To find Matilda hard to watch?

[susiesuelou]

I know it's just a work of fiction for kids and that it all comes good in the end for Matilda, but I've been watching it this morning whilst toddler DD naps and it's struck me just how horrible it is (the start especially). Particularly the part where she begs to be allowed books to read and the Dad holds her head and forces her to watch TV instead. Not being acknowledged by her mum when she comes in from school and wants to tell her about her day. 🥹

And don't get me started on the abusive practices of Miss Trunchbull! Particularly force feeding chocolate cake to that boy! I actually skipped through that part.

I've watched it before but never really watched it, if that makes sense. And it's just left an uncomfortable feeling.

AIBU? Am I too sensitive? I know the answer is probably yes, as it's just a film after all. But has anyone else had similar discomfort watching it?

You've said it better than I did. It is of its time.

Nah I think you're being sensitive. I struggle with any child abuse storylines but those scenes in Matilda are handled in a comedic way, always with the Wormwoods/Trunchbull the butt of the joke while the kids come out swinging. Like in the TV scene, Matilda defiantly blows it up.

He was ao virulently antisemitic that his family recently issued an official apology for some of the things he said.

Roald Dahl family issues apology for antisemitism

This but kids seem to enjoy them by all account he wasn’t a nice man to his family, often the way.

Complete genius! There is a reason so many children read his books and he is still relevant today.

Many assumptions of his character on here!

I think a quote from CS Lewis is perfect here:

“Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

In other words, let children know through fiction that bad things exist and bad things can happen, but also what hope is out there.

This ☝️

I think the 'funny' abuse/violence is a good way of talking about real abuse etc. It is never painted as anything other than bad. Additionally I think 'revolting children' is exactly what we need at the moment.

However I'm SO SICK of the middle aged woman who doesn't fit in with the just beautiful enough angel role being portrayed as a hideous bully like Miss Trunchbull. Hairy faced, fat, butch, and of course then cruel. I'm surprised someone like Emma Thompson bought into that shite for the latest movie. After all we all know that what makes a woman a woman is lipstick, eh? 😉

That’s unarguable and he was self-described as such.

But then I’m glad I don’t have to defend or apologise for my grandparents views because quite frankly I can’t, not that I even know what they were and I certainly don’t remember anything particularly problematic but I’m pretty sure given what I know of their generation there’ll have been something.

Widening the focus, Miss Trunchbull does Bruce Bogtrotter a bit of a long-term favour though. I bet he won't ever be able to touch chocolate again, leading to healthier eating practices and overall weight loss.

I might be slightly over-thinking this. The cake scene is my second favourite scene in the film- the first is the bit where Danny DeVito gets his hat glued to his head.

Surely that's just the message of "ugly inside makes you ugly outside" like the Twits?

Have I missed any inference that Miss Trunchbull was lesbian?

The children in Charles Dickens stories were also abused and neglected.

@I'll k

You should try My Uncle Oswald, not aimed at kids.

YABU. The villains are just that, and always get their comeuppance at the end. Most kids love the dark humour and baddies, that's what makes the books and films so enjoyable.

I actually think the films are more 'creepy' especially the original Witches film!

My favourite is George's Marvellous Medicine, loved reading it when I was a little girl and to my own children. I doubt they'll do a film of that one as we'd have kids creating a zoflora/pink stuff/calpol concoction.

How ridiculous. You cant apologise for something someone else did.

More worrying that some pp refer to the 'original' musical or film and don't seem to have read the book in childhood.

I believe Roald Dahl went to a really terrible boarding school and suffered a lot himself, I think Matilda is a bit of wish fulfilment for powerless children suffering at the hands of grown ups

I enjoyed RD books as a child.

Rik Mayall did an amazing job reading George’s Marvellous Medicine on Jackanory.

We went to see the new one at Xmas Eve. An uncomfortable watch especially for my 8 year old. However it’s good to start exposing kids to the reality that some people are evil. People can be cruel. But that hopefully good overcomes evil.

it makes me think that somewhere out there, being brought up are the murderers, rapists, peadophiles and despots of the future. Sad way to think I know but bit by bit somehow kids need to know these people exist. I grew up very inner city and we always knew who the weirdos were to stay away from.

Ronald Dahl wasn’t a nasty man. He wasn’t sadistic. He did not hate children.

Some of the posts on this thread so utterly miss the point that it is really quite bizarre.

Dahl wrote the stories the way he did in order to stick up for children and the people treating children horribly in the story were always written as irredeemable villains. There would always be a victory for the child over these monsters in the end.

If you read his autobiography you will see how he suffered horribly at the hands of adults and bullies as a child. How writing is basically always about kids getting their own back.

He was ao virulently antisemitic that his family recently issued an official apology for some of the things he said.

I don't believe they issued an apology specifically because of how extreme his views were - IMO it seems far more likely that they issued the apology to distance his work (and it's associated royalties) from his comments because people were starting to dig things up and it stated to jeopardise the potential for remakes and book sales.

I'm not suggesting they shouldn't have apologised and addressed it - they had to say something - but I do feel uneasy about taking responsibility for relatives' behaviour and posthumously rewriting the intentions behind what someone said.

I also hate the last line of their statement, as to me it reads as "well, at least by saying deplorable things about Jewish people, he taught us that words can hurt people", as it twists what he said into some philosophical lesson that he clearly wasn't thinking at the time. They should have just stopped before this last sentence as it sounds glib and was actually fine before that (I mean, it didn't undo the damage, but it was the best thing they could have said in the circumstances).

I imagine they were more concerned about him being cancelled.

It was more a we'll put this apology up to appease those who actually think we can apologise on behalf of a dead person!

However I'm SO SICK of the middle aged woman who doesn't fit in with the just beautiful enough angel role being portrayed as a hideous bully like Miss Trunchbull.

This is a problem with film vs the book though. Miss Honey is no 'beautiful angel' in terms of looks, she is plain and sneered at by Mrs Wormwood for being plain and prioritising her mind over her looks.

I had a teacher exactly like Miss Trunchbull, as will have many children growing up in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

It’s an archetype and there is nothing wrong with using it, especially when it was written.