Everyone is loving Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical. Relased on Netflix on Christmas Day, the movie reimagines the classic story with Alisha Weir taking on the role of the extraordinary girl opposite Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull. Remakes and reimaginings seem to seldom land with fans, especially when there are previous versions held in high esteem, but for Matilda the Musical, Netflix has found a hit. The movie has landed with a perfect audience score of 100% at Rotten Tomatoes, with its critical score not too far behind at 91% fresh.

“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,” writes Peter Travers of ABC News in his review.

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“There’s no arguing with the songs,” adds Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle, heaping praise onto the music along with the acting. “The young actors are uniformly excellent, most notably Alisha Weir as Matilda, who has a wonderfully intelligent face and a pinging singing voice.”

Nate Adams, via The Only Critic, also noted, “Beloved children’s novels getting turned into cinematic musicals isn’t groundbreaking, but few capture the charm, wit, and spunky attitude of its source material better than Matthew Warchus’ Matilda: The Musical.”

Of course, the audience reviews are just as glowing. As one person giving the film a perfect score said, “One of the best stage to screen adaptations I’ve seen. I wasn’t a huge fan of this on stage, but that’s because cinema is where this story belongs. Great performances, choreo, direction, and film-making.”

“It’s a beautiful way of seeing Matilda, I have been a fan of the musical for years and this is amazing, great casting and acting. LOVED IT,” glows another viewer.

As someone else puts it, “The production was so well done! The storyline was changed, things were added and removed. But the talent was so good I got goosebumps so many times.”

Matilda the Musical Has Landed as a Hit

     Netflix

Matthew Warchus directs Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical using a screenplay by Dennis Kelly with original music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Along with Alisha Weir and Emma Thompson, the film stars Lashana Lynch (Miss Honey), Stephen Graham (Mr. Wormwood), Andrea Riseborough (Mrs. Wormwood), Sindhu Vee (Mrs. Phelps), Charlie Hodson-Prior (Bruce Bogtrotter), Meesha Garbett (Hortensia), Rei Yamauchi Fulker (Lavender), Winter Jarrett Glasspool (Amanda Thripp), Andrei Shen (Eric), and Ashton Robertson (Nigel).

The official synopsis reads:

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical is now streaming on Netflix. You can also get a sneak peek by watching the movie’s official trailer below.

A brand new take on the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical tells the story of an extraordinary girl, with a vivid imagination, who dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.