Few days ago I randomly watched this movie and got terrified, as I often do with kids content from whatever era.
1h 38m | PG
www.imdb.com
At first super tiny Matilda keeps walking "ten blocks distance" to the local library cause parents refuse to provide her with books.
It doesnt get anybodys attention.
Nobody cares that Matilda's parents are neglecting her so much.
Kids at school have extremely abusive headmistress who straight up tries to murder three students, tortures many more.
First time Matilda whitness this and asks her new friend how its possible and why they havent told their parents whats going on at school - and so we learn that its cause parents wouldnt believe kids anyway.
Then Matilda sneaks out of the house, kinda dodges the fact that brother notices that, and she gets out at night, in windy, rainy weather, heading to headmistress house (which is in significant distance) to recover a childhood doll that belongs to her beloved teacher.
Obviously movie plot isnt that relevant, but there is a little girl who sneaks out at night to do something very important for her, and doesnt care about terrible weather.
And that movie is kinda... yeah, Matilda has her newly discovered superpowers and she's super smart child, but the world in the story is kinda normal. No supernatural beings, no obvious distinction from "real world". Could be a good source of inspiration for a little girl who struggles with some issue, maybe not even her own, but something she knows about and possibly thinks that she has some idea how to fix it.
Matilda's parents dont care, and even though her beloved teacher seems to care, shes the one who introduces the girl to the dangerous behavior (while taking her to look at the teacher's childhood home, where her murderous aunt lives).
Maybe... possibly... almost certainly Im reading waaaay too much into it, but that provided me with at least one convincing answer to the question how 9yo girl could come up with such idea to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and walk somewhere pretty far despite of terrible weather. Normally its not something that kid would do.
But what if kid saw such scenario in family movie? I suspect that there may be a good chance that Asha saw that movie. Or maybe something with similar plot?
I wonder if Ashas classmates, and maybe child companions from church activities were ever questioned at such weird angle. Cause upfront questions like, where she could go, do you know about some issues she could have and so on... I dont see how that could bring some relevant answers.
Good question would be like... was there something that bothered you in the days or weeks prior to the Asha's disappearance? did you learned about somehting bad happening to someone or some mysterious gossip about a house in the general area?
And I dont mean it in a way that some friend of Asha knew something and never told. I mean it in a way that they never connected these dots, cause likely they werent aware of the whole picture of "something" that only Asha learned or was told.
She took clothes, candy and child's book that wasnt hers. Borrowed book doesnt sound like something you'd run away with not planning to go back in reasonable time. That sounds like kinda... heading for a sleepover.
I assume that cops would know if Asha asked her parents to have sleepover and got denied. So that would be some super important sleepover that she was afraid to ask about but found so important it was worth for her to get in trouble later. So like she tried to join either some kid she knew or was told that she can meet at somebodys house then.
Any chance that she had a friend before who moved away and missed? Or got forbidden from seeing maybe even months prior? Or years?
Seeing that movie really really resonated with me in context of Asha. The moment I saw this nightly Matilda's escapade I saw Asha. Likely there is no connection BUT there is no shortage of kids convinced to do crazy stuff by motivational speeches to "believe in their magical powers" done to movie/book protagonists who didnt seem to have them until they proved theyre brave enough to do something crazy or jump down the roof and learn that indeed they CAN FLY, or hurt themselves by these dumb dumb dumb toxic "5 minute crafts" tutorials that left them hospitalised or even dead.
I cant even use the words here to explain what Ive experienced years ago when I bought a book. My friend had a 2yo kid, I wanted to bring some gift, was in a hurry, grabbed a book that looked nicely drawn and bought it.
Then I turned betroot red cause the little rabbits in that book had very obscene, sexual names. Not something that a kid would notice, but like next level inappropriate and possibly horrendous if a child after reading such book would start talking about the characters in presence of adults. Lots of laughs for some sick individual who translated and published it like that but come on...
It was an issue then and it is an issue now. Neither that abomination fof childs book or the "family" movie "Matilda" were made for kids, with child audience best interest: to entertain and teach something valuable. They were both disasters for adults with sick sense of humor to laugh at, without consideration of what message it can send to kids.
And its not on the level of the Beatles unable to predict that their "Helter Skelter" song may inspire a psychopath to massacre people. JMO but it was next level irresponsible and stupid to show little Matilda engaging in so many dangerous behaviors.
Am I getting crazy and paranoid? Probably, but I had adrenaline rush seeing tiny child, walking crossing the road in front of a big truck. And that truck stopped right in front of her. Great, just great presentation of supernatural skills, cause no way in real life person driving a truck would be able to notice that there is 3ft tall child in there.
I mean.. if she to the very least kept walking along with other people to make her visible. Then nevermind. But she was ALONE on that road in that moment. And thats a movie for children. Like... come on. Shouldnt making kids safe and well prepared for risks and challenges in life be like COMMON effort, not 100% their parents responsibility to predict and explain every stupid, crazy, dangerous idea and pattern of behavior thats showed to kids?
