Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical
Netflix | Release Date: December 9, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Paste MagazineAmy AmatangeloJan 2, 2023
Just give yourself over the utter weirdness. Read full review
90
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 8, 2022
It’s a truism that actors love playing scoundrels much more than goody-goodies – though Thompson excels at both. Here she goes full out into villainy mode, and she’s a hoot. Read full review
90
TheWrapKatie WalshDec 8, 2022
Retaining the creative forces behind the successful musical is the key to the movie musical’s success, as “Matilda the Musical” maintains the mischievous humor and the uniquely oddball sensibility of the stage production and book, delivering a wonderfully rousing screen adaptation anchored by superb performances. Read full review
88
Washington PostPeter MarksDec 19, 2022
Matilda...explodes with an exhilarating pleasure in filmic transformation, in harnessing the strength of one medium and regenerating it freshly in another. Read full review
83
The PlaylistSimon ThompsonDec 26, 2022
If you’re down for a wild ride and a spectacle, this is a beautiful, confident, and big-hearted experience that is way better than it needs to be and more than does justice to the legacy of Dahl’s creation. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonDec 26, 2022
For a film that takes this much glee in cruelty — Matilda is called “a brat,” “a bore,” “a lousy little worm” and “a nasty, little troublemaking goblin” in her first three minutes onscreen — it also includes scenes of genuine loveliness. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 26, 2022
The triumph of Matilda, both as Dahl wrote it and as it’s interpreted here, is that one little girl finally finds her place among people who understand her. This is a story about the family you choose, versus the one you were born into. And for some people, the chosen family is the one that makes all the difference. Read full review
80
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 23, 2022
Here’s the blast of wicked fun we need right now, using song and dance to enhance Dahl’s timeless tale of naughty children vs uncaring adults distilled in the war between bookish Matilda (Alisha Weir is a one-girl talent explosion) and Emma Thompson’s headmistress from hell. Read full review
80
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannDec 22, 2022
The adaptation isn't perfect (what stage-to-screen adaptation is?), but Matilda the Musical comes with a game cast, expertly staged musical numbers, and just a touch of magic that all the best musicals have. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 29, 2022
This is immensely enjoyable stuff. Read full review
80
Time OutOlly RichardsNov 22, 2022
Whether for little kids or very big ones, this Matilda is fantastically fun. Great songs, great performances and plenty of baddies to boo. Read full review
80
SlashfilmHannah Shaw-WilliamsOct 6, 2022
With lush, fun cinematography, creative staging, and some true powerhouse music and dance numbers, the strengths of "Matilda" more than make up for its weaknesses. Here's to the children of the revolution. Read full review
80
Screen DailyNikki BaughanOct 5, 2022
This …Matilda is not just a big movie about a little girl finding her voice, but about the need to speak up against injustice, wherever its found, and to find people who believe in you enough to lend their support. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 5, 2022
Matilda is a tangy bit of entertainment, served up with gusto. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 5, 2022
This is the rare musical that actually allows its performances room to breathe. There’s an inherent theatricality in the staging and a complexity in the choreography. Read full review
75
CNNBrian LowryDec 26, 2022
While the ranks of musicals brought to the screen probably does merit some family planning, “Matilda the Musical” offers a sprightly demonstration that there’s always room for another good one. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 26, 2022
The kids are collectively adorable and talented. The adults could not have been cast better, with Riseborough and Graham relishing every over-the-top moment as the Parents from Hell — or at least Hemel Hampstead — Lynch shimmering as a teacher with a heart and Thompson giving us a seriously Soviet vibe as the fireplug-shaped ogre Trunchbull. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 19, 2022
Directed by Matthew Warchus, Matilda is a curious creation, one whose tone maintains the barest toehold in light musical comedy, while introducing dark, disturbing elements. The movie taps into the reality and the magnitude of childhood trauma. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 5, 2022
It seems fitting, then, that the best thing about Warchus’s film should be the energy of the children. Confidently led by Weir, they swarm the screen. Read full review
63
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiDec 26, 2022
A useful aspect of watching the movie on streaming rather than onstage is you can turn on the subtitles to catch all of Minchin’s clever lyrics. Many of the quirky phrases, coming fast and furious, were muffled on Broadway and the score improved when I listened to the album later. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 26, 2022
For a movie that bristles with more revolutionary fervor than Dahl’s quieter, more inward-focused story, “Matilda the Musical” could use a little messier, more rambunctious energy. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyNov 28, 2022
Save for some Skittle-coloured CG and cartoon violence, the original West End director Matthew Warchus puts a filmed version of the stage show onscreen. Theatre fans will be delighted; movie fans will wonder where the wide-angle chorus lines went to. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 28, 2022
A sugar-fuelled thrill, this boasts a fine young cast and pleasantly pantomime adult roles. It may be too long for younger kids, but tweens are going to love it. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithOct 6, 2022
A serviceable translation of a theatrical success whose weaker elements are found wherever it veers too widely from its source. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinOct 5, 2022
The team manages to hit most of the right notes with this perky, peculiar adaptation. Or maybe the film has just enough bright shiny objects and tightly synchronized dancing-child chorus lines to stop anyone from caring about all that problematic whatnot. In any case, it mostly works. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeOct 5, 2022
The film, on balance, is cheery, sherbet-colored stuff, bursting with goodwill for all good people. What you remember from it, however, is each scene in which elder malevolence deliciously spoils the party. Read full review
58
IndieWireElla KempOct 5, 2022
It’s no crime to have another wholesome heroine for a new generation to look up to, only a shame that this is a sanitized reproduction and slight distortion of one who already existed. Read full review
33
ColliderEmma KielyDec 26, 2022
The 2022 Matilda takes the narrative and world of a child and puts it on an adult’s terms. It completely misunderstands why so many children around the world adore these stories - because they were written for them and not their parents. Stick to the original 1996 movie folks, don’t be the boring witch. Read full review
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