Summary
Like many ‘90s kids, I spent my childhood terrified of Miss Trunchbull fromMatilda– and now, the movie is trending on Netflix. Adapted from the classic Roald Dahl book of the same name,Matildastars Mara Wilson as the eponymous child prodigy, who develops psychokinetic powers and uses them to fight back against her abusive family and the ruthless headmistress of her school. The adaptation was directed by Danny DeVito, who also plays dual roles as Matilda’s reprehensible father and the film’s narrator. Rhea Perlman plays Matilda’s mother and Embeth Davidtz plays her kind-hearted teacher, Miss Honey.
Although everyone intheMatildacastdoes a great job,it’s Pam Ferris who steals the show as the movie’s main villain, Miss Trunchbull, the tyrannical principal of Matilda’s school. There are two kinds of villains in children’s movies. There’s the kind who are fun to watch, like Ursula or Cruella de Vil, and there’s the kind who are so terrifying that they ruin childhoods, like the Other Mother fromCoralineor Judge Doom fromWho Framed Roger Rabbit. Miss Trunchbull falls into the latter category. She traumatized many a young viewer – including me.
Danny DeVito’s Matilda Is Now Trending On Netflix
Matilda hit Netflix on July 1
Matildaarrived in the streaming library of Netflix on July 1, and it’s already trendingon the site. Along with brand-new original releases likeA Family AffairandBeverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Matilda has found a massive audience around the globe. And it’s hardly surprising;Matildais a great movie. It’s a well-written, well-directed adaptation with a terrific cast. Wilson has the star power to carry a movie and the dramatic chops to make audiences empathize with her character. DeVito and Perlman share hilarious chemistry as a bickering married couple who can’t stand their own daughter.
Matildatakes DeVito’s signature pitch-black sense of humor, seen in his other directorial efforts likeDeath to Smoochy,The War of the Roses, andThrow Momma from the Train, and translates it into a kids’ movie.Matildadoesn’t have the hard-R crudeness of DeVito’s other comedies, but its sense of humor is just as delightfully dark. It’s one ofthe greatest Roald Dahl adaptations, because DeVito captures the unique approach that made Dahl so legendary: seeing just how far he can push the darkness of a story intended for children.
Matildawas a box office bomb on its initial release, but it’s since been reappraised as a cult classic.
Miss Trunchbull Is Still The Scariest Kids Movie Villain From My Childhood
Matilda’s villain is a source of nightmare fuel
Although I would grow into a horror fanatic in my teenage years, as a young child, I was very easily scared. I was horrified when Lex Luthor arranged to have a police officer hit by a train in 1978’sSuperman. I was horrified when Amos got caught in one of his own bear traps inThe Fox and the Hound. And I wouldn’t even set foot in the shallow end of a swimming pool after watchingJaws. But all that fear was nothing compared to the sheer terror ofMatilda’s Miss Trunchbull.
As a kid, watching Miss Trunchbull on a TV screen was scarier than being in trouble with an actual teacher at school. She has a torture device called “The Chokey” – a box full of nails and shards of broken glass where she locks unruly children – and in the nail-biting climactic sequence, she chases Matilda around her house with her hammer. For those born in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, Miss Trunchbull was arguably the scariest villain in kids’ cinema. WithMatildatrending on Netflix, it looks like a new generation of kids are going to be terrified by her now.
Miss Trunchbull Gives Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Terrifying Kids Movie Villain A Run For His Money
Miss Trunchbull wasn’t the first children’s movie villain to haunt childhoods
Although Miss Trunchbull was the scariest movie villain from my childhood, she wasn’t the first villain from a kids’ movie to terrify young viewers. The originator of this trope – the trope of a kids’ movie’s baddie being much, much scarier than they need to be – was the Child Catcher fromChitty Chitty Bang Bang.The Child Catcher rides around the streets of Vulgaria with a giant cage on wheels, where he lures and imprisons children; he’s the stuff of nightmares, and way more terrifying than the villain of a whimsical comedy about a flying car had any right to be.
The Child Catcher didn’t appear inIan Fleming’s originalChitty Chitty Bang Bangbook, so he was an original creation for the movie adaptation – which, interestingly enough, was scripted by none other thanMatildaauthor Roald Dahl. Clearly, Dahl enjoyed creating horrifying villains that would keep children up at night. And he didn’t stop there: he also created the Fleshlumpeater, the Grand High Witch, and, of course, Willy Wonka.
Matilda
Cast
Matilda is the 1996 live-action movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel of the same name. It tells the story of Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson), a child prodigy who develops telekinetic powers while dealing with her abusive family and her school’s dictatorial principal Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) with the help of her teacher Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). Danny DeVito directs the film and plays Matilda’s father, Harry.
