Matilda: The Musical

"A frothy, whimsical delight that encompasses every expectation we were bound to have already placed on it."

"Emma Thompson's Trunchbull steals the show..."

"Matilda is a tangy bit of entertainment, served up with gusto."

"Like Dahl’s book, everything in this film, from tenderness to terror, is so exuberant."

"Visually colourful yet thematically dark..."

"Comes with oodles of charm – albeit of a kind likely to send anyone averse to precocious moppets sprinting for the nearest hill."

"Bookworms, unite. Precocious and literate, Matilda is a role model for all ages."

"Matilda the Musical isn’t a miracle, but it is a lot of fun."

"For a film that takes this much glee in cruelty... it also includes scenes of genuine loveliness."

"It completely misunderstands why so many children around the world adore these stories - because they were written for them and not their parents."

"Just the blast of wicked fun we need..."

"(Warchus) has done a wonderful job transferring the musical’s energy to the screen."

"Matilda dances exuberantly onto the screen and into your heart."

"There’s no arguing with the songs. And the young actors are uniformly excellent..."

"Matilda the Musical may not be as fierce and feisty as Dahl’s book – almost every adaptation has toned it down – but it’s still plenty entertaining."

"An enjoyably bright and chipper adaptation of a moving, melancholy story..."

"Faithful to both the surreal nature of the Roald Dahl story and the playfulness of the musical."

"it feels less a fully reimagined screen adaptation, more like a deluxe souvenir programme with pictures that move."

"Whether for little kids or very big ones, this Matilda is fantastically fun."

"Alisha Weir is a compelling, spirited heroine..."

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

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