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In the Movie |
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The novel takes place in England. |
The film takes place in the United States. |
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The novel goes into much greater detail about the list of the classical works that Matilda reads. It also goes into detail on how advanced Matilda is. |
Never seen or mentioned.
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Matilda never goes into the Trunchbull's house. |
In the film, Matilda breaks into the Trunchbull's home twice. |
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While Matilda and Lavender are friends in the novel, Matilda has no direct interaction with Bruce Bogtrotter and Amanda Thripp. |
In the film, it is implied that there is a friendship between Matilda, Lavender, Hortensia, Bruce Bogtrotter and Amanda Thripp.
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In the novel, Hortensia is a bully and insults Lavender and Matilda during their only encounter with her. |
In the film, Hortensia is nice to Matilda and Lavender. |
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Matilda's older brother Michael is a perfectly normal boy in the novel. |
In the film Michael is a bullying, fat idiot like his father.
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Mrs. Wormwood's first name is never mentioned or said directly. |
In the film, Mrs. Wormwood's name is Zinnia. |
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After Bruce Bogtrotter is able to eat an entire chocolate cake, Miss Trunchbull tells everyone to leave the assembly room. |
After Bruce Bogtrotter is able to eat an entire chocolate cake, Miss Trunchbull forces everyone to stay five extra hours after school and copy from the dictionary
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The message on the chalkboard makes Miss Trunchbull angry at first, but she then becomes scared when she sees it's from Magnus, Miss Honey's late father, and faints. |
The message on the chalkboard is different from the one in the novel, and says, "Agatha, this is Magnus. Give my little bumblebee her house and her money. Then get out of town. If you don’t, I will get you. I will get you like you got me. That is a promise." |
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At the end of the novel, the Wormwoods are moving to Spain. |
At the end of the movie, the Wormwoods are moving to Guam.
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The Wormwoods don't go to a restaurant in the novel. |
The Wormwoods go to a restaurant called The Ritz. |
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Hortensia has a boil on her nose and is eating potato chips in the novel |
In the film, Hortensia doesn't have a boil on her nose and isn't eating potato chips.
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In the novel, when Miss Honey asks the class if they know their multiplication tables, Matilda is the only one to raise her hand. |
In the film, the whole class knows their multiplication tables. |
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In the novel, Matilda practices her telekinesis using one of her father's cigars, and it takes a lot of time for her to do so, thus making her very tired at the end of the day. She is only able to direct her powers through her eyes, and it takes six days for her to make her powers stronger. |
In the film, Matilda is able to awaken her telekinetic powers after remembering all the bad stuff that her parents, her brother and Miss Trunchbull have said to and about her. She doesn't use a cigar like in the novel. Instead of just focusing while using her eyes on one object, she is also able to make a whole cyclone of objects (consisting of playing cards and poker chips) fly around her in one scene by simply flicking her hands around, while at the same time mastering greater control over her powers.
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In the book, Matilda doesn't have any powers at first until she stares angrily at Miss Trunchbull's water glass with the newt in it and whispers "Tip it! Tip it over!" |
In the film, she ends up using her powers before she knew she had them, such as causing a television to explode when her father was forcing her to watch it, and making some food that was falling land perfectly on her plate. |
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In the novel, Matilda borrows her friend Fred's parrot for one night and sticks it up the chimney. The parrot's phrases of "Hello! Hello! Hello!" and "Rattle my bones" make the family, including Matilda (who is said to be a pretty good actress) jump, and they all flee once they hear the voice again after looking in the dining room. |
This doesn't happen in the movie (presumably because Matilda's stuffing the parrot up the chimney was probably viewed as cruelty to animals).
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In the book matilda's mother is an overweight blonde, while matlida is skinny like the dad, and micheal is also skinny like the dad and also has the his mother's blonde hair, with big ears on his head. |
In the book matilda's dad and brother are overweight, while her and the mother are skinny with everybody with brown/dark hair. |
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bruce(the boy that ate the cake)was shown as a fat boy with a short haircut. wearing a long sleeve shirt and shorts. |
bruce is shown as a fat boy with plenty of curly hair, and was wearing a short sleeve shirt and pants.
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matilda brother is the only one that cared to tell his sister bye, before the family speeds off in the car. |
matilda mother did show she cared a little before, she asked for a pen to sign the paper. |
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In the book Matilda doesn't ever go in the chokey. |
Matilda was in the chokey and then Miss Honey had to save her.
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In the book, her dad dislikes the book The Red Pony, becaus he assumes it's American trash, but since they are American in the film, he dislikes Moby Dick instead, for it's rude title. |
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In the novel, Mr. Wormwood is not portrayed by Danny DeVito. |
The film, notably, features famed actor Danny DeVito as Mr. Wormwood.
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In the restaurant dads cap did not fly off because it was stick to the glue |
in the movie the cap was stuck cause Matilda put glue on it |