constructs an enormous monster out of chains, having it pretend to be Magnus and smash all of the new chokeys. Then Matilda uses her powers to pigtail Trunchbull’s hair and tails her around ByTheHair just like Trunchbull did to Amanda Thripp.

--->'''Mr. Wormwood:''' What car? Sued by who? Who've you been talking to?!

* Amanda Thripp gets one as an EstablishingCharacterMoment, to boot. The Trunchbull corners her on the playground for wearing pigtails. The lady eventually tosses her over the fence for saying "but". Does Amanda freak out, the way Lavender and Hortensia do about getting cornered by the Trunchbull? ''No.'' She stands her ground and defends her pigtails because her mom likes them. Then after getting tossed over the fence, she picks some flowers to give to Miss Honey while crash-landing, stands up, shakes the dirt off her overalls, and waves to the students. Now ''that'' is BadassBystander!

* During the two-times tables class discussion, Miss Honey explains that eventually they'd be able to multiply any numbers, whether it was 2 x 7—which the class answers correctly as 14—or 13 x 379. This amuses most of the class, but then Matilda shocks everyone by answering 4,927 without batting an eyelash. Miss Honey then multiplies it by hand and determines she is correct.

** It's even more awesome when Trunchbull smashes the glass platter over his head. While that is a horrible thing to do to a kid, it gives two more awesome points for Bruce: 1. He is durable enough to take a heavy glass platter over the head with nothing worse than a loud belch. 2. It gives Bruce the satisfaction that the aforementioned action meant he got to Trunchbull, showing us a glimpse of her VillainousBreakdown.

** Even before the full cake arrives, Bruce gets some awesome moments in the scene. When the Trunchbull drags him onstage and accuses him of stealing the dessert, he refuses to admit that he actually stole anything. When the Trunchbull snarls that ''her'' cake is the most delicious in the world, Bruce calmly replies "My mom's is ''better''", quietly standing up to her (and earning a shocked gasp from the other students). And finally, when Miss Trunchbull tells him to eat a slice, he doesn't lose his cool and politely says "I don't want any, thank you." Bruce clearly knows that Miss Trunchbull is furious at him, and the fact that he doesn't back down and even sasses at her shows a remarkable amount of courage.

* Miss Honey also gets a slight one when she finally stands up to the Trunchbull.
-->'''Miss Honey''': [[NotAfraidOfYouAnymore I am]] ''[[NotAfraidOfYouAnymore not]]'' [[NotAfraidOfYouAnymore seven years old anymore, Aunt Trunchbull!]]

-->'''Trunchbull''': '''''[[SayMyName WORMWOOOOOOOD!]]''''' You useless used car salesman, I want you right here ''now!'' With another car! ''[[[{{Beat}} ...]]]'' YES, I know what 'caveat emptor' means, you low-life '''LIAR!''' I'm gonna sue you, I'll ''burn'' down that showroom and then take that no-good jalopy of yours and ''[[AssShove shove it up your]] '''[[UnusualEuphemism BAZOOGA!]]''' ''When I'm finished with you, ''you're gonna look like '''roadkill!'''''

* This scene at the end when Matilda's family is forced to leave the country.:

* Miss Honey's method of teaching eight-year-old children to spell "difficulty" is pretty cool.
-->Mrs D. Mrs I. Mrs FFI.\\
Mrs C. Mrs U. Mrs LTY.
* Despite her DarkAndTroubledPast with Trunchbull's abuse, Miss Honey '''never''' let it twist her into anyone but the sweet, kindly teacher she is today. The narrator even comments that like any good teacher, she never lets her issues affect either her teaching or her relationship with the students.
* Miss Honey thinks on her feet when she and Matilda are trapped in Trunchbull's house, picking up a shotput and throwing it around the room to distract Trunchbull from going after Matilda. Later on, she tries to save Matilda from getting busted by claiming she was the one who messed around in Trunchbull's house.
* In the scene before the big climactic sequence with Trunchbull's comeuppance... Matilda goes to Trunchbull's house and uses her telekinesis to simulate a haunting. Among the chaos; Ms. Trunchbull's portrait (of her as an Olympic athlete standing on the field with a javelin) flies off the mantle into the fireplace (and gets burned to ash) and the portrait of Magnus flies down the stairs and takes its rightful place on the mantle! Even better is Trunchbull's ''horrified'' reaction:
-->"''[[SayMyName Magnus...!]]''"
* A villainous but nevertheless impressive moment: after Matilda uses chalk to simulate a message from Magnus, the Trunchbull panics and gets pelted with erasers, then faints dead away, as she's extremely superstitious. As she's lying on the floor, the kids slowly walk over to her... and she opens one of her eyes, jumps up, and immediately goes on the attack. Then, despite all of the strange terror she endures thanks to Matilda's telekinesis -- watching a child she throws out the window fly back in, then getting trapped on a globe that spins out of control -- she ''still'' manages to recover fast enough to try to attack Lavender, who's only saved when Matilda pulls her up into the air. Yes, she's ultimately taken down, but the fact that the Trunchbull was able to maintain enough stamina and strength to put up one hell of a fight against what she thought was a ghost -- her greatest fear -- deserves a few awesome points.
* The Trunchbull ends up lying in the hallway after failing to take control of Miss Honey's class; all of Miss Honey's students then throw their lunches at her while the other children of the school watch. When the Trunchbull finally gets up and turns around, she gets a spectacular OhCrap expression upon seeing ''every single student'' -- [[TheDogBitesBack all of the kids she's terrorized and bullied for years]] -- standing silently, armed with their lunches, along with toilet paper and water balloons (this is the image pictured above). They proceed to absolutely ''pummel'' her, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere sending her running from the school]] [[HumiliationConga humiliated and embarrassed]]. It's the perfect revenge for the cruelty she's inflicted on them -- a ChildHater who is defeated and overwhelmed by the very children she so despised.
** In an awesome BrickJoke, Bruce Bogtrotter, whose actions are described above, is among the students who take down the Trunchbull with their lunches. What does he do? He marches right up to the Trunchbull and [[LaserGuidedKarma smears chocolate cake across her mouth]]!

* The fact that all the children read aloud the message from "Magnus" as it's being written on the chalkboard, freaking the Trunchbull out even further, is a subtle one, as most kids their age can't read that well; Miss Honey is clearly a ''very'' good teacher.

* Matilda's class standing up to the Trunchbull by ''misspelling words.''

--> Leave him alone! You [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Big! Fat! BULLY!]]
* The Trunchbull's show-stopping...eh, workout number "The Smell of Rebellion" definitely counts as one. She puts the kids through insane choreography involving landing mats and vaults, then uses InsaneTrollLogic to get one of them to call her "mad," then punishes them even more for it...[[CrossesTheLineTwice all to the music of Tim Minchin.]] If you're not head-banging by the end of the song, they're doing it wrong.

--> ***Escapologist***: This demon! This villain! This monster! She has sullied the memory of my wife! She has betrayed the trust of her own sister! She has shown cruelty to the most precious reality of my marriage! Bullying children is a game, is it? Then let us see what this creature thinks she can do when the wrath of a grown man stands before her!