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?

What uncomfortable ideologies are the children exposed to when they read James and the Giant Peach (and others)?

This is some unreal stuff, no doubt everything will get banned at some point because it wasn't written in 2022.

Exposing kids to uncomfortable ideologies, in context, is a good thing. It develops their critical thinking skills, empathy and their sense of right and wrong. The alternative is they meet such ideologies for the first time as an adult, which is why I think so many young adults struggle with life now.

I loved roald dahl books as a child and my 6 year old loves that film. I was aware he wasn't a very nice man but it doesn't change my enjoyment of his stories, my husband is the same and had every book. We've started reading them to our children, the bfg scared the life out of them as it did me lol, great story though. Guess we only do nice fluffy stories now.

@JustAnotherManicNameChange but that’s from an adults perspective. Children don’t think in terms of the administration and safeguarding that goes into placements do they? A child who goes to live with a foster carer or member of their family doesn’t talk about checks and legal requirements, they simply live somewhere else with someone else.

A child coming from an abusive home finding a place of security and stability is something to root for.

Absolutely.

There would be a lot of very boring books out there if we redacted all the uncomfortable elements. The uncomfortable element is integral to the release and happiness of the ending, in most children's fiction.

This prompted me to compare RD with the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.

I only saw it this Christmas (I’ve not come across the book or original web comic) and it’s visually beautiful and there’s some very positive messaging in it buts it ultimately nonsensical. It doesn’t provide much context to translate into something relatable. I’m not sure it’s particularly enduring.

I find his writing cruel. When Dickens and others describe hardship, they don't sound as though they are enjoying it.

It's a style thing- I 'feel' awful when I read it. Like the difference between the tv portrayal of GoT and the books. The books were violent and featured sexual violence. I could read them. The TC series glamorised the violence with soft porn lighting and good angles. I couldn't stomach it.

I find it quite strange to see which books have survived, as national treasures, and which have been cancelled for thought crimes.

In our house we read widely and discuss everything, and many books that are disapproved of now provide valuable examples to debate changing cultural perspectives and the evolution of social justice.

But Roald Dahl, and (extending the discussion into film; Disney) are both disliked in our house. There’s a nasty undercurrent to both styles of story telling.

I think RD wrote the books from the eyes and thoughts of a child, using some of his own experiences. To me it explains the often over-exagerated descriptions of characters, places, situations etc. The child is trying to find some joy in a world of darkness, which is a situation many many children find themselves in, and in the books and the films based on RD the good child comes out on top.

Exploring the themes as adults can be uncomfortable and horrifying BUT as a child reading those books, I could connect to so many of the characters thoughts and feelings.

What unpleasant ideologies? And what are the more palatable options?

He was a complicated man I would think.

Born towards the end of one war, fighter pilot in the next.

When his first wife-Patricia Neal had a stroke whilst pregnant he helped her rehabilitation & his methods changed the treatment for stroke patients.

Their eldest daughter died young from measles & their son suffered brain damage when he was only a few months old as his pram was hit by a taxi.

The original film I didn't find too bad. They were disinterested and neglectful but not physically abusive. I took dd1 and ds to watch the musical in cinema and the dad hurls Matilda onto the floor and the mum is deliberately cruel and goading. I found that a very hard watch.

OP, if you find Dahl disturbing you really ought to look at the original versions of most of the traditional fairy stories.

Ronald Dahl must have been some sadistic psycho because suffering, neglected and abused children is a common recurring theme

Or just someone from the early twentieth century. A lot of vile things went on behind closed doors then. Smacking almost universal, the trauma of the wars, etc.

Your house sounds great fun.

Yes, a lot of Roald Dahl is unpleasant. He had quite a way of relishing the horrible aspects of things. Not my choice of viewing or reading.

That's the whole focus of the film. It would be uncomfortable if those parts were shown as an aside and made out to be ok.

@Boomboom22 no you are the ignorant one as the new Matilda musical movie is not based on the book at all, it's based on the original musical West End Show.

This! Ditto films. How would, say, 101 Dalmatians work without the theft of the puppies for their coats which, when you think about it, is really horrible? How would A Little Princess work without the death of Sara's father and Miss Minchin's outright cruelty to her? What about the death of Beth in Little Women? How about The Secret Garden with both of Mary's parents dying, Colin's mother dying and his father ignoring him? Ballet Shoes with all three sisters losing their parents? And Harry Potter doesn't bear thinking about.

What boring lives children would lead if all this stuff is sanitised out of their literature.

Grimes’ fairy tales were not children’s stories, though.

I don’t disagree with Roald Dahl’s children’s books being deeply pleasant in many ways, though — it’s the misogyny that strikes me most.

Have to be honest - as someone who grew up with Roald Dahl, Tom and Jerry and Roadrunner I think some of you are batshit.

Im pretty sure we got out unscathed from the entertainment and any damage was caused by real life if anything.

I remember being seven or so and there being a debate on the tv about whether Tom and Jerry should be banned and thinking at seven “have the grown ups lost their minds? It’s a cartoon!”

We honestly overthink these things as adults. Kids are smarter than us.

Suffering and abused children are common themes of an awful lot of children's literature. Are all those authors sadistic psychos?

And it's Roald, not Ronald.

Go on then, which books have been cancelled for thought crimes?

I'm in England, and I can't think of any books that have been 'cancelled' since Lady Chatterley's Lover.