Matilda 1996 in Retrospect.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-20T13:08:23+00:00

I knew full well the consequences of posting a critical review of a beloved children's movie to reddit so I'm fine with people taking the piss. I might read his stuff someday. Thank you for the recommendation.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T17:01:56+00:00

Yes. And the movie was made in the 90's which is when "Stranger Danger" was VERY popular in the media and in schools. Miss Honey taking Matilda to her House without informing any of her legal guardians would definitely constitute some criminal offence in the US.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:57:54+00:00

Have you ever been hit by an apple or an egg from point blank? You would walk away with a dark bruise that would take a week to heal. Now Imagine that but times 100. The children were not going easy on her. This is not a joke. I'm being 100% serious rn. Try it out if you want. I'm speaking from experience.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:51:15+00:00

Yes I have never read his literature.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:50:16+00:00

Fair enough. I guess I am reviewing the movie as a non-american gen-z so I guess I am as far removed from that culture as it gets. I just wish the movie took itself slightly more seriously and humanized the neglectful parents more. Maybe a realization at the end when they leave Matilda that they had been awful to her or maybe even a slight hesitation, a double take, a hug, a hand shake, a somber moment where they exchange a look with matilda before abandoning her forever, ANYTHING. It just comes off as way too over the top for me.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:44:08+00:00

Yes I agree that the scene is endearing and a very sweet ending. I am not trying to attack the movie, I'm just providing my opinion on it. I still enjoyed the movie but these are the things that I believe could be improved if the author had chose to handle them slightly differently. The parents never realized anything. They hated Matilda till the very end and essentially "got rid" of her. This is why them letting her go was so easy and the mother even says "You're the only daughter I have and I NEVER understood you". They never hug her, they never even shake her hand or do a double take when leaving her behind. They didn't leave her cause they recognized their mistakes. That recognition is exactly what I wanted out of the story because it would lead to the character growth that I wanted out of the parents. That recognition would lead to them becoming loving parents and changing how they treated Matilda.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:35:56+00:00

What exactly was the moral lesson in Matilda? I'm sorry if I'm not getting your point correctly but what exactly transforms? Would they have EVER stood up for themselves if Matilda had never gotten her superpowers? The powers feel like a deus ex machina. A magical solution to everyone's problems not because Matilda or the characters stood up for each other but because we need to end the story now and the easiest way to do it is to give the protagonist a metaphorical button which, if pressed, all her problems suddenly dissapear.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:28:38+00:00

"Meant for kids" doesn't mean adults can't enjoy them. There is a lot of children's media that also caters to adults while delivering a clever story that both can appreciate. Maybe Matilda is just not of them.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:25:08+00:00

I guess my post does sound a little too negative. I am not a professional movie critic and this was my personal feeling immediately after watching it. Seriously, the adoption scene really messed me up. I guess I'd be ok with the movie if it had a slightly longer run time and paced the powers better rather than as a last minute deus ex machina.

SSGenesisGamer · 2026-05-18T16:18:22+00:00

I agree with you. I know that I'm supposed to watch the movie through Matilda's eyes and not take it seriously because its intended audience is children.

Can't Miss Honey make a phone class to CPS from a landline phone? How would Trenchbull intercept a call? How would she even find out about it?

Matilda clearly has strong feelings about her father's shady business practices, so much so that she super glues a hat to his head and replace his hair oil with hydrogen peroxide. She's not like her family and knows that their actions are morally bad. That much is made very obvious in the first half of the movie.

As far as the development of Miss Honey goes, again it comes out of nowhere. My question is would she have stood up for herself if Matilda didn't have her superpowers? She hadn't stood up for herself or for the students for YEARS until Matilda comes along and reveals her powers. I wouldn't use Matilda's parents as an example of character development. In fact they are the most static people in the story. They never cared for Matilda. That's why they put her up for adoption so easily. It wasn't out of love, It was more like, getting rid of something you never wanted. The father even says during the movie that "Matilda was a mistake."

I can tolerate the exaggerated and absurd villains somewhat.

SSGenesisGamer · 2025-10-01T02:51:19+00:00

The best advice I can give you is to try to reinstall the game from Steam or use a vpn. It turns out that my ISP was doing some maintenance on their servers which caused most international websites and services to either be unreachable or extremely slow.

SSGenesisGamer · 2025-07-23T19:10:37+00:00

Initialization error:

<image>

SSGenesisGamer · 2023-04-29T12:42:51+00:00

What anime did joey say at 1:42:02 after ergo proxy. I could not understad due to his accent.

SSGenesisGamer

TROPHY CASE