Matilda de Roald Dahl: O Musical

A spirited adaptation of the book and stage musical.

Weir's confidence and talent is astonishing, so much so that "Matilda" will likely be referred to as the debut of a major talent in the not-to-distant future.

Ardent fans of the musical will rejoice for any reason to revisit the iconic songs and enthralling reinvention by genius Tim Minchin; all others will likely yearn for the Matilda struck into public consciousness nearly three decades prior.

There were many good musical numbers written by Tim Minchin.

The latest attempt is an adaptation of the Tony award winning musical Matilda called appropriately Matilda the Musical and I'd say it's mostly successful in attempting to convert this difficult material to the big screen (or Netflix screen…)

"Matilda the Musical" serves as a textbook example of how to adapt a stage production adapted from a book to the screen without sacrificing the spirit of its author.

Warchus has done an exceptional job of bringing the joy and sentiment of the lauded stage production to the screen without slighting the book's macabre sensibility and its exaltation of children's rebellion in the face of adult cruelty.

A rewarding example of the perilous practice of building such efforts around children. Of course, it helps that the young star, Alisha Weir, is terrific, aided by wonderful turns from Emma Thompson and Lashana Lynch.

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

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.

Stage directors, by and large, are inept at making movies and yet we keep allowing them to make movies. Still, "Matilda" has her moments.

Just the blast of wicked fun we need, using song and dance to enhance Dahl's timeless tale of naughty children vs uncaring adults distilled as bookish Matilda (Alisha Weir is a one-girl talent explosion) battles with Emma Thompson's hellish headmistress.

Matilda dances exuberantly onto the screen and into your heart.

There's no arguing with the songs. And the young actors are uniformly excellent, most notably Alisha Weir as Matilda, who has a wonderfully intelligent face and a pinging singing voice.

Matilda the Musical is both thrilling and engaging, even if at just under two hours with no interval, some parents might struggle to keep their young ones in their seats.

An enjoyably bright and chipper adaptation of a moving, melancholy story I've loved since childhood.

Warchus brings together the cast with craftspeople behind the camera to create an intoxicatingly colorful and hyperreal world that is visually witty, highly stylized and mischievous, offering the audience a great big wink.

The filmmakers don't try to tone down Dahl's darkness or sentimentalize the children's plight. They recognize how condescending that would come across...

It seems fitting... that the best thing about Warchus's film should be the energy of the children.

Warchus has been canny about who plays who and the how broad he's let the cast get with the intrinsically over-the-top material.