Recently, there have been several successful film versions of musicals, such as In The Heights and West Side Story. The new musical version of Matilda, currently airing on Netflix, does not fit in this category.

Matilda, based on the 1996 movie and the Broadway adaptation that followed, simply isn’t as entertaining or memorable as the previous versions.

One of Ronald Dahl’s most popular novels, Matilda, tells the story of a young genius named Matilda Wormwood, who develops telekinetic abilities due to a lack of brain exercise at her new school. Matilda uses her abilities to get revenge on the numerous adults in her life that have mistreated her.

Netflix’s version of Matilda follows a storyline similar to the book, and an arrangement similar to the award-winning Broadway show. However, this movie ends up being a weak on-screen translation of the musical.

While the directors obviously wanted to capture the dramatization of a musical theater show, the movie felt awkward and some scenes felt over the top. For example, the song “School Song” is meant to build suspense, but suffered from poor choreography and acting that felt unnatural.

On the other hand, iconic musical numbers that might have benefited from being performed in a more over-the-top way, like “When I Grow Up” and “Quiet,” were slow and underwhelming.

“When I Grow Up” was especially disappointing as such a fun song in the Broadway show that was just boring in the film. The song could have been carried out better had it been changed into a group number with all the children—like the Broadway show had.

On the plus side, Emma Thompson does an excellent job carrying out the role of Ms. Trunchbull, the evil headmistress of Matilda’s school. She perfectly captures the scary antagonist role in all of her scenes.

Also, the choreography of many of the group numbers is captivating and displays the talent of the child actors incredibly well. The songs “Bruce” and “Revolting Children” were particularly impressive full-cast numbers.

The synchronization, mixed with the thrown-in stunts, made these scenes very entertaining, and the movie even began to trend on platforms like TikTok and Twitter soon after it was released.

The movie would be entertaining for those that enjoy musical theater, but it does not live up to the standards of the novel, movie, or Broadway musical. Compared to the other takes on the story, Netflix’s Matilda wasn’t executed to the full potential of its actors and could have been produced much better.