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Matilda
Movie

Matilda

1996 • Comedy, Family, Fantasy

Woke Score
3
out of 10

Plot

Matilda Wormwood is an exquisite and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, Matilda is misunderstood by her family because she is very different from their ways of life. As time passes, Matilda finally starts school that has a kindly teacher, loyal friends and a sadistic principal. As she gets fed up with the constant cruelty, Matilda begins to realize that she has a gift of telekinetic powers. After some days of practice, Matilda suddenly turns the tables to stand up to her parents and outwit the principal.

Overall Series Review

The 1996 film "Matilda" is a dark fantasy comedy centered on a gifted child's struggle against abusive and corrupt adult authorities. Matilda Wormwood is depicted as a child prodigy whose intelligence and moral goodness stand in sharp contrast to her crass, materialistic, and deeply ignorant parents, the Wormwoods, and the tyrannical school principal, Agatha Trunchbull. The narrative's primary drive is a pure meritocracy, celebrating Matilda's innate brilliance and kind character over her family's low-brow values and her principal's malice. The story resolves with the destruction of a corrupt institution and the dissolving of a toxic biological family, leading to the creation of a loving, functional, chosen family unit with her kind and nurturing teacher, Miss Honey. The critique is focused on intellectual philistinism, financial corruption, and the abuse of authority, rather than modern identity-based grievances.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The film’s central conflict is between a child of high intellectual and moral merit and the adults who lack it, establishing a clear universal meritocracy. The villains and the heroine are all depicted as white, and the casting is not driven by racial quotas or 'race-swapping'. The narrative critique is focused on economic class and the abuses of power, specifically targeting the Wormwood family's tasteless, new-money materialism and Mr. Wormwood's white-collar crime. This critique targets character flaws and behavior, not immutable characteristics or intersectional hierarchy.

Oikophobia4/10

The score reflects a deconstruction of two key Western institutions: the nuclear family and the public school. Matilda’s biological family (her 'home') is portrayed as fundamentally dysfunctional, neglectful, and corrupt, causing her to actively seek separation. The educational institution (Crunchem Hall) is a brutal, totalitarian environment run by a tyrant. The narrative ends by celebrating the construction of a new, loving, traditional home with Miss Honey, which acts as a shield against chaos and tyranny. The celebration of a virtuous chosen family and the value of classic literature prevents the score from being higher.

Feminism5/10

Matilda is a near-perfect female protagonist, an instant 'Mary Sue' with both an innate genius intellect and newly-manifested telekinetic powers. The primary male figures, Mr. Wormwood and her brother Michael, are consistently depicted as bumbling, corrupt, and idiotic. The main antagonist is also a woman, Miss Trunchbull, a domineering and masculine former Olympic athlete, which complicates a simple 'perfect female lead/evil male' dynamic. Motherhood by Zinnia Wormwood is depicted as a self-involved failure, but the chosen maternal role by Miss Honey is celebrated and is the ultimate happy ending.

LGBTQ+1/10

The movie adheres strictly to a normative structure. The central family unit is a male-female pairing, despite being dysfunctional, and the ultimate loving relationship is a non-sexual, parent-child adoption between a woman and a girl. There is no inclusion or centering of alternative sexualities, gender ideology, or deconstruction of biological reality. Sexuality remains a private matter and is not a theme.

Anti-Theism1/10

The conflict is secular, a battle between intelligence and ignorance, morality and corruption. There is no explicit hostility toward religion, specifically Christianity. Morality is depicted as objectively true—Matilda is Good, the Wormwoods and Trunchbull are Evil. Matilda’s telekinesis is described as a 'miraculous' power, which does not frame traditional faith as the root of evil or endorse moral relativism.