--- title: "The Twits" year: 2025 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-twits" fi1m_id: "the-twits" imdb_id: "tt0498396" tmdb_id: 927254 wikidata_id: "Q122699348" fi1m_score: 45 critics_score: 46 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-27T09:12:09.283312+00:00" updated: "2026-09-27T09:12:10.423192+00:00" region: "DK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Twits (2025) Directed by Phil Johnston · 1h 39m · Medierådet 7 · Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy ## Identity The Twits - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-twits - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-twits - **IMDb ID:** tt0498396 - **TMDB ID:** 927254 - **Wikidata ID:** Q122699348 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498396/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/927254, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q122699348 **Fi1m score: 45** · Critics 46 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Two monsters, a town full of people who need a lesson in kindness, and only the monsters are any fun > Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas make the Twits as foul as Dahl wrote them, and the film spends the rest of its length apologising for them. Grubby, noisy and funny in patches, it is a black comedy with the black rinsed out. ## Synopsis Credenza Twit (Margo Martindale) and Jim Twit (Johnny Vegas) are Roald Dahl’s hairiest, filthiest couple: unwashed, spiteful, cruel to each other and crueller to anyone else. In Phil Johnston’s animated version they keep the Muggle-Wump monkeys, Mary (Natalie Portman) and Marty (Timothy Simons), against their will, and make life a misery for a town whose Mayor, Wayne John John-John (Jason Mantzoukas), is not equal to them. Beesha Balti (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Busby Mulch (Ryan Anderson Lopez) are the two who decide to stand up to the pair, with a Sweet-Toed Toad (Alan Tudyk) and Beverly Onion (Nicole Byer) somewhere in the mix. Once upon a time there were two terrible Twits, says the tagline; now they have met their match. ## Review Roald Dahl’s *The Twits* is a short book: a couple of hairy, spiteful people play tricks on each other and on the monkeys they keep in a cage, and the monkeys are not as helpless as they look. Phil Johnston, who directs and shares the writing with Meg Favreau from a story by Kirk DeMicco, has stretched it to 99 minutes, and to do that he has given the Twits a town to torment, a Mayor to needle and two young heroes to meet their match in. The couple survive the move. Almost nothing built around them does, and the result is a film that is funny for about a quarter of its length and busy for the rest. Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas are the reason to watch, and they are a good reason. Vegas gives Jim Twit a wet, put-upon whine, a man permanently aggrieved that the world will not sit still for him to be horrible to it; Martindale’s Credenza is louder, cleverer and plainly the one in charge. Rémi Salmon’s designs keep them close to the book: the beard with old dinner in it, the hair nobody has washed, a house that looks as if it smells. The tricks the couple play on each other are the book’s engine, and when the film stays in the Twits’ kitchen it has real nastiness in it. We laughed, properly, at the beard business, and then spent the next hour waiting to laugh like that again. The rest of the cast are given a town to fill and fill it noisily. Jason Mantzoukas plays the Mayor, Wayne John John-John, as a man who has never finished a sentence, which is funny twice. Alan Tudyk’s Sweet-Toed Toad is the film’s oddest idea and could have been odder. Natalie Portman and Timothy Simons voice the Muggle-Wumps with a tired patience that is closer to the book than most of what surrounds them. Then there are the children. Beesha Balti (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Busby Mulch (Ryan Anderson Lopez) are young heroes of the standard animated kind, brave and lonely and forever explaining what they have learned, and the film has decided they are its heart. Every time it cuts to them the temperature drops. The script gives them a lesson about kindness and has them say it aloud, more than once, to people who have just heard it. Dahl’s book contains no such lesson. Its moral, if it has one, is that ugly thoughts make ugly faces, and that the ugly should be tricked and left where they fall. The look of the film splits the same way. The Twits have texture: grease on the hair, grime in the creases, food where food should not be. The town around them is flat and bright and could belong to any of a dozen streaming cartoons, and the townsfolk have the smooth, wide-eyed sameness of a model reused. Erika Dapkewicz cuts everything at the same brisk pace, so a gag about a beard and a speech about belonging arrive with the same rhythm, and the songs, of which there are several, pass through without leaving a mark. Oli Julian’s score is cheerful and never off, which in a film about two people who hate everything is the wrong choice. There are a great many jokes about bottoms. The additions do bring one thing the book lacks. The Twits’ campaign against the town is played as political satire, with a crowd, a grievance and a great deal of shouting, and the film is not shy about who it has in mind; most critics have noticed the same thing. It is the sharpest material here, and it is aimed well over the heads of the audience the PG certificate is for. The children get the bottoms; the adults get the satire; neither gets a whole film. Wes Anderson’s [*Fantastic Mr. Fox*](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox) and the 1996 *Matilda* understood that Dahl’s villains are the point, and that children like them because they are allowed to be awful without a lesson attached. This film likes its Twits and then spends an hour saying sorry for them. Put it on for a seven-year-old who wants monsters and does not mind being told to be nice; the beard will hold them. Anyone older could read the book aloud in the time it takes the second act to get going, and they would get the tricks without the speeches. *Fi1m score 45, published 27 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Twits worth watching?** *The Twits* is worth watching only for Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas, and we scored it 45. They make the couple as filthy and spiteful as Dahl wrote them, but the film surrounds them with a bright, flat town, two earnest child heroes and a kindness lesson repeated aloud. Put it on for a seven-year-old who wants monsters; anyone older will be waiting for the beard jokes to return. **How long is The Twits, and what is it rated?** *The Twits* runs 1h 39m and is rated 7 by the Medierådet in Denmark. It is an animation and comedy film. **Where can I watch The Twits in Denmark?** *The Twits* is streaming on Netflix in Denmark. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **Is The Twits based on a true story or a book?** *The Twits* is based on Roald Dahl's short book about a hairy, spiteful couple who torment each other and the monkeys they keep caged. The film keeps the couple and their tricks close to the page but adds a town, a Mayor, two child heroes and a moral about kindness that Dahl never wrote. Knowing the book makes the additions harder to forgive, though the Twits themselves survive the move. **What should I watch after The Twits?** After *The Twits*, try [*Fantastic Mr. Fox*](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox) (2009, Fi1m 84): Dahl done properly: the animals are vain, the villains are vile, nobody apologises. Then [*Coraline*](https://film.one/film/coraline) (2009, Fi1m 85): Stop-motion with a real nasty streak and a heroine who earns her ending; and [*Ernest & Celestine*](https://film.one/film/ernest-and-celestine) (2012, Fi1m 84): Two outcasts, a hand-drawn town, and warmth that arrives without a speech about kindness. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Richard Lawson (70/100, inferred): Lawson finds the film generic and visually uninspired for much of its running time, but says its timely Trumpism allegory makes it distinctive. He especially praises the pointed political analogy, which gives the movie’s flaws new context. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-twits-review-netflix-phil-johnston-natalie-portman-1236399597/) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies this as RogerEbert.com’s review of the 2025 film, but the page content is blocked. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be determined. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-twits-netflix-animated-movie-review-2025) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (50/100, inferred): Debruge finds the adaptation energetic and irreverent, but weighed down by heavy-handed lessons and an overabundance of butt jokes. He praises its humor in the sordid details, while finding the songs forgettable and some supporting animation unappealing. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-twits-review-roald-dahl-1236552113/) - **The AV Club**, Jacob Oller (D+): Oller gives the film a negative review, arguing that it strips away the source material’s distinctive spirit. He singles out the diluted animation and generic children’s-movie humor as the main failings. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-twits-review) - **The Guardian**, Cath Clarke (10/100, inferred): Clarke finds the adaptation gruelling and a mangling of Dahl’s black comedy. She particularly criticizes its sentimental message of empathy and kindness for erasing the original’s gruesome sense of fun. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/14/the-twits-review-roald-dahl-animation-netflix) - **Collider**, Luna Guthrie (7/10): Guthrie finds the adaptation entertaining but weakened by family-film conventions that dilute Roald Dahl’s nastier style. She praises the lively animation, world-building, and voice performances, especially those of Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale. [Read](https://collider.com/the-twits-movie-review-netflix-roald-dahl/) - **The Wrap** (15/100, inferred): The critic considers it one of the worst Roald Dahl adaptations and wishes it were shorter. They credit its topical ideas and willingness to be strange, but fault its ugly visuals, chaotic tone, and cloying sweetness. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-twits-review-roald-dahl/) ## Details - **Director:** Phil Johnston - **Director:** Phil Johnston - **Writer:** Phil Johnston, Meg Favreau - **Story:** Kirk DeMicco - **Novel:** Roald Dahl - **Editor:** Erika Dapkewicz - **Music:** Oli Julian - **Production design:** Rémi Salmon - **Producer:** Phil Johnston, Maggie Malone, Daisy May West - **Cast:** Margo Martindale as Credenza Twit (voice); Johnny Vegas as Jim Twit (voice); Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Beesha Balti (voice); Ryan Anderson Lopez as Busby Mulch (voice); Emilia Clarke as Pippa (voice); Natalie Portman as Mary Muggle-Wump (voice); Timothy Simons as Marty Muggle-Wump (voice); Nicole Byer as Beverly Onion (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 39m - **Certificate (Medierådet):** 7 - **Release (Denmark):** 17 October 2025 - **Genres:** Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMZI0FkYLEs ## Where to watch in Denmark - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-27.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Fantastic Mr. Fox* (2009), Fi1m 84: Dahl done properly: the animals are vain, the villains are vile, nobody apologises. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox.md) - *Matilda* (1996): Danny DeVito keeps the Trunchbull monstrous and the children clever; the balance this film misses. - *The Witches* (1990): Nicolas Roeg’s version frightens children as Dahl meant to, and they love it for that. - *Coraline* (2009), Fi1m 85: Stop-motion with a real nasty streak and a heroine who earns her ending. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/coraline.md) - *Ernest & Celestine* (2012), Fi1m 84: Two outcasts, a hand-drawn town, and warmth that arrives without a speech about kindness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ernest-and-celestine.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-twits