I wanted to but couldn't!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film is about a very intelligent 6 year old girl who is under appreciated by her family and it's a very good adaptation of the book. The film keeps you interested as Matilda navigates School, her home life and her discovery of her very own telekinetic powers. The film is easy to just go with and the characters are memorable and each bring something special to the film. I definitely recommend!

Let me get this out of the way, first. Most people who view this film for the first time as an adult often hate it. Its gross. Its juvenile. And very gritty at times. As a kid, I saw it, often 3 times a week. It's strength lies in just how SUBVERSIVE it is. It doesn't shy away from being blunt and to the point, and indulges kids in many mature concepts, like living with a family that doesn't love you, or, staff who are supposed to care for kids secretly abusing them. This movie presents these ideas in a very playful and exaggerated way so they don't let the move become TOO dark, but gets them across competently. And this movie is also VERY funny. As well as heartwarming. We have Matilda(Mara Wilson), an intelligent bookworm of a girl who has a cold, uncompromising, though not outright abusive parents. The mother is simply a vain, air head who doesn't care for reading, her bullying older brother who bullies her via name-calling and pelting food at her, and her father, Mr wormwood(Danby devito), who is disappointed that her daughter doesn't want to pursue his illegal trade,selling poorly-made cars at unfairly high prices. By day, Matilda must take in packages containing parts for her dad's cars as well as prepare her own meals, and to starve off boredom and loneliness, she sneaks to the library to read. She loves books, but finds to her dismay that she should have been sent to school years ago, her parents callously forgot her age and birthday. After making a lot of fuss and commotion, including humiliating her father at a resteraunt, he caves in and sends her to school. He knew about this school because it's headmistress bought a car from him. Unfortunately for Matilda, this might be the worst school imaginable, since the headmistriss, the hilariously horrible trunchbull, an ex-olympian to boot, is far worse than her parents ever could be, concocting many outlandish punishments for even insignificant misdeeds. In fact, the punishments are so strange, the children are thought to be lying about them when they told their parents, which the trunchbull uses to her advantage. However, Matilda's teacher is considerably kinder though still competent, the beautiful miss honey. The suppressed intellect of Matilda gives her psychokinesis, to her and miss Honey's surprise. However, miss honey herself and the trunchbull share a dark history together. However, I refuse to spill the beans here. The one weird aspect of this film is that Roald Dahl's knee-jerk hatred of television which was prevalent in many of his books, including Matilda, seeped into the movie. Though the anti-TV message is indeed toned down. In-short, this movie is fun, if Americanized. The only British aspect is Pam ferris devouring the scenery as the evil and very British trunchbull.

If Matilda is on TV, I watch it every time. This is one of the best stories and best children movies ever! What makes Matilda the movie special is the fabulous story and message, the great acting, and that is also fun, sweet, naughty and entertaining. First, this is Dah's Matilda through and through, respectful to the original. If you ever read the book, you know. One has to thank DeVito to respecting the classing and making a great movie out of it, instead of morphing it into something unrecognizable. Secondly, the movie has a great cast that delivers, from the little tiny secondary actors to the main ones. The actors chosen for the main roles and the secondary roles are so fused with their characters in my mind that when I see them on TV, the Internet or a magazine, I say their Matilda's character name. How can't you fall in love with Mara Wilson as Matilda? She is the quintessential Matilda to me, perfect for the role, great acting despite her age and the circumstances on which she filmed the movie. Embeth Davidtz is utterly sweet and adorable as the motherly caring Miss Honey. All the little actors playing Matilda's classmates are adorable and believable in their roles; Kiami Davael as Lavander and R.D. Robb as Roy will always be kids to me. Playing a baddie in a way that one forgets the actor behind is just nothing every actor can do. And we have a panoply of unforgettable despicable characters in Matilda, played with great passion and conviction by DeVito (Matilda's father), Pearlman (Matilda's mother) and Pam Ferris as the villain par excellence Prof. Trunchbull; they are difficult not to hate and to forget.The direction, production, ambiance, dresses and cinematography are all magic and wonderful, perfect for the story. You know, there are many cute children movies with good acting and characters out there, but what separates Matilda from the rest is that the film has an Universal message that is still modern despite Dhal's book and DeVito's movie being oldies. So, what makes this script so powerful? To start with, the story treats children with respect, as individuals with their own volition, personality and brain. Secondly, the female heroine is clever, is a good person, is independent and strong-willed but also fun and naughty. Matilda is not the shadow of anybody, especially of any male prince or hero character, she is the hero. Besides, she has depth, she knows what she wants, she is not a pretty empty doll. Furthermore, the script, focuses on highlighting those elements that make any child's upbringing successful: good morals, care for your family and love ones, respect for people, and puts a great emphasis on the value of education and on working hard to achieve what you want. Matilda doesn't want to be pretty, doesn't want to be famous, doesn't want to be rich. Matilda wants to be loved, to be happy, and get an education to develop what is inside her. Matilda reinforces positive female roles in a world in which social media disregard talent, goodness and hard work and focuses on looks, money, fame, number of followers you have, and on anything that is not what basically matters in life at the end. Matilda teaches children, especially little girls, that you don't need to be an empty doll to get what you want in life, you can be average-looking and clever and succeed at anything you focus on. Overall, the movie is great fun, magic and unforgettable because everything I want in a children movie is just there.

You take a book about the love of reading and turn it into a 101 story for children about revenge!Basically all the elements from the book are there, put in chronological order, more or less, but what in the book is a MIRACLE - the power to move things, and thus have influence in the world, explained as a product of all the books Matilda read, bubbling away inside of her - in the film becomes a SUPER POWER with which she can take revenge on the horrible headmaster of her school!In the film Matildas many read books are no more than an explanation of Matilda being very different - a special child, whom no one can really relate to. Which is why her family has to be portrayed as even worse than in the book, total trailer trash, criminals, scum and un-caring in all ways - in order to shift all attention to Matilda. And then her powers are regarded as magic, incomprehensible, which is exactly what they seem, seeing as they come out of nowhere. Or rather: They come from ANGER in the film. A product of anger - rather than, what they really are in the book: An analogy of what reading books can bring: The power to move things. i.e. affect the world with absorbed knowledge. Watching it today for the first time I found it more and more unbelievable: Its a movie about PAYBACK! It's got nothing of the relevant framework making the book such a great identifier for children: That cruel and unimaginative adults can be countered by curiosity and knowledge!Avoid this movie like the plague. Do NOT serve to your self or any children. READ it to them instead. And revel in your own memories of horribly, terribly, ghastly stupid and cruel adults, as you take on the role of headmistress and hear your children giggle from all of Roald Dahls inventive cursing!