Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical Trailer: Revolting Children Singing Revolting Rhymes
The children are revolting! Roald Dahl's beloved children's book "Matilda" is getting a new movie adaptation, this time based on the stage musical by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin. Directed by Matthew Warchus (who also directed the stage play), "Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" is coming to Netflix in December, and the streaming service has just released a new trailer.
The film stars Alisha Weir as Matilda Wormwood, a little girl gifted with a genius mind but cursed with truly horrible parents. After living a lonely early life with only books for company, Matilda is sent to Crunchem Hall, a school ruled over by the fiercely authoritarian Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson), who despises children and uses her position of power to torture them. The one bright spot at Crunchem is Matilda's teacher, Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch), who does her best to create a oasis of fun and learning for the kids in her class.
If you've read the book or seen the 1996 version of "Matilda," you'll know where this is going: pigtails, chocolate cake, telekinetic superpowers, and other Roald Dahl things. Check out the new trailer for "Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" below.
Watch the trailer for Roald Dahl's Matilda: The Musical
"Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" recently premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, where I saw it and wrote up the review for /Film. Bottom line: it's worth catching in theaters rather than waiting for the Netflix release, because those big musical sequences looked and sounded great on a big screen. While I was underwhelmed by Thompson's Miss Trunchbull (partly due to Pam Ferris setting the bar so high, and partly because Thompson is kind of buried under her body suit and all the facial prosthetics), it's otherwise a great musical and a faithful adaptation of Dahl's book.
This trailer offers a taste of some of the songs featured throughout the film, as well as its mix of sweetness and darkness. The best Roald Dahl adaptations (looking at you, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory") have a ribbon of black comedy running through them that was a signature of the author's work, and this new take on "Matilda" certain has that. Let's just say you definitely don't want to be sent to the Chokey.
Sony Pictures UK/TriStar Pictures will release "Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" theatrically in the U.K. and Ireland on November 25, 2022. In the U.S. it will arrive in select theaters on December 9, 2022, and on Netflix on December 25, 2022. Netflix will also be handling worldwide distribution outside of the U.K./Ireland.