Matilda, an extraordinary girl armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand against her oppressive parents and head teacher to change her story with miraculous results.
What Parents need to know before letting their kids watch this. – It includes a lot of cartoonish violence, nearly all of it perpetrated by a bullying school principal. Children who displease the evil principal are put in “the chokey,” a dark closet lined with nails and broken glass. The critics/ viewing audience gave it high marks but we must remember they are adults viewing the movie not little children.
Q tips say: Was ok. Following the success of the fabulous stage version of Matilda, I am sure many families are eagerly reading the book, which is to be expected but it may be worth remembering that when Matilda came out in 1988 it was the “must read” for children in years five and six, so nine or ten rather than five.
Mrs. Q says: While there is much in Matilda that a five-year-old might enjoy – primarily Matilda herself and, of course, her lovely relationship with the wonderful Miss Honey – there is also a lot in the book that is Dahl at his most brutal and his most snobbish. The way in which Miss Trunchbull is portrayed could just be plain scary for a five-year-old and might raise anxieties about school which would be entirely misplaced. She is one of the great caricatures of children’s literature but readers need to be old enough to recognize that she bears little resemblance to anybody “real”; a child needs a certain amount of sophistication to be able to make the distinction. Plus we must mention how her parents treat her-not in a good way.