Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is a 2022 musical fantasy comedy film based on Tim Minchin's stage musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book of the same name. The film, overseen by the production crew of the stage version, is directed by Matthew Warchus, written by Dennis Kelly and stars Alisha Weir, Lashana Lynch, Andrea Riseborough, Stephen Graham and Emma Thompson.
As with previous versions of the story, the plot follows Matilda, a young girl with a big brain and bigger secrets, who finds herself placed by her neglectful parents in a repressive school run by an overbearing headmistress. With support from her teacher, Matilda sets out to rewrite her story. The film released theatrically in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2022, and in the United States on December 9, 2022, with a Netflix release on Christmas Day 2022 and on June 25, 2023 in the UK.
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical includes examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The Wormwoods are as nasty to Matilda as they are neglectful. They call her names, shove her into her room, and cruelly rip up her library book in front of her.
- Accidental Truth: Whenever Matilda visits Mrs Phelps, she tells her a story about an Acrobat and an Escapologist, but she doesn't know how the story ends for sure, even as the story keeps getting darker and darker. This is because, unbeknownst to Matilda at first, she's not actually making the story up herself; she is receiving "visions" of Miss Honey's childhood, as the Acrobat and the Escapologist were her parents.
- Actor Allusion: In the Italian dub, Miss Honey is voiced by Chiara Gioncardi, who is playing another mentor to the main female lead.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: A very, very minor case with the Trunchbull. She at least lacks the large moles and pale skin of the stage version, though efforts were still made to make Emma Thompson appear quite ugly, primarily with crooked teeth and exaggerated proportions in the nose and jawline.
- Adaptational Badass: Magnus Honey in book and previous movie was little more than ignorant and well-meaning, who was presumably murdered while never suspecting a thing by Trunchbull. Here, he's an accomplished escapologist who found out his stepsister, the Trunchbull, was abusing his daughter before furiously heading to confront her. It's at least implied here he went down fighting.
- Adaptational Context Change: In the original musical, Trunchbull's verse in The Smell of Rebellion about imagining a world with no children and not letting life 'steal your horses' was left ambiguous as to whether she was having a fantasy moment or whether she was trying to fool the children. The film makes it clear that she really is having a fantasy moment.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Miss Honey appears much earlier in the story, dropping by the Wormwood house to get Matilda enrolled in school. This is also when she meets Matilda for the first time.
- Adaptational Expansion: Several songs, most notably "Quiet" and "Bruce", are able to take advantage of the much larger 'stage' and the addition of special effects, allowing them to portray the entire scene. With Quiet, notably, while the stage version has Matilda stood alone on the stage during her rapid-fire dissertation, the movie version adds a whirlwind effect surrounding her, and a sudden drop in all other sounds cutting off Trunchbull's ranting and raving.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the book, Hortensia was a Big Eater and a mischievous prankster, which is what got her in hot water with the Trunchbull so many times. The film portrays her as a more serious tough girl-type, though the cast on her left arm and her knowledge of the Chokey implies that she still gets in trouble quite often. She is seen to not yet be in class when all of the other students have urgently hurried from the hallway, and she is walking in a leisurely way after Trunchbull's countdown has ended, suggesting she doesn't mind being tardy.
- Adaptational Villainy: As if it were possible, the Trunchbull is mildly worse than in the musical, replacing her difficult phys ed class with a full on outdoor assault course (with life threatening barbed wire and mines!)
- Adaptation Distillation: Trunchbull's desire to make a school full of Chokeys is distilled down to just seeing the prototype classroom.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The original musical's defeat of Trunchbull was merely her being chased out of the classroom by Miss Honey and the children beginning their revolt. Here, it features the destruction of her prototype classroom by a massive Magnus made out of chains, and her being the 'hammer' for an epic throw right through the school roof.
- There's a new addition to the ending that isn't present in the book or stage show: after Trunchbull's defeat, Miss Honey takes charge of Crunchem Hall and converts it into "The Big Friendly School", a bright and colorful school with an entire amusement park as a playground.
- Adapted Out: Several major plot points from the book, along with ones from the original musical, including:
- Michael no longer appears, with Matilda being an only child. As a result, the aesop about television versus books is excised entirely, as well as the song "Telly".
- Mrs Wormwood's dance partner, Rudolpho, is removed as well, though a picture of him can be spotted in the house.
- The revenge attacks against Matilda's parents are restricted to just the peroxide dye in the hair tonic and the glue in the hat.
- The implication that Matilda lost her telekinesis is removed entirely, preferring to go with the original film's ambiguity by showing her use her powers to remove her father's glued-on hat shortly after Trunchbull's defeat. However, Miss Honey in the book suggests that it is Matilda being moved up to the top class and getting her brain challenged that stopped the telekinesis.
- While they get a passing mention, Sergei and the Russian mafia do not appear in person at the end.
- Adoption Is Not an Option: The Escapologist and the Acrobat want a child desperately, but the thought of adopting one doesn't even cross their minds. It's especially egregious since in the end, it's all but stated that Miss Honey—their daughter—adopted Matilda.
- Age Lift: Matilda in both the book and the stage play was 5, while in the original movie she is 6. In this adaptation, it's suggested that she and the other kids are 8, which allows Alisha Weir (who is 12) to not look like an example of
Dawson Casting, which is not as acceptable in film then as on stage. The film also adds in her parents getting in trouble for not sending her to school to explain why she hadn't been attending - An Aesop: In "Naughty", Matilda comments that while toughing out the hard times is sometimes necessary, always doing that leads to nothing ever getting better: "If you always take on the chin and wear it / nothing will change." The point of the song, and one of the points of the story as the whole, is to encourage people to make things happen, rather than waiting for their situations to improve.
- Alliterative Name: Bruce Bogtrotter.
- All There in the Script: "Red Beret Girl" can be inferred to be Hortensia (named in the book and 1996 film). She is never introduced but is named in the credits.
- Alphabet Song: The "School Song", which teaches the letters during the song by emphasizing them in a sentence—notably, the letters are mostly emphasized in words that don't start with the letter in question:So you think you're A-ble [able]
To survive this mess by B-ing [being]
A prince or a princess, you will soon C [see],
There's no escaping trage-D [tragedy]. - Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Matilda lists off the books she read to Miss Honey... that week!
- Ascended Extra: Hortensia in the stage version was actually Demoted to Extra, and was simply part of the student ensemble. Her role as the one who warns Matilda about Trunchbull and the Chokey is restored, and she has an active part in "School Song", "Chokey Chant" and "Revolting Children".
- Bait-and-Switch: The scene where Nigel is on the run from a vengeful Trunchbull has multiple switches. Matilda comes up with a plan to hide him, then immediately tells Miss Trunchbull where he is. But then it turns out her plan is to convince Miss Trunchbull that he's been there all along and is therefore innocent of the prank he's accused of.
- Bigger on the Inside: The kids ponder Bruce's ability to down that massive cake with the lyrics "Or maybe your largeness/Is a bit like the TARDIS:/Considerably roomier inside."
- Book Ends: Matilda first appears (not counting baby Matilda in the prologue) lying alone on the roof of the library van, and last appears lying with Miss Honey on the roof of Miss Honey's caravan.
- Bowdlerise: One lyric in "The Smell of Rebellion" is changed from "a dwarf called Zeek" to "a parrot called Zeek", presumably to avoid calling a dwarf a "carnival freak".
- In "Miracle", the line "I can be a soldier and shoot you in the face," becomes, "I can be a soldier and punch you in the face." Calling into question what kind of war the child is imagining, but removing the implication that the child is fantasizing about shooting people.
- Brawn Hilda: Trunchbull.
- But You Were There, and You, and You: Some of the details in Matilda's stories are shown to be inspired by events in her life, with her lifting lines of dialogue and picturing Trunchbull as the wicked step-sister and herself in the role of the mistreated girl. This helps disguise the fact that there's another reason why she's picturing the wicked step-sister as Trunchbull.
- By the Hair: Miss Trunchbull hates pigtails and whirls one girl around by them with the strength she still has from throwing the hammer.
- Canis Latinicus: "What is the school motto, Miss Honey? ... Bambinatum est magitum: 'Children are maggots'."note
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action:
- The doctor who delivers Matilda changes at a finger-click from his professional outfit into a tiger-print lounge suit when he goes into his solo.
- When "Bruce" shifts up a gear halfway through, all the students are suddenly wearing sequined versions of their usual uniform jackets.
- Child Prodigy: Matilda, obviously. When asked to "polish the board" by Miss Honey (she meant erase the night school maths), Matilda continues to solve the equations. In the same scene, she lists off a number of books, including various Dickens novels that she's read that week, topping it off with The Cat in the Hat!
- Color Motif: The hospital from the opening number is unlike any other; the halls are blindingly bright and colorful.
- Competition Freak: Because of her status as an Olympic hammer-throwing champion, Miss Trunchbull takes this to the extreme. She always has to be the best. She always has to have the last word. If she can't punish one child, she'll immediately take out her fury on another. When Bruce finishes the cake, she adds a second punishment — Chokey. She even has a way of dealing with a group of kids who can't fit into one Chokey.
- Composite Character: Miss Honey takes the role of Mr. Trilby from the book, being the one who takes over the school following Miss Trunchbull's departure.
- Crowd Song: "Miracle", "School Song", "Bruce", "Revolting Children" and "Still Holding My Hand".
- Custom Uniform: Hortensia, one of the first students to stand out from the crowd on Matilda's first day, wears a red beret instead of the uniform hat and has customised her uniform with badges. It's not explained how she gets away with this.
- Dark Reprise:
- After her first day of school, Matilda returns home to her parents arguing and sings a sad reprise of "Naughty".
- "When I Grow Up" is a sweet song of children's innocent ideas of what adult life is, tugging at the heartstrings of all the grown-ups in the audience. Then Miss Honey gets her verse. When I grow up, I will be brave enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown-up. Her fearsome monster was all too real and still has her living in fear.
- Deal with the Devil: Miss Trunchbull claims that Bruce "made a pact with Satan and decided to steal my cake!" by way of justifying her extreme punishment.
- Death by Childbirth: The acrobat in Matilda's story, also Miss Honey's mother, is a variant; dying after having her baby, not because of the childbirth itself, but from the injuries sustained from a prior accident caused by her sister.
- Demoted to Extra: A downplayed case with the Wormwoods; they still play a sizable role here, just not as much as the stage version. Since both of their solo numbers have been cut, their characters aren’t as fleshed out (Mrs. Wormwood’s dance career is only hinted at, while Mr. Wormwood’s philosophy about television is omitted entirely).
- Distant Duet: "When I Grow Up" is staged as a distant Crowd Song; instead of all being in the same place, the singers each sing their separate parts as they make their individual ways home from school, but still harmonise with each other.
- Doting Parent: This goes for all the other children, it seems. "My mummy says I'm a miracle!"
- Dramatic Irony: When Matilda starts telling the story of the Acrobat and the Escapologist to Mrs. Phelps, the story unexpectedly takes a dark turn, so Mrs. Phelps wonders if Matilda having to deal with a bully at school. Mrs. Phelps advises Matilda that the best way to deal with bullies is to tell someone, like a teacher, or even the headmistress. However, we the audience are aware that the actual problem is the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, so telling her would not solve the problem.
- The Dreaded: Miss Trunchbull. And how! Matilda doesn't believe the other students at first, who say the headmistress has done far and above cruel things to them. It's the Trunchbull throwing Amanda Thripp by the pigtails over the fence that Matilda realizes they weren't lying.
- Dumb Blonde: Mrs. Wormwood.
- Empathic Environment: On a bright and sunny day, Miss Honey pumps her students up for a fun music class; the moment Miss Trunchbull barges in to ruin their joy, the sunlight immediately fades away.
- Evil Uncle: Miss Honey's aunt is the female version, terrorising her and stealing most of her wages. If Matilda's story about Miss Honey's parents is literally true, then she caused the death of Miss Honey's mother and she may well have murdered Miss Honey's father as well.
- Face Palm: Eric, when Matilda apparently sells Nigel out to the vengeful Trunchbull after the children have gone to a signficant amount of effort to hide him.
- The Film of the Play: A filmed adaptation of the musical Matilda.
- Force Feeding: Bruce Bogtrotter steals some cake and is forced to eat the whole rest of the giant cake. When he succeeds against all expectations, the Trunchbull is angry and throws him in Chokey for further punishment.
- Foreshadowing:
- During the song "Quiet", Matilda has an Imagine Spot of herself in a happy place, wearing a blue blouse and jeans. At the end of the film, when she moves into Miss Honey's house, she's wearing the same blue blouse and jeans.
- Mrs. Phelps almost calls the police after hearing the abuse the acrobat's evil stepsister puts the escapologist's daughter through in Matilda's story, saying that she feels it's "so real". Turns out it is real.
- Gendered Insult: Perhaps based solely on having wanted a son, Mr Wormwood typically refers to Matilda as a boy. At the prospect of allowing Miss Honey to adopt her, he refers to her as "my daughter". This does not go unnoticed by Matilda.
- Glory Days: Miss Trunchbull dwells on her status as English Hammer-throwing Champion, 1969; it strongly colours her attitude and her approach to the teaching profession, along with providing her an... extreme option for dealing with the children. Especially those with Girlish Pigtails.
- Gym Class Hell: A favoured approach when Miss Trunchbull scents rebellion among the children.
- Happily Adopted: Naturally, Matilda is adopted by Miss Honey at the end and is now far happier than she ever was before.
- Heavy Sleeper: Nigel "suffers from the rare but chronic sleep disorder narcolepsy" — not really, but Matilda fabricates this lie to save him from Miss Trunchbull's punishment for a wrongly-accused prank.
- Honest John's Dealership: Mr Wormwood's approach to selling cars.
- Hurricane of Puns: "School Song" is full of puns on the letters of the alphabet.
- "I Am" Song: In "The Hammer", Miss Trunchbull recalls her Glory Days and explains how they've made her the person she is today.
- I Am Spartacus: When Miss Trunchbull springs a surprise spelling test on the class near the end, she deliberately gives one child a made-up word with silent letters so the child will spell it wrong, and then threatens to put her in the Chokey. But suddenly, the rest of the class also starts misspelling words, which would cause all of them to face the same punishment. They defiantly tell Miss Trunchbull that she can't put them all in the Chokey at the same time, as they wouldn't fit. Unfortunately, Miss Trunchbull has a backup plan, revealing she's made a lot more Chokeys, so Matilda has to defeat her directly.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The official full title is Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical.
- Ironic Echo: Among the things done to Miss Trunchbull when Matilda channels Magnus is that her long hair is styled into a pair of braids before she is put through a massive version of what she did to Amanda Thripp.
- "I Want" Song: "When I Grow Up", both for the children wanting to do things their parents don't allow and for Miss Honey to stand up for herself and confront her demons.
- Large Ham: Not to the same extent as Pam Ferris, but still, Emma Thompson was clearly having a blast playing the Trunchbull.
- Long List: Matilda's list of the books she's read in the past few days.
- Mind over Matter: Matilda develops an ability to move things with her mind.
- Movie Bonus Song: "Still Holding My Hand", a new closing number, is used in place of the stage version reprising "When I Grow Up" and "Naughty", although a reprise of the former plays over the first part of the end credits.
- Neologism: "Amchellakamanialseptricolistimosis", which Miss Trunchbull orders Lavender to spell or she goes to the Chokey.
- The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Bruce and the cake.
- Obfuscating Insanity: In the middle of "The Smell of Rebellion", Miss Trunchbull wanders off topic into describing a bizarre daydream involving parrots and horses. When one of the students says, "She's mad!", she immediately resumes her usual persona, indicating it was a trick to get one of the students to do something to justify punishing them.
- Ominous Multiple Screens: Miss Trunchbull is looking at them the first time Miss Honey enters her office.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Acrobat's white scarf, which she gave to her husband, who then gave it to their child. Seeing Miss Honey with the same scarf helps Matilda put the pieces together.
- Parental Love Song: "I'm Here", sung by the Escapologist to his daughter.
- Pet the Dog: When faced with leaving Matilda in the care of Miss Honey, Mr Wormwood, for the first time since (presumably) Matilda's birth, refers to her as "my daughter", having called her a boy/"my son" previously, and genuinely asks Matilda if she would like to be with Miss Honey. As they depart, Mrs Wormwood can be seen waving to her daughter.
- Physical Fitness Punishment: In an effort to "break" her students, the Trunchbull forces Matilda's entire class to jog through the forest in the rain, before enduring a grueling obstacle course of her design.
- Pint-Sized Kid: Eric is tiny, even compared to the other children.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- Unlike the stage musical where the older students are played by adults, the movie casts age-appropriate kids in the roles since film is a more literal medium.
- The number "When I Grow Up" has the scene with the swings replaced with a distant Crowd Song full of different children's ImagineSpot as they go home due to the swings not being cinematic on film.
- Punishment Box: The Chokey.
- Race Lift:
- Miss Honey is played by Lashana Lynch, of Afro-Caribbean decent. This also extends to her parents, the Escapologist and Acrobat.
- Mrs Phelps was white in both the book and 1996 film, while the original stage production portrayed her as black. In this version, she is played by an Indian actress, Sindhu Vee.
- Refuge in Audacity: Miss Trunchbull's standard policy is to punish the kids in ways so outlandish, such as taking a girl by the pigtails and throwing her like a hammer, that if they try to tell others about it, no one would believe them.
- Remake Cameo: Lauren Ward, Gina Beck, and Miria Parvin appear during the opening number. All three women had previously played Miss Honey in the stage production.
- Running Gag:
- In the first scene, Mr. Wormwood assumes that his new child is a son, and continues to address Matilda as "boy" in every subsequent scene until the final scene, where he gets it right when showing that he's genuinely going to miss her at least a bit.
- Eric's attempts to move a can of soft drink with "psychokinepsis".
- Sadist Teacher: Trunchbull. She throws Amanda by her pigtails and forces Bruce to eat an entire cake, and she takes Matilda's class outside to do a boot camp-style PE lesson in pouring rain. She indirectly caused the death of Miss Honey's mother and potentially killed Magnus personally.
- Screw Destiny: As from "Naughty", Matilda states that one can try to endure through bad times, but it isn't "right" and resolves to change her fate herself.But nobody else is gonna put it right for me.
Nobody but me is going to change my story.
Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty. - Shout-Out:
- "Or maybe because your largeness/is a bit like the TARDIS"
- To another Roald Dahl work, in the climactic song "Revolting Children": "We are revolting children, living in revolting times/We sing revolting songs, using revolting rhymes..."
- The closing montage of Matilda's new happy school and home life includes several to other Roald Dahl stories: the school is renamed from Crunchem Hall to The Big Friendly School; the new school pets include a giraffe; and Matilda and Miss Honey acquire a caravan like the one the protagonists live in in Danny, the Champion of the World.
- The Show Must Go On: The Acrobat and Escapologist choose to cancel their performance of the greatest feat known to man when they find out she's pregnant. The audience is thrilled with the news... but the Escapologist's sister (who booked the performance down to the toilet facilities) produces a contract that dictates that this trope must apply or else they will be sent to prison.
- Signature Headgear: Hortensia wears a red beret, distinguishing her from the other students.
- Sinister Schnoz: Miss Trunchbull is given a very pronounced hooknose, just like the book illustrations.
- Sinister Surveillance: Miss Trunchbull's office has a plethora of television screens surveying each room of Crunchem Hall.
- Spelling for Emphasis: At one point during "Bruce", the chorus (tries to) spell out Bruce's name:B-R-O-O-C-E!
- Sucky School: Crunchem Hall, as usual. One boy outright calls it a prison. The entire school, down to the uniforms, is dark grey and oppressive.
- Summon Backup Dancers: An entire gospel choir appears out of nowhere to act as backup singers and dancers during the doctor's solo in "Miracle".
- Surprise Pregnancy: Mrs. Wormwood's nine-month pregnancy comes as a total shock to her. There may be an element of denial involved.Mrs. Wormwood: I can't be having contractions! Contractions are for pregnant women!
- Time-Shifted Actor: Child actor Amber Adeyinka plays Miss Honey as a young girl in a flashback when Miss Honey is telling Matilda about her childhood.
- Toppled Statue: In a final act of defiance against Trunchbull, the students tear down her enormous statue in front of the school.
- Tranquil Fury: The build-up in "Quiet" that leads to Matilda discovering her powers.
- Trophy Room: Miss Trunchbull has a display of her old athletic trophies in her office.
- Truer to the Text: Zigzagged.
- Unlike the previous film adaptation, which was Americanised and set in the US, this film stays true to the book's original UK setting and features a cast of British actors.
- In the book, Matilda learns about the Trunchbull's wickedness from Hortensia and the prefects, while in the stage musical, it's a group of older kids who warn her. This version puts Hortensia back into her original role.
- Also, Miss Honey is the one who encourages Matilda to go to school after her parents claim to have been homeschooling her (and receive a fine in the process), as opposed to meeting her after Matilda starts school.
- Villainous Breakdown: Miss Trunchbull's composure is visibly slipping on the day after Matilda explodes the Chokey, and she completely loses it when Matilda uses her telekinesis to manifest the vengeful spirit of Magnus.
- Villain Song: Miss Trunchbull has two, "The Hammer" and "The Smell of Rebellion".
- Visual Pun: When Matilda sings the "grin and bear it" line in "Naughty", she drops into a pile of teddy bears!
- Wrongfully Accused: Whenever Trunchbull is pranked, she seems to pick a culprit at random (and almost always gets it wrong).
