Click on a picture to enlarge it

Amphibians in Movies   Matilda (1996)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This story is from a 1988 Roald Dahl book about an extraordinary young girl named Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) whose mistreatment by terrible parents made her educate herself and develop psycho-kinetic powers. She's a genius at math and loves to learn and she's excited to go to school, but she quickly gets on the bad side of the tyrannical principal of the school, Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), who hates children, and tortures them by throwing them out a window or locks them in a small torture closet. Matilda befriends a girl named Lavender (Kiami Davael). One day they are exploring a local creek and Lavender discovers a newt in the water. She thinks it's a frog, someone else says it's a chameleon, but well-read Matilda tells everyone that it's a newt. The teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), tells her class that Miss Trunchbull will be teaching it, and asks Lavender to put a pitcher of water on the teacher's desk for her. Lavender sees the newt in a glass of water and pours it into the pitcher. When Miss Trunchbull is in front of the class and pours herself a drink, the newt pours into her glass. She drinks the water and the children laugh. She doesn't understand why they're laughing, but then she sees the newt in the glass and starts screaming "It's a snake." Matilda corrects her, telling her that it's a newt, not a snake. Trunchbull blames Matilda for the prank. Matilda denies it but Trunchbull berates and threatens her. Matilda stares at the newt in the glass and gets so mad that her mental powers make the glass tip over and the newt fly out and onto Trunchbull's coat. Trunchbull is terrified and dances around trying to dislodge the newt. Finally she flings it off her coat across the schoolroom where it lands on an overhead light. A boy sitting directly below the light, cups his hands together under the newt, which falls directly into his hands. Then he hides it under his desk. The next time we see miss Trunchbull asking for water she says "Hold the newt." A live newt was used in some of the shots. The credits even shows the names of three live newts that were used in the the scene to portray the newt. The newt on the light fixture appears to be an imitation newt, probably made of rubber or plastic. Although Matilda says the newt is of the family Triturus, it's actually a Pacific Newt of the genus Taricha. The movie was filmed in California, where there are four species of Taricha. This one appears to be Taricha torosa, the California Newt. Taricha have poisonous skin secretions containing a powerful neurotoxin which can cause death if eaten in sufficient quantity. If the poison is ingested through a mucous membrane or a cut in the skin, it can also cause significant problems. Even just touching a newt with a finger then accidentally putting the finger in your eye can cause your ears to ring and your vision to blur temporarily. (I know that from experience...) Newts in the Triturus family also have skin toxins, but they're not as potent as Taricha. So I sure hope nobody ever pulls a prank like this with a Pacific Newt or any other kind of newt. It could be harmless, but it's not worth the risk, since drinking the poison secretions from a newt's skin could make someone very sick or worse. You can watch the classroom newt scene in this YouTube video. The book vs. the movie The newt scenes in this movie are a bit different from what is described in the book. In the book, Lavender brings the newt to school with the intent on terrorizing Trunchbull. In the movie, she finds the newt and takes it to the school. Putting it in Trunchbull's water is a spontaneous act. The movie sequence is described under the pictures above. This is what happens in the book: Miss Honey tells her class that Trunchbull will take over her class the next day after lunch so they should do their best not to make her angry. She tells them that a jug of water and a glass must always be on the table for Trunchbull. Lavender volunteers to take care of the water, thinking that she might be able to do something heroic with the glass. She devises a plan to put a newt in the glass. In the movie, Lavender takes advantage of the fact that she has a newt and Trunchbull has drinking water. Lavender goes to a muddy pond at the bottom of her garden that is home to a colony of newts. The book explains that newts are common in English ponds but they're not seen often by most people because they are shy and murky creatures. They are described as incredibly ugly and gruesome-looking amphibians that can live in and out of the water and look like a baby crocodile, six inches long, slimy, greenish grey in color with an orange belly. Lavender catches a newt with her school hat and puts it in a pencil box with some added pond weed to make it comfortable. She is careful not to break its tail off because a boy told her that a broken newt tail would stay alive and grow into another newt ten times bigger to the size of an alligator. (This, of course, is made up.) Lavender brings the pencil box to the school, then puts the newt in Trunchbull's water pitcher. Trunchbull freaks out, thinking the newt is a snake or a baby crocodile or alligator. She's sure Matilda put it there and threatens to whip her with her belt. Matilda gets angry and makes the glass topple over so the water and the newt topple onto Trunchbull's chest. She shoots out of her chair like a rocket with the newt clinging to her clothing. She swipes her hand and sends the newt flying across the classroom where it lands on the floor beside Lavender's desk. Lavender then puts the newt in her pencil box, deciding that a newt is a useful thing to have around. Trunchbull blames Matilda for spilling the glass, but Miss Honey tells her that she must have knocked the glass over herself. I don't know if later in the book Lavender has kept the newt as a pet, but it seems like she would.