Matilda (1996)

image for Matilda (1996)

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Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 12 (violence, scary scenes, themes, coarse language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Matilda (1996)
  • a review of Matilda (1996) completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 5 August 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes, themes, and coarse language.
Children aged 8–12 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, scary scenes, themes, and coarse language.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Matilda (1996)
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Low level violence
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Six-year-old Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) is a child genius who lives with her neglectful, dismissive and self-absorbed parents Harry (Danny DeVito) and Zinnia (Rhea Perlman). They are so neglectful that Matilda is not enrolled into school, as they still believe she is only four! When school principal Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) buys a car from Harry, Matilda is finally enrolled into elementary school. While Miss Trunchbull is intimidating and violent, Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), is kind and sweet. She notices Matilda’s intelligence immediately and requests for her to be moved into a more difficult class, though the request is denied. When Miss Trunchbull teaches Matilda’s class for a day, a newt is snuck into her water jug, which she accuses Matilda of placing there. Angry at the false accusation, Matilda telekinetically tips the jug over. However, Matilda is unable to access her telekinetic powers when she confesses to Miss Honey about her newfound ability. After school, Miss Honey invites Matilda over for tea, where she reveals that Miss Trunchbull is her aunt. Matilda learns to harness her telekinetic powers and uses them to make Miss Trunchbull believe she is being haunted by Miss Honey’s dead father. Miss Trunchbull freaks out and drives away, never to be seen again. In the end, Matilda’s family flees the country to escape the FBI, who are after them for illegal car dealings, and Miss Honey adopts Matilda, where she finally finds a home of love and acceptance.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Child neglect; Crime; Family death; Abuse of power.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Miss Trunchbull says her teaching motto is, “Use the rod, beat the child”.
  • Miss Trunchbull opens the school doors and walks out holding a leather horse riding crop, threatening to beat the students with it.
  • A child is thrown out the classroom window by Miss Trunchbull.
  • Children are thrown into ‘The Chokey’, a narrow closet with sharp nails poking through the walls that Miss Trunchbull uses as a form of detention.
  • Miss Trunchbull grabs a child by her hair and throws her through the air using a hammer-throw technique. The child narrowly avoids landing on the spiked school fence.
  • Miss Trunchbull throws a dart as Miss Honey enters the office, almost hitting her.
  • Miss Trunchbull brandishes a knife in front of a child before stabbing it into the table.
  • Miss Trunchbull force feeds a child cake, almost making him vomit. She then smashes a plate over his head.
  • Miss Trunchbull holds a child upside-down by his foot.
  • Miss Trunchbull kicks a cat.
  • Miss Trunchbull threatens Harry over the faulty car.
  • Miss Trunchbull realises that someone has broken into her house (though she does not realise it is Matilda and Miss Honey). After hearing Matilda trying to open a door to escape, Miss Trunchbull jumps from the second story, causing the floor to shake and a chandelier to fall. She chases them through the house, saying, “some rats are going to die today”.
  • Matilda’s brother flings a carrot at her. Using her telekinesis, she fires it back, making him choke.
  • Miss Trunchbull says to Miss Honey, “I broke your arm once before; I can do it again”.
  • The students throw food at Miss Trunchbull and chase her out of the school.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Zinnia is scared by Harry (after Matilda dyes his hair) and, out of shock, she throws cereal in the air. Harry sees his own reflection and falls over in shock.
  • Harry buys stolen car parts and is tracked by the FBI, who photograph him leaving his house with the parts.
  • The sleazy appearance of Harry may scare younger audiences.
  • Miss Trunchbull’s intimidating figure may scare younger audiences.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Harry drives home from the hospital with baby Matilda placed in the boot of the car, with nothing securing her in place. He swerves while driving and almost hits some children playing on the street.
  • Matilda is shouted at by her parents for wanting to go to school.
  • Harry grabs Matilda by the hair and drags her to her room.
  • Matilda puts superglue inside of Harry’s hat and it sticks to his head. Zinnia tries to pull it off, making Harry scream in pain.
  • Harry rips apart a book because Matilda was reading during dinner time.
  • Matilda explodes a television with her mind.
  • Miss Trunchbull sharpens her Javelins before throwing them at a wall.
  • Matilda harasses Miss Trunchbull with her telekinetic powers, making her believe she is being haunted by Miss Honey’s dead father.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Miss Honey’s father is said to have committed suicide, which could upset children who have dealt with the death of a loved one or seen mental health problems from family members.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • A Ford vehicle is driven by Harry
  • Matilda reads the novel Moby Dick
  • M&M’s
  • Cheerios.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Matilda is reading the novel Moby Dick. Harry exclaims, “Moby WHAT?” after hearing the title.
  • Harry kicks the FBI agents out of the house, calling them male strippers.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Harry and Zinnia kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Harry drinks a beer.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Get out of the street you little dodos.
  • Dip face.
  • You’re such a baby.
  • Your mommy is a twit.
  • Little brat.
  • Darn.
  • Shut up.
  • Lying little earwig.
  • Sit down, you squirming worm of vomit.
  • Stand up, you villainous sack of goat slime!
  • Piss worm.

In a nutshell

Matilda (1996) is a heart-warming film based on the novel of the same name by renowned children’s author, Roald Dahl. Because of this, parents may assume that it would be appropriate for all ages, however, the film has frequent violence, intimidating characters, themes of death, and frequent coarse language. Therefore, this film is best suited for families with older children, with parental guidance for ages 8 to 12.

The main messages from this movie are that love can be found anywhere and to never alter who you are for others. Additionally, the movie emphasises the importance of standing up for what is right and pushing back against those who bully or oppress.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Perseverance
  • Friendship
  • Honesty
  • Imagination.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Miss Honey invites Matilda over to her house. Parents may want to emphasise the importance of child safety and stranger danger, as strangers or other figures of authority may have more predatory intentions.
  • Matilda says, “feel my heart”, to Miss Honey after they escape from Miss Trunchbull’s home, putting Miss Honey’s hand to her chest. While this physical contact is innocent, parents should emphasise that it is not appropriate for a teacher, stranger, or any other figure of authority to touch a child in this region of their body.
  • Illegal business and police practices.