Matilda: The Musical

I was watching this thinking how much Alisha Weir's performance in the title role reminded me of Emma Watson's "Hermione" from back in 2001! Feisty and intelligent, she is sent by her parents to the "Cruncher Hall" school where she encounters "Miss Trunchbull" (Dame Emma Thompson). Now this is a teacher who would not have looked out of place working with King Herod at Christmas! The children live in fear of her, as do the staff - but as "Matilda" starts to bond with "Miss Honey" (Lashana Lynch) and realises her true potential, well - a rebellion is soon in the offing! It's a strong story this - Dahl addressed many issues of neglectful parenting, bullying, intimidation and sexual stereotyping and Tim Minchin puts much of that sentiment effectively to music with a clever and entertaining lyric. The almost unrecognisable Dame Emma is on top form exuding an almost ridiculous degree of menace as helped by her array of cctv cameras, she rules the school with a rod of iron. Weir really enters into the spirit of things - she puts her heart and soul into the enthusiastic, mischievous and engaging character and with some enjoyably choreographed ensemble dance numbers this all delivers well. It still has a bit of the theatrical to it, some of the production doesn't quite make the best use of the flexibility the big screen offers, but the toe-tapping "Naughty" and "Revolting Children" help put a smile on your face for a surprisingly quickly-paced two hours.

It's been 26 years since the premiere of Matilda, the iconic film of the nineties and cleverly directed by the great Danny DeVito. Today it is the turn of Matthew Warchus to take over and deliver us a perfect successor to the 1996 film with a sublime musical of the popular Roald Dahl novel.

It is charming, dark and portentous.

The script that Dennis Kelly writes simply shines with mastery to deliver us a movie that completely fills our emotions and sensations. It is a film that enchants from the beginning, but that does not hesitate to take us into darkness, authentically capturing that purest essence of the novel and for that the visual spectacle is totally marvelous that makes us be glued to the screen and simply enter in the musical and lyrical harmony of Tim Minchin that puts the most recent Netflix premiere at our feet.

The cunning with which the director takes Kelly's splendid script to images, allows us to have a first-cut cinematographic experience when watching it. With perfect musical segments in choreography and dance and the darkness in moments of feeling that you are in a subtle world of Stephen King. That combination elevates to a point of maximum enjoyment of everything we are seeing on the screen and to a large extent hypnotized by the photography provided by Tat Radcliffe that intensifies all that greatness that this new version of Matilda supposes that at no time forgets that theatrical blood of which is fed.

That good performance of all of the above mentioned makes us forget about the weak points that the film may have. The perfect compensation so that we end up more than satisfied with what we are seeing.

From the greatness of Emma Thompson to the promise of Alisha Weir.

Undoubtedly the greatest charm that we find is seeing Alisha Weir be the skin of Matilda; The acting charisma with which the little actress dazzles on the screen makes us excited about a promising one and that is that she comes face to face with all the poise of an Emma Thompson and both only make the screen shine with magic when we have them sharing the scene.

I cannot leave aside the correct work that the rest of the children's cast does and seeing Lashana Lynch sing is priceless, in the same way I cannot leave aside the entertaining step of Andrea Riseborough and Stephen Graham as Matilda's parents.

A cast that further highlights the good work that the film had already had.

Conclution.

It is a pleasant surprise, what it means to be the new version of Matilda for Netflix from Sony.

A film full of emotions that transports you through all those sensitive fibers with which we count as a spectator. Joy, darkness, sorrow and hope cover the 117-minute journey to the pleasure of enjoying a perfect adaptation of a novel and a play, capturing the best of both scenarios to provide an enriching experience on the screen.

A film that is worth watching and enjoyed by both adults and children, it is the journey through what it is to be a child and also what it means to be parents, it is a tale of the purest feeling called love.

My children are currently rehearsing for this musical with their theatre group so we were looking forward to this.

The songs are all there and brilliantly performed. The staging and filming is so stunning to watch. Emma Thompson plays a good Miss Trunchabull. We all know the story of Matilda so I won't go into that but this is a film for the whole family to enjoy. Don't wait for it to stream on Netflix, this film really benefits from a big screen and awesome sound stage.

I would happily watch this film again, it was an excellent feel good film. The cast were perfect in each of the roles and choreography was brilliant.

THANK YOU Netflix for not letting this go straight to streaming. You just cannot beat the cinema experience and with a score and orchestrations like this you need that Dolby surround sound to appreciate the fullness.

I saw the film as a kid, and as I love musicals, I listened to the soundtrack on Spotify last week and can totally understand why this won so many awards. I would suggest that The Greatest Showman actually copied some of their score as there are so many parities.

The casting is first class, there is not a bad link anywhere in the production and what can I say about Emma Thompson, she is one gifted actress and always commands the screen, never more so than here. She would say that actors don't saves lives and it's just a job, but she does it SO well, in the world of awards she totally deserves one for this and ALL her work. Miss Honey had a beautiful voice and amazing actor too, the child lead was equally as outstanding.

I found the story very moving and tears were rolling down my face when 'Quiet' started. Yes, I'm a bloke, and unashamedly get emotional at things like this.

A part of my job as a community nurse is Safeguarding children and, although I found the film funny when I was young, not so now, however it was done very responsibly and sent out the right number of messages about 'telling someone'. I found parts very dark, that originally, I would have been able to view as humorous.

Kids don't ask to be born do they.

Most people were crying at times, especially at the end so take your tissues!

The filming was done in bright colours which makes a change from the drab brown screen.

The musical numbers were superbly choregraphed and the orchestrations made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I will see it again with my family next week, it is THAT good.

Netflix did an amazing job with The Prom too, but sadly they let that go straight to streaming, I really hope they learn from this and stop just streaming all the really good stuff, which is few and far between anyway, obviously.

Fittingly this is a British cast and filmed in the UK. Roald Dahl would have been proud. The exception to the rule being Tim Minchin. But his music transposes from stage to film excellently, allowing for an even greater visual feast playing with his clever lyrics.

My biggest issue with the 1996 version being Danny DeVito playing Mr Wormwood as well as being the narrator. But this film avoids the obvious pitholes and is a huge step away from the original, music aside.

The casting is well thought. Emma Thompson playing Miss Trunchbull with little effort it seems as she is obviously enjoying every evil second of it. I don't mean to be mean to Ms. Thompson, but it really didn't look like she was wearing much in the way of prosthetics, but I mean this in a good way. Nanny McPhee simply looked like Emma Thompson wearing loads of plastic.

You know Stephen Graham always delivers but my only criticism is that he was on screen too little. Andrea Riseborough was new to me, but again, too little screen time. I guess being a musical, they had to devote more time to the musical numbers. The two main hitters being "When I grow up" and "Revolting Children" These were well presented and brilliantly re-worked for the big screen.

When I first saw Alisha Weir (Matilda) I was a bit worried that she wouldn't deliver, the role of Matilda being a lot more complex than it first appears. But I was very quickly blown away by her ability to bring pathos and the next minute show that she was no pushover no matter the consequences. I was also glad that she was not your typical stage kid. Her performance being understated and effective in the process.

The standout performance was for me Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey. She deserves awards galore for this role. If she doesn't make you cry then you are made of stone.

This will undoubtedly be a classic and there is the appetite for strong female protagonists right now - Wednesday Addams put that meal on the table! A great family favourite made even better than the original.