Roald Dahl’s Completely Revolting Recipes is a collection of 50 recipes from the author’s most popular books. Among them is a recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake, which is based on the chocolate cake that he had to eat in Matilda. In 1988, the book Matilda won the Children’s Book Award from the Federation of Children’s Books. The award is voted on by actual children, and is awarded every year in the UK to the books the kids choose as their favorites. Ten years later, the book was voted “The Nation’s Favorite book” in England in a Bookworm poll conducted by the BBC. Twins Keaton and Kylie Tyndall were originally set to star as Matilda, but when they came down with the flu, the role was recast with Mara Wilson. Pam Ferris played the role of the evil principal Agatha Trunchbull in the movie, and to make sure that the kids were scared of her in earnest, she would stay in character even when the cameras stopped filming. Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito played Matilda’s parents in the movie, and Perlman was also DeVito’s wife at the time. The couple briefly separated in 2012 after about 35 years of marriage, but later reconciled. In late 2016, they split again, this time for good, but the two remain friends.

Roald Dahl wrote most of his books from a small, cozy hut in his garden. The author would sit in his mother’s old armchair with a custom-made desktop in his lap, and he’d write with pencil on yellow legal paper. According to his daughter Lucy Dahl, his garden was a sacred space, and he saw the hut as his nest. In a 2012 School Library Journal Survey, readers were asked to vote on their top 100 chapter books of all time. Matilda was chosen as #30, and altogether, Roald Dahl had four books in the top 100—more than any other writer. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was #61, The Witches was #81 and BFG was #88. Mrs. Trunchbull never hesitated to give out the worst punishments imaginable, but even she seemed to have a place where she drew the line. In her office is a sign that reads “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” suggesting that murder is the one punishment even she won’t dole out. Good to know.

Harry Wormwood and Miss Trunchbull both use the word "twit" several times throughout the film. Some fans have speculated that this might have been a reference to The Twits—another book by Roald Dahl. One of the lunchboxes from the movie contains a reference to Danny DeVito’s hometown. The slogan reads “Greeting from Ashbury Park, New Jersey,” which is where the actor was raised.

Jennifer Honey becomes the new principal of Crunchem Hall in the film as opposed to Mr. Trilby in the book. She is wearing glasses in the book, but she did not usually wear glasses in the film: only once, when she multiplied 13x379 which she asked the class as a joke, but Matilda answered it. Famous horror writer Stephen King used an idea from Matilda in one of his books. The idea of writing on a chalkboard with the mind is used to send messages by a character in Dr. Sleep (the sequel to The Shining).

The “chokey” in Crunchem Hall was where Miss Trunchbull put kids for punishment. As terrifying as it looked in the movie, in real life, it wasn’t dangerous or scary at all. The fictional cupboard was filled with razor-sharp nails, but for the film the nails were actually made of rubber, and wouldn’t hurt anybody. Roald Dahl took two years to write and rewrite Matilda. After spending between 6-8 months writing the book, Dahl felt that it wasn’t right, and so he started the whole thing over again. In another "Easter Egg" for Dahl fans, the movie version of Matilda makes two separate references to his 1983 novel The Witches. The first reference is a visual nod where a copy of the book can be seen on a bookshelf. The second reference is a discussion between Miss Honey and Matilda about the speed of a mouse’s beating heart—the main character and his grandmother also discussed the subject in The Witches. In the movie, Matilda has a homemade doll, and it actually was homemade—Mara Wilson made the doll in real life, and named her Wanda. Craig Lamar Taylor is known for his role as wheelchair-bound Stevie on the popular sitcom Malcom in the Middle. The actor made his big screen debut in Matilda, playing the little boy who catches the falling newt.