| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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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. |