Matilda: La comédie musicale

Fittingly this is a British cast and filmed in the UK. Roald Dahl would have been proud. The exception to the rule being Tim Minchin. But his music transposes from stage to film excellently, allowing for an even greater visual feast playing with his clever lyrics.

My biggest issue with the 1996 version being Danny DeVito playing Mr Wormwood as well as being the narrator. But this film avoids the obvious pitholes and is a huge step away from the original, music aside.

The casting is well thought. Emma Thompson playing Miss Trunchbull with little effort it seems as she is obviously enjoying every evil second of it. I don't mean to be mean to Ms. Thompson, but it really didn't look like she was wearing much in the way of prosthetics, but I mean this in a good way. Nanny McPhee simply looked like Emma Thompson wearing loads of plastic.

You know Stephen Graham always delivers but my only criticism is that he was on screen too little. Andrea Riseborough was new to me, but again, too little screen time. I guess being a musical, they had to devote more time to the musical numbers. The two main hitters being "When I grow up" and "Revolting Children" These were well presented and brilliantly re-worked for the big screen.

When I first saw Alisha Weir (Matilda) I was a bit worried that she wouldn't deliver, the role of Matilda being a lot more complex than it first appears. But I was very quickly blown away by her ability to bring pathos and the next minute show that she was no pushover no matter the consequences. I was also glad that she was not your typical stage kid. Her performance being understated and effective in the process.

The standout performance was for me Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey. She deserves awards galore for this role. If she doesn't make you cry then you are made of stone.

This will undoubtedly be a classic and there is the appetite for strong female protagonists right now - Wednesday Addams put that meal on the table! A great family favourite made even better than the original.

The kids were great! The acting, singing, and dancing was all on point. Emma Thompson was also amazing and did a wonderful job.

The other adults on the other hand were sadly forgettable. Even miss honey didn't feel like a main character. I grew up with the old 90's movie Matilda and miss honey was very important and you could feel that she loved Matilda with their acting. This miss honey had a beautiful voice, but it felt like there should have been more scenes with her teaching and talking to Matilda.

I was entertained almost the entire two hours of film which is what i consider good. It's not perfect but it was still fun.

THANK YOU Netflix for not letting this go straight to streaming. You just cannot beat the cinema experience and with a score and orchestrations like this you need that Dolby surround sound to appreciate the fullness.

I saw the film as a kid, and as I love musicals, I listened to the soundtrack on Spotify last week and can totally understand why this won so many awards. I would suggest that The Greatest Showman actually copied some of their score as there are so many parities.

The casting is first class, there is not a bad link anywhere in the production and what can I say about Emma Thompson, she is one gifted actress and always commands the screen, never more so than here. She would say that actors don't saves lives and it's just a job, but she does it SO well, in the world of awards she totally deserves one for this and ALL her work. Miss Honey had a beautiful voice and amazing actor too, the child lead was equally as outstanding.

I found the story very moving and tears were rolling down my face when 'Quiet' started. Yes, I'm a bloke, and unashamedly get emotional at things like this.

A part of my job as a community nurse is Safeguarding children and, although I found the film funny when I was young, not so now, however it was done very responsibly and sent out the right number of messages about 'telling someone'. I found parts very dark, that originally, I would have been able to view as humorous.

Kids don't ask to be born do they.

Most people were crying at times, especially at the end so take your tissues!

The filming was done in bright colours which makes a change from the drab brown screen.

The musical numbers were superbly choregraphed and the orchestrations made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I will see it again with my family next week, it is THAT good.

Netflix did an amazing job with The Prom too, but sadly they let that go straight to streaming, I really hope they learn from this and stop just streaming all the really good stuff, which is few and far between anyway, obviously.

I have mixed emotions about this. Firstly, I am a BIG fan of the west end musical so I was comparing throughout the whole film. There are many good points of the film. The musical numbers have been greatly throughout , and you can tell it's been greatly considered in how to transfer a stage production into a movie and to present the same emotive experience for the audience. I think the choreography was executed perfectly and the casting was phenomenal. HOWEVER (a big however) The film personally didn't grab me in the way the stage production has. It felt rushed in parts (which is understandable as they are trying to fit a 2. 5 hour production in 2) so the intimate moments between the musical numbers were lost, leaving you feeling slightly detached from the characters. I also couldn't help but reminisce about the 1996 adaption and it's authenticity. This movie was clearly a 'Netflix movie'. A bit uneedingly cgi/green screen happy which irritates me and contributes to the detachment I was feeling throughout. Overall, it was a good try, however the wow factor was lost. I want to think that perhaps I am an adult not understanding the current trends and seeking nostalgia rather than a film that is suited to what the kids want these days. After all this is a kids film and perhaps this was perfect for what they needed.

My children are currently rehearsing for this musical with their theatre group so we were looking forward to this.

The songs are all there and brilliantly performed. The staging and filming is so stunning to watch. Emma Thompson plays a good Miss Trunchabull. We all know the story of Matilda so I won't go into that but this is a film for the whole family to enjoy. Don't wait for it to stream on Netflix, this film really benefits from a big screen and awesome sound stage.

I would happily watch this film again, it was an excellent feel good film. The cast were perfect in each of the roles and choreography was brilliant.