History Trivia / Matilda

** The older children are played by adults and they look it. It seems odd when they show up in Revolting ''Children''. Even worse is when they equal the height of the actor playing ''Trunchbull'', who is meant to tower over all of the children... [[note]] FridgeBrilliance? To a five year old on her first day at school, the place is full of intimidating giants. [[/note]]
** Also Matilda is supposedly a 5 year old, but is played by 9 - 12 year olds. Most of them are OlderThanTheyLook. Original Matilda Kerry Ingram could pass as a young girl on her own but next to the others not so much, leading to taller, older actors cast in the parts of older children.
** A special mention goes to Sophia Kiely who was 12 by the time she left looking nothing like her age.

** On the 2015 National Tour, 20 year-old Megan [=McGuff=] played 10 year-old Hortensia, who is normally played by child actresses close to the character's age.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Roald Dahl allegedly based the Trunchbull off his daughter's headmistress at boarding school - who had really creative punishments. Once his daughter and a friend were caught sneaking ice cream and were made to stand until dawn as the ice cream melted down their legs.

* {{Shoutout}}: Miss Honey's Liccy Doll is named after Roald Dahl's widow Felicity Dahl, whose nickname was Liccy.

* RecycledTrailerMusic: One of the early trailers for the film featured Harry Belafonte's "Jump in the Line," perhaps best known as the ending theme from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. An instrumental of "[[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas What's This?]]" was also used in that same trailer.

** The "lovely telly" in the Wormwood household with its twelve-inch screen would be very dated now, especially as Mr Wormwood has to cross the room towards it to turn the sound down, causing Mrs Wormwood to be "ratty" about missing her programme, when nowadays you can pause live TV. On top of that, nowadays it's also possible to turn the sound up and down with the remote control, meaning you won't have to walk towards the TV anymore.

* BeautyInversion: The sweet faced Pam Ferris as the ugly and evil Mrs Trunchbull.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: For some reason, Creator/DisneyChannel Latin America loved to put this movie on weekends during the early 2010's

* TalkingToHerself: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Creator/GabyUgarte voices both Matilda and Amanda Thripp.

* AccentDepundent: "School Song" features words which sound like letters of the alphabet in order (e.g. "'''I''' have suffered in this '''ja'''il I've been trapped inside this '''ca'''ge for ages, This living ''''ell'''"). The letter "R" is represented by "asked", which doesn't work in any rhotic accent or, for that matter, in the north of England, and "Z" is represented by "Phy'''s-ed'''", which only works if you say "Z" as "Zed" instead of "Zee".

* AccentDepundent: "School Song" features words which sound like letters of the alphabet in order (e.g. "'''I''' have suffered in this '''ja'''il I've been trapped inside this '''ca'''ge for ages, This living ''''ell'''") and ends with the warning about how Miss Trunchball teaches "Phy'''s-ed'''", using Zed instead of Zee. Also, the word used for R is "asked", which doesn't work in any rhotic accent or, for that matter, in the north of England

* OnSetInjury: Pam Ferris had to go to the hospital three during filming. Once when filming the scene where she was beaten by chalkboard erasers because a piece of chalk dust got in her eye and had to be flushed out two seperate times. And the third was when Thrunbull throws Amanda Thripp by her pigtails, the rig that let her do it nearly ripped off the top of one of her fingers and she needed 8 stitches to reattach it.

** In today's age of cell phones with cameras, Mrs. Trunchbull's violent actions against the children "whom nobody would believe if you would have told them" wouldn't remain a DarkSecret long, as they'd undoubtedly catch these actions and post them to Website/YouTube, Website/{{Facebook}}, Instagram and Website/{{Twitter}}, and this would prompt a lot of police visits to the school.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Jimmy Karz, the actor who played Bruce, actually didn't like chocolate cake.

* CreatorCameo: Of a kind: the portrait of Magnus is a portrait of a young Roald Dahl.

* QuoteSource:
** RefugeInAudacity*

** RefugeInAudacity* TechnologyMarchesOn:

* RecycledTrailerMusic: One of the early trailers for the film featured "Jump in the Line," perhaps best known as the ending theme from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. An instrumental of "[[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas What's This?]]" was also used in that same trailer.

* RecycledTrailerMusic: One of the early trailers for the film featured "Jump in the Line," perhaps best known as the ending theme from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. An instrumental of "[[Film/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas What's This?]]" was also used in that same trailer.

* RecycledTrailerMusic: One of the early trailers for the film featured "Jump in the Line," perhaps best known as the ending theme from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''.

* TechnologyMarchesOn:

* QuoteSource:
** RefugeInAudacity

** Embeth Davidtz seems to be heavily associated with Miss Honey too. Despite starring in acclaimed films like ''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/BridgetJonesDiary'' and ''{{Film/Junebug}}'', and appearing on shows like ''Series/MadMen'' (at least two of these roles have her playing less likable, AlphaBitch characters) - plenty of news articles will still refer to her as 'Miss Honey from ''Matilda'''.

** It also doesn’t take much imagination to connect her to the horrible sweet shop owner described in his memoir, who got him caned after a prank where he put a dead mouse in a candy jar.

* AcclaimedFlop: The movie was not a box office success, but was received very well by critics and audiences for staying true to the book. It gained a bigger audience on video and on television. ''Matilda'' is one of [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory a]] [[Film/TheWitches1990 multitude]] [[Film/JamesAndTheGiantPeach of]] [[WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox acclaimed]] [[Film/TheBFG flops]] to have come from a Creator/RoaldDahl story.

* AcclaimedFlop: The movie was not a box office success, but was received very well by critics and audiences for staying true to the book. It gained a bigger audience on video and on television. ''Matilda'' is one of [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory a]] [[Literature/TheWitches multitude]] [[Film/JamesAndTheGiantPeach of]] [[WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox acclaimed]] [[Film/TheBFG flops]] to have come from a Creator/RoaldDahl story.