Matilda (1996 film)

Young genius Matilda Wormwood is neglected and mistreated by her used car salesman father Harry and stay-at-home mother Zinnia, and her older brother, Michael. Smart and independent, she finds solace in the fictional worlds of books at the public library. When Matilda's parents refuse to enroll her into school, she puts bleach in her father's hair tonic and glues his hat to his head. Harry catches Matilda reading Moby-Dick, rips it up, and forces her to watch game shows on television. Matilda becomes increasingly enraged until the television explodes.

Harry sells a car to Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the tyrannical principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, in exchange for admitting Matilda as a student. Upon her first day, Matilda meets Hortensia and warns her about the headmistress's ways and watches Ms. Trunchbull in horror as she swings a girl named Amanda Thripp around by her hair and hammer throw her over a field of flowers as punishment for having her hair in pigtails. Matilda's teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, notices the ease with which Matilda answers middle school multiplication questions and requests Matilda be moved to a higher class, but Trunchbull refuses and proceeds to tell Miss Honey if she cannot handle Matilda herself, that Ms. Trunchbull would lock her in the chokey. The Wormwoods are not interested either and disrespectfully kick her out. Trunchbull has the whole school watch her forcing a boy named Bruce Bogtrotter to eat an entire enormous chocolate cake as punishment for stealing her piece of chocolate cake from the school kitchen. Matilda leads the junior and senior students in cheering Bruce to success, and Trunchbull gives them all five hours detention as a punishment. Matilda discovers her father is under surveillance by the FBI over his illegal dealings. Her parents refuse to believe her as Zinnia flirts with the two agents whom she believes are speedboat salesmen.

After discovering the car Mr. Wormwood sold her was faulty, Trunchbull locks Matilda in 'the Chokey', a small cramped cupboard resembling an iron maiden, as punishment. While she waits to be let out, her friend Lavender puts a newt in Trunchbull's water jug. Trunchbull accuses Matilda, who, in anger at the injustice, mysteriously tips the glass over, splashing the newt onto Trunchbull. Matilda is unable to reproduce her powers to Miss Honey during a test. Miss Honey invites Matilda to tea after school and lets her in on a secret: her mother died when she was two, and her father Magnus invited his wife's stepsister, Trunchbull, to live with them and look after her, but Trunchbull abused her. Magnus died, apparently by suicide, three years later, supposedly leaving everything in his will to Trunchbull, who Honey suspects murdered him. Matilda and Miss Honey sneak into Trunchbull's house to retrieve some of Honey's belongings, but narrowly escape when Trunchbull unexpectedly returns early.

Matilda practices her telekinetic powers and thwarts the FBI agents to buy Harry time to come to his senses. She returns to Trunchbull's house and attempts to scare her out of it but Trunchbull becomes aware of Matilda's visiting upon finding her red hair ribbon in her garden. The next day, Matilda reveals her powers to Miss Honey but Trunchbull visits the class to make Matilda confess. Matilda telekinetically writes a message on the blackboard, posing as the vengeful spirit of Magnus (whom Trunchbull thought was haunting her house) and accusing Trunchbull of murdering him. Trunchbull attacks students at random in a rage, but Matilda protects them and the student body, both junior and senior, throw lunches at her as she is ran out the school for good. Miss Honey moves back into her house.

Harry, Zinnia, and Michael come to Miss Honey's house to collect Matilda and flee to Guam to avoid the FBI. Matilda refuses to go, saying she would rather be adopted by Miss Honey. Her parents are initially reluctant but her mother apologises for never understanding her only daughter. Desperate to leave, the parents sign the adoption papers and Matilda lives happily with Miss Honey, who becomes the principal.

In November 1993, it was announced that Universal Pictures had won a screen adaptation of Matilda by Roald Dahl written by writers Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord following a heated bidding war between Universal and Columbia Pictures.[4] Following disagreements between Danny Devito and Bregman-Baer Productions over budgetary concerns, Universal put Matilda into turnaround with Columbia's TriStar Pictures picking up the project.[5]

Miriam Margolyes confirmed that she auditioned for the role of Agatha Trunchbull during a filmed interview with Jo Brand for the UK television special Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book which was hosted by Richard E. Grant and aired on September 22, 2007. This documentary commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture.[6] Margolyes went on to play Aunt Sponge (another Dahl villainess) as well as the voice of the Glowworm in James and the Giant Peach which was also released in 1996.

Pam Ferris (Miss Trunchbull) incurred several injuries during the production on the film. The climactic scene where she is whacked by blackboard rubbers required her to keep her eyes open, causing chalk dust to get caught in her eyes and necessitating several trips to the hospital to get her eyes washed out.[7] The scene where Trunchbull whirls Amanda Thripp (Jacqueline Steiger) by her pigtails required a harness to support the little girl, the wires of which were threaded through the pigtails and then looped around Ferris's fingertips to give her grip. As she swung her around, the centrifugal force grew too great and tore the top part of Ferris' finger, requiring seven or eight stitches.[7]

The Crank House, in Altadena, stood in for Miss Trunchbull's house.[8] The exterior of Matilda's house is located on Youngwood Drive in Whittier,[9] while the library she visits is the Pasadena Public Library on East Walnut Street in Pasadena.[10]

On March 10, 1995, Mara Wilson's mother, Suzie Wilson, was diagnosed with breast cancer during filming and later died on April 26, 1996, four months before the film’s release.[11] The film was dedicated to her memory. Danny DeVito revealed that prior to her death, he had shown her the final edit of the movie so that she was able to see Wilson’s performance in the movie.[12]

Two songs are featured in the film. One of them, "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root, is played twice: when four-year-old Matilda is left alone at her house, making pancakes, and at the end of the film, set to a montage of Matilda and Miss Honey playing at Miss Trunchbull's former house. The other song is Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One", played when Matilda is learning to control her telekinetic powers. The film's original score was composed by David Newman, a frequent collaborator of DeVito.

The film was released on August 2, 1996, and grossed $33.5 million in the United States against a production budget of $36 million.[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, Matilda has an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus read, "Danny DeVito-directed version of Matilda is odd, charming, and while the movie diverges from Roald Dahl, it nonetheless captures the book's spirit."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[17] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.[18] Writing for Empire, Caroline Westbrook gave the film a rating of three stars and praised DeVito's clever direction.[19]

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times praised the film's oddity, gave it three stars out of four, and wrote:

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.[20]

In November 2019, DeVito said that he "always wanted to" develop a sequel to Matilda,[21] adding that a potential sequel could star Matilda's own child, due to Wilson having grown up after the film's release.[21]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Matilda (film).

• Matilda at IMDb
• Matilda at the TCM Movie Database
• Matilda at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Matilda at Box Office Mojo
• Matilda at Moviechat Archived August 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine