“Matilda the Musical,” a song about rebellion that Netflix wants to turn into a Christmas ball

Children are always told to be good. “Behave”, “don’t worry”, “be quiet”… An example of ideal behavior is a boy or girl who doesn’t run around, who doesn’t get involved in teasing. Shut up and accept it. He is educated in submission, in saying yes. There is nothing worse than the castrating phrase that is often heard: “Don’t bother yourself.” They are asked not to stand out, to be another. Boys and girls are made with a square and a pencil. Let them play football and they cook. that they fulfill the roles that are expected of them.

Fiction also helped create these patterns of behavior. For this reason, when a book or movie addresses the opposite, evil, joy, and even rebellion, children embrace it with joy. We liked Daniel the mischievous, who dared what we were not allowed to do; We laughed out loud with Macaulay Culkin at Home Alone because, without parental control, he messed around and could have ended up with some thieves doing tricks he would never have been allowed to do. But above all there was Matilda, the girl who gave her name to the work of Roald Dahl and who started a revolution against the established order in the school run by the dictator Mrs. Trunchbull.

Matilda read, played, laughed and said enough. No stupid rules, no control, no short circuit. The result was that the novel became a success that was passed down from generation to generation. Danny DeVito’s hilarious directorial adaptation helped, and in recent years the musical, which has triumphed in London for a decade, has done the same. A critical, public and award-winning success that has also been seen in Madrid over the past two seasons. It was only a matter of time before such an overwhelming phenomenon jumped into cinema. He does so with the help of Matthew Warchus, a man who directed the stage version and is an expert in musicals like Follies. Also a director who jumped into the cinematic spotlight thanks to another film that addressed the revolution in the streets. It was Pride, a fascinating film that showed the union of the mining struggle and the LGTBI collective in the United Kingdom in 1984 under the government of Margaret Thatcher.

Matilda the Musical hits Netflix on Christmas Day. Not an innocent decision. The film has the makings of a true phenomenon. In Great Britain, it was able to go through cinemas and its result was excellent, 15 million dollars. The rest of the world will see him on the platform already shaking his hands at having such a Christmas ball. The musical preserves what made the book so beloved by millions of children and reinforces what’s important, especially this song about rebellion.

Matilda is a film that revolves around the spark that ignites a revolution and culminates in that very moment. In the musical, he also arrives in the best numbers of all, with a delight called Revolting Children, with a large stage and where children dance and sing a song that appeals to breaking the rules. “He will never take away my freedom again,” begins the number, which includes phrases such as “the rights we won today thanks to trying to break the rules” or “without revolution there will be no evolution.” A number that culminates with the kids destroying a statue of their particular dictator, Mrs. Trunchbull.

Wachus himself described what attracted him to the musical when he was offered to do it in London: “The moral heart of the story was the opportunity to right injustice, it spoke to the power of the underdog and how any of us could approach these issues. It’s really exciting to find a project that combines entertainment with content.”

All of the school numbers are the best part of the film, doing what it takes to adapt a musical, adding something to the theatrical version. Many versions pale in comparison to the original, but Varchus manages to ensure the spectacle and cinematic look to be faithful and distanced just enough to match. There’s also a love letter to the power of storytelling. Matilda reads to survive and tells stories to change reality. For him, what is real is in fiction, and what he experiences becomes stories and stories for others.

Not all parts of this piece of music are on the same level. While everything that happens at school, or even Matilda’s dreams when she tells her stories, is top notch, the domestic part makes the mistake of taking it for an over-the-top and unfunny parody of her relationship with her parents. Two chavas, as Owen Jones defined them, or two canos, as one might say in Spain, who only think about money and who are described with all the clichés and conventions that have demonized the working class from fiction.

A wonderful family film with rhythm, grace, a revolutionary and unified message that avoids the autopilot suggestions that keep coming. It’s a shame Netflix didn’t release it in cinemas outside of the UK, as this adaptation and those musical numbers begged for better big screen enjoyment, and even more so in a place like Spain where the theatrical version is packed every day. .

Source: El Diario

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