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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 is from a Roald Dahl book about an extraordinary young girl named Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) whose mistreatment by terrible parents made her self-reliant and develop psychokinetic 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." The credits even show the names of three live newts that were used in the the scene. The newt on the light fixture appears to be a newt prop. 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. Don't ask me how I know that...) So I sure hope nobody ever pulls a prank like this with a Pacific 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. You can watch the classroom newt scene in this YouTube video.