Keeping Score

Lissie Doll

So I saw Matilda for the first time all the way through last night. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, it's a movie adaptation of a Roald Dahl* book by the same name.

The first Roald Dahl book I read was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, after I saw the movie Willie Wonka. This started my short lived love-affair with books, as I voraciously poured through Dahl volume after Dahl volume: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, James and the Giant Peach, and my favorite: his work of short stories. I never did read Matilda, unfortunately.

But what always struck me about him were the dedications in his books. They always seemed to be touching and not just a throwaway "For so-and-so" type dedications.

In the movie Matilda, there's a doll that Miss Honey (Matilda's mentor and teacher) is longing for that she hasn't had since she was Matilda's age, and it's named "Lissie Doll". The doll is loved and cherished by Miss Honey, and it becomes a bit of a plot point in the story. Upon watching the credits (something I do at the end of every movie, good or bad), I noticed that the name of one of the Producers on the film:

Lissie Dahl.

Very nicely done, Mr. Dahl. You gave your daughter (presumably) something to cherish for a lifetime, even in your absence.

* I had no earthly idea that Roald Dahl had so many film and TV credits (or book credits for that matter, either). I was under the presumtion that he made a handful of amazing children's works that were later translated to the large screen. I couldn't be more wrong.