Is Matilda the new film likely to be triggering?

[FluffyCat17]

Unwanted child, neglected, children abused at school…has anyone seen it and say a primary aged child will see it as funny or triggering?

I’ve not seen the new version but my kids love both the book and the previous movie version - they’ve not found it triggering it all.

Hi, I saw the film on Sunday. It got quite dark in places but is also really uplifting and happy in others. I think it depends on your child and their personal history as well. There's a bit where Matilda is taken to and left in her attic room by her angry father and another bit where a child is locked in a basement by her abusive aunt. The start of the film is basically about how much the mother doesn't want a child and the father doesn't want a daughter and this carries through it and Miss trunchbull is just horrible. The nice parts then are the relationships Matilda has with her friends, the librarian and Miss Honey who offers her a home. Hope this helps x

Our two were mesmerised throughout. They are 5 and 6. They totally understood the plot and identified similarities between Matilda and themselves/their story and articulated what they thought was “right” or “wrong” about things that happened in the film. They did however focus on the very positives and said they were glad to have been adopted. It could be very triggering however so it really does depend on your child and their feelings towards their story. Maybe one to watch first if you were to be worried but overall it was uplifting (although is grown ups shed a tear or two!).

This is all helpful, thanks.
The problem is that adopted DD is going as part of a community group, so is desperate to join in with her friends but we won’t be with her.
Feeling alone is one of her triggers due to what she experienced 😕

Could you have a quiet word with one of the group leaders to keep her close in case she does struggle?

I took my seven year old to see it and he was okay (he has seen the original), there were some darker bits, but nothing too outrageous. But he is generally okay with things in film, he likes the strange life of timothy green for example, even though Timothy goes away in the end.

Does she often get triggered by films? If she knows the story well and has seen the old film, a lot of it will be familiar to her. My children loved (still love) adoption stories, because the adopted child is always the hero/ine and that made them feel special. They also realised that they had deeper insight than other children. I think reading about adoption and "issues" helped my children to process their own trauma.

Forgot to update, sorry. She was fine.

We had a couple of chats in the days beforehand so that she knew there were some bits where the parents and Trunchbull were particularly horrid to the children. The second time I brought it up she assured me she knew all this and it was OK.

I know the leader was sat next to her, whether by design or accident, so that was reassuring and DD came home saying ‘it was great’. Phew.