Matilda is a 1996 American comedy family drama fantasy narrated, directed and produced by Danny DeVito, it
is based on the novel by Roald Dahl of same name.
Matilda not only revives my childhood memories but also provides an escape sometimes, it is one of those
movies which were hard to miss during the early 2000’s and I was six or seven I guess , when I first saw Matilda
on the television.
Every child of my age had seen this movie and not only did the kids but also the adults loved it at that time,
Mara Wilson played the role of Matilda, although I did not notice many small details of the movie when I was
young but they are really hard to miss now.
The plot
Matilda (Mara Wilson) is a child genius who’s neglected and mistreated by her parents,she is an adopted child of
her parents, Harry and Zinnia Wormwood which is portrayed with comedic twist by real-life married couple
Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.
Harry Wormwood is a dealer of fake car parts and sells the cheap cars at a very high price;
The Wormwoods refuse to send Matilda to school, until one day, when Harry sells a used car to the
principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School in exchange for her admitting his daughter as a pupil.
Matilda soon discovers that Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) , the principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School
is a tyrannical person who has a thing against children, she gets annoyed by them very easily and punishing them
gives her joy , she not only does punish them as a teacher but also locks them in a Chokey for any problems
caused by them,
Matilda discovers her powers
On the other hand the constant nagging and yelling by the Wormwoods lead to Matilda discovering her hidden
talent she not only was a smart kid but also was a telekinetic , she enjoys her new powers at her house by
playing a little,
At her school she absolutely loves her sweet and very lovable teacher Miss Jennifer Honey (Embeth Davidtz),who
loves every child for their uniqueness,
Later on Matilda is told by Miss Honey that her mother died when she was 2 years old and later her father
married his wife’s step sister and after a few years it so happened that her father also killed himself , Although
Miss Honey never believed that her father,Magnus really did kill himself whereas the step mother of Miss Honey
was none other than Trunchbull .
After thinking about it a little Matilda also thinks that Magnus hadn’t killed himself to which Honey agrees to
saying,’ neither did she’.
Later on Matilda helps everyone by teaching Trunchbull a lesson using her magical powers, everything turns out
right in the end with Trunchbull gone , miss Honey moves back to her house where Matilda also asks her to
adopt her to which the Wormwoods agree to.
Matilda beautifully portrays a child’s way of thinking and drawing conclusions
In the first half of the movie where Matilda does the calculations in her mind , instead of praising and realizing
how genius she was her father punishes her saying ,
When a person is bad that person has to be taught a lesson
and instead of saying when a child is bad Harry WOrmwood says when a person is bad, this gives Matilda the
idea that she can punish her father for being which she eventually does in a quite comical manner and I enjoy
that part every time.
Secondly, Matilda is only 4 when she reads all the magazines in her house and asks her father for a book to which
her father annoyingly and profusely refuses , according to her father education means nothing,
so the next day Matilda herself sets off for the Library in search of a book and by the time she is six and a half,
she has her own library card and manages to read all by herself, this shows her love for education and how
independent she was ever since the little age of four.
Matilda would have been every parent’s favorite
Well, who didn’t watch the Television when they were little , Matilda didn’t she preferred books over television
and enjoyed her time playing with her school friends, when she and her school friends catch a bug while playing ,
they don’t know at first what it is but they tend to find out about it in an encyclopedia, this shows the curious and wonderful mind of the children,
On the other hand one of Matilda’s friend keeps the bug(Newt) in the jug of water for scaring Trunchbull, which
also signifies how children can be a little mischievous at times but it is normal for children being playful and joyous.
Matilda was not only a smart kid, she was also very generous and kind , she helped Miss Honey get her house
and property back and also helped her father Harry Wormwood despite him never loving her, she took out
sometime to save her father from getting caught by the FBI .
In the end when Wormwood’s are escaping from getting caught by the police they come to take Matilda away
but instead of leaving she asks Miss Honey to adopt her, when Harry says he doesn’t have time for legalities
,Matilda says she already had the adoption papers and got it from the library,
This shows that Matilda knew from the very beginning that she did not fit in that family, she was a smart kid and
a very courageous one indeed.
Matilda moved me as a kid and does the same even now
As we all know that the times we are living in requires a lot of courage and peace of mind, when I was little I
extremely admired how Matilda had the courage to stand up for herself and for the things she felt were right,
Even now when sometimes I feel like relaxing a bit I watch this movie with my siblings for a nostalgic escape to the magical world this beautiful movie has left us with.
