Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical has achieved a perfect audience score on Rotten Tomatoes!
With Chris Snelgrove
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For better or worse we usually use Rotten tomatoes to determine the overall quality of a movie. This site collects a critical consensus for its “tomatometer” score, but also includes a collective audience score that helps measure how the general public it really feels for a movie. Now, Netflix has launched a recent movie, Matilda The Musical by Roald Dahlwho did the unthinkable and managed to get a 100% audience rating!
At this point, it’s fair to say that the Matilda The story is one that has been loved by generations of fans. Roald Dahl wrote the original story in 1988 and it quickly became one of the best-grossing children’s books of all time. And long before the Netflix adaptation, Danny DeVito directed and starred in a 1996 adaptation Matilda starring Mara Wilson as the little girl who learns to control her imaginary powers.
Fans have been celebrating this particular film for decades, and many speculated that Netflix only wanted to make a Matilda musical based on the success of the previous film. Interestingly, however, Matilda was first turned into a musical in 1990 by the Redgrave Theater and was touring the UK six years before Danny DeVito’s film came out. But this newest Netflix production is mostly based on 2010 Matilda the Musicala British stage production that finally made it Broadway debut and became a Tony-winning play.
Of course, that’s part of what makes this newest Netflix musical adaptation Matilda Such a hit with audiences that it was strategically released on Netflix on Christmas day. As we noted earlier, the Matilda The story is one that resonates with generations of fans. And since the holidays bring different generations of family members together, Netflix chose the perfect time to release an adaptation that wins over younger audiences even as it makes their parents and grandparents smile.
As in the 1996 film, this Netflix musical adaptation Matilda brings in some big names to bring his characters to life. For example, just as Pam Ferris made us hate Miss Trunchbull all those years ago, Emma Thompson has now stepped in to make Trunchbull more loathsome than ever. And while Danny DeVito himself helped make Harry Wormwood a character you love to hate, Stephen Graham steps into his beautifully annoying boots as he torments Alisha Weir’s Matilda.
In a musical, however, good casting can only take you so far. As any music nerd knows, catchy music is what makes blockbuster movies Anna and the Apocalypse from unforgettable trials (looking at you, Day off! The Genetic Opera). Fortunately, Netflix Matilda The musical has songs that are likely to have you humming and singing long after the credits roll.
Perhaps most impressively, Netflix has created a musical version of it Matilda which has won over both people who didn’t like the 2010 show and those who didn’t like the 1996 movie. If Matilda is a multi-generational story, this may be the best ever performed. And the makers have the perfect audience rating to show for it.
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