Matilda: Book vs. Movie
Matthew Warchus’s Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022) adapts the stage musical by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, based on Dahl’s 1988 novel. A gifted schoolgirl challenges the adults who try to silence her.
From Books Adapted
What changed from the book
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The acrobat and escapologist turn Miss Honey’s past into a second story
The story Matilda tells Mrs. Phelps about an acrobat and an escapologist was invented by Kelly. It does not appear in Dahl’s book.
As Matilda continues telling it, the story turns out to describe Miss Honey’s parents and childhood. The book gives Miss Honey a late account of her past. The musical spreads that history through Matilda’s storytelling before revealing the connection.
Warchus initially thought Kelly had found another Dahl story and combined it with Matilda. Minchin said the added plot gave the separate childhood episodes a continuing narrative.
How it was adapted
Dahl’s book reaches the movie through the stage musical
The 2022 movie adapts Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s stage musical, which had already rewritten Dahl’s novel. It covers the book’s main story in one movie, retaining the musical’s songs and added plot.
Kelly, who wrote both scripts, and Minchin described the book’s early chapters as separate episodes of Matilda playing tricks. Their musical added a continuing story for Matilda to tell Mrs. Phelps. For the movie, they also cut songs that kept the action away from Matilda, Miss Honey and the school, including Mrs. Wormwood’s “Loud.”
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Roald Dahl
- Year
- 1986
- Pages
- 256Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 4 hr 18 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Kate Winslet
Matilda teaches herself to read in a home where books are treated as a nuisance and dishonesty is a family trade. School brings her a teacher who recognizes her abilities, but also a headmistress who terrorizes children and refuses to believe anything good about them. When Matilda discovers an unusual power, her friendship with Miss Honey gives her a reason to do more than play tricks on cruel adults.
- Director
- Matthew Warchus
- Writer
- Dennis Kelly
- Year
- 2022
- Runtime
- 1 hr 57 min
- Cast
- Alisha Weir, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough
- Genre
- comedy drama, musical
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Matilda arrives at Crunchem Hall eager to learn, only to find a school built around Miss Trunchbull’s contempt for children. While inventing a story about an acrobat and an escapologist for a sympathetic librarian, she forms a bond with her teacher, Miss Honey. Songs, stories, and an emerging power give Matilda ways to challenge the adults who insist that children have no say in their own lives.
Other adaptations of this book
MatildaMovie · 1996Details
- Director
- Danny DeVito
- Writer
- Robin Swicord, Nicholas Kazan
- Year
- 1996
- Runtime
- 1 hr 38 min
- Cast
- Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Embeth Davidtz
For Matilda Wormwood, the public library offers an escape from parents who ridicule her intelligence and barely notice what she does. Starting school gives her an ally in Miss Honey, but the violent principal Trunchbull makes classrooms as unsafe as home. Matilda’s discovery that she can move objects with her mind opens up a way to protect her friends and help the teacher who believes in her.
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