Matilda the Musical (2022)

Matilda the Musical (2022)

 7/10

 Starring

Alisha Weir

Lashana Lynch

Stephen Graham

Andrea Riseborough

Emma Thompson

 

Directed by Matthew Warchus

 

This new Matilda version is amazing. I am not a fan of musicals but this one tick all the boxes when it comes to fun, dancing, singing and the songs itself are catchy and fun to listen to.

If you have been on TikTok in this past months before this December 2022 release, you would have caught the glimpse of the red beret girl dancing to the song “revolting children.” Since then, many of us have been hooked to see what other musical numbers this movie has to offer, and it did deliver. The acting of the child actor Alisha Weir who plays Matilda is just one step above what you would have expected her to pull. She was captivating in her actions and made the movie so glorious every time she was on screen.

The musicals are the wonderful work of the Tim Minchin the British-Australian musical comedian, so I knew the songs were going to be catchy and worth every minute. Since this movie is the adaptation of the Matilda Musical by same Minchin, there was nothing changed, the songs were used as they were in the stage performance and a lot of tweaks to make the movie classy enough to warrant a rewatch.

Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 book Matilda. This adaptation changes some of the things from the book, how Matilda decided to get even with her parents and how she discovered her powers.

Having read the book and seen the first Matilda movie with Danny DeVito (1996), the character Miss Trunchbull seems to be made to be more cruel in every iteration.

This movie starts with the birth of Matilda, and she is being immediately seen as an unwanted part of the Wormwoods. Her parents see here as a major inconvenience and are not even part of her life and did not even know when she started reading and how come she always has access to books. Matilda has made friends with the local travel library lady, and they have become friends. After the government fine the Wormwoods for not sending their child to school, they were forced to send her to a school whose headmistress is the wicked and cruel Miss Trunchbull.

Matilda who is now fed up of being bullied at home was not willing to take anymore bullying from school and stood up at every opportunity to Miss Trunchbull. When she discovers her powers, she used it to the advantage of the other school children and her newfound love for her teacher Miss Honey seems to be the only best thing she can savage from this school.

Worth every minute.