Continuity mistake: At the scene where Ms. Trunchbull is under attack by the children in Matilda's class, she tries to catch Lavender, a brown girl in purple dungarees. At the time Ms. Trunchbull runs into Lavender, both sides of her dungarees are buttoned. Then Lavender is lifted by Mathilda to hold on to a pipe at the ceiling. At the very single shot where she is holding onto that pipe you can see all side buttons of her dungarees are loose. (01:26:50)
Factual error: It is stated that Miss Trunchbull competed in the Olympics in shot put, javelin, and hammer throw. According to her jersey those were the 1972 Olympics. The hammer throw wasn't added as an Olympic event for women until 2000.
Visible crew/equipment: Two wires can be seen attached to Lavender (because light shines on them) as she floats back to the ground after the Trunchbull charged towards her. This is only visible on video, and has been taken out of the DVD, although you can (barely) see the shadow of the equipment letting her down on the wall behind her.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, you see that the baby Matilda's eyes are brown, but they change colour to blue when she's in the car.
Suggested correction: It was just the lighting. The sun was shining through the window in the morning.
Audio problem: At the end, when the Wormwoods are leaving on a permanent vacation, Harry says, "Get in the car Melinda." Matilda corrects him and Harry says, "Whatever," but his mouth does not move.
Continuity mistake: In the scene halfway through where the FBI agents are searching the garage, the door on the camcorder opens twice. Once before he turns around, then once more as he turns around and the tape comes out.
Continuity mistake: In some shots of The Trunchbull swinging Amanda Thrip by her pigtails, Amanda's arms are spread out. In others, they are down by her sides.
Audio problem: When Zinnia combs back Harry's hair with the grey stuff in it, we see her lips moving, but we hear Michael's voice.
Continuity mistake: When Miss Trunchbull is in her home searching for the person in her home, she jumps down off the second floor to the first without using the stairs, a chandelier falls to the floor and shatters. Moments later when they show that area again, the chandelier is gone from the floor, in fact it's seen back up on the ceiling.
Continuity mistake: When Bruce Bogtrotter eats the cake and everyone starts to yell out 'Go Bruce,' there are several bits of cake left on the tray. Bruce stands up and moves to the front of the stage yelling. When he gets back, he licks the tray, and all the bits of cake are gone.
Factual error: Matilda searches for a library in what looks like the yellow pages. 'Library' is first under the 'L' section. Library starts with 'li'. Surely there would be something beginning with 'la', which would be before 'li'.
Revealing mistake: When Matilda telepathically makes the TV explode, you can see what looks like parts of an explosive hidden behind the screen.
Suggested correction: Clearly no sign of it.
Suggested correction: When the TV set explodes, it's a close-up of the screen and no device is seen. When it changes to a wider shot of the actual explosion, the glass breaks and some components of the TV set are shown. There is no way to distinguish between what is a component and what is, as you say, an explosive.
Suggested correction: There is no view of the explosive.
Revealing mistake: As the Wormwoods are driving out of the hospital parking lot at the beginning of the movie, the shot of the car driving from right to left has been flipped, as evident by the quick appearance of a hospital directory sign in the background being mirrored.
Revealing mistake: When Matilda goes to the Trunchbull's house alone to get the Lissy doll, she's sitting on top of what looks like a garage, Matilda leans forward and presses down on the roofing shingles but they bend in a way that shows they are foam, not real shingles.
Visible crew/equipment: When The Trunchbull lifts her car back to her house and gets frightened by a black cat, a camera is reflected in her car on the left side of the screen for a moment.
Continuity mistake: When Zinnia and Harry are signing the papers for Miss Honey to adopt Matilda. Zinnia signs the paper with one hand in the air in the shots that include Matilda, and Matilda holds down the paper. On a close up shot of the signature Zinnia's finger is holding down the paper, when it should be in the air.
Continuity mistake: When Miss Trunchbull accuses Matilda of putting the newt in the water, the corner of the clock is visible at the top of the screen. You can see that the big hand is on the 5. At the end of the scene, the big hand is on the 2. Surely it didn't take 45 minutes for her to walk back to the desk, have the newt spilled on her, etc.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when Matilda is wiping her face, in the long shot the tap faces the left, but in the closeup it is facing the right way. (This is only noticeable on the 2.35:1 widescreen DVD version.)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film, where Miss Trunchbull gets beaten with the erasers, she passes out on the floor of the classroom. As she lays there, Matilda causes all of the blinds in the room to rise. The character of Miss Honey can be seen watching them rise, but in the reaction shots she is shown looking down at where Trunchbull should be laying.
Continuity mistake: When Miss Trunchbull is chasing Ms. Honey and Matilda, the sweat stains constantly change between shots.
