October DealsAmazon USOctober deal check: compare before you payAmazon US: current deals, useful picks and tech finds.Check DealsWindows FixRecommendedWindows errors stealing your time? Find the fix fastScan stability, cleanup and performance issues.Fix NowOctober DealsAmazon USDeal season is back - check today's better picksAmazon US: current deals, useful picks and tech finds.See Picks×
Skip to content
DocumentaryTube
Admit one · Blog

‘The Twits’ Review: Does Netflix’s Adaptation Lose Dahl’s Nasty Edge?

Netflix’s animated The Twits keeps signature grotesque tricks but adds a town-takeover plot and an empathy message. Critics differ on whether the expansion blunts Dahl’s comic nastiness.
Opened Runtime5 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Netflix’s animated The Twits turns Roald Dahl’s cruel, prank-loving couple into the center of a town-wide adventure about power, friendship and empathy. That bigger story gives the film more shape than a string of tricks, but it also risks sanding down the characters’ most distinctive appeal: their gleeful, unapologetic nastiness. The available critical response is divided, so “the Twits lose their edge” is a persuasive question to test—not a settled verdict.

What is Netflix’s The Twits about?

The 2025 animated family film follows Mr. and Mrs. Twit as they try to take over their town. Their dangerous amusement park, Twitlandia, is part of their rise to power; two children and a group of magical animals join forces to stop them. Netflix’s synopsis also singles out the book’s Wormy Spaghetti and Dreaded Shrinks tricks, bringing familiar bits of Dahl’s grotesque mischief into the new plot.

Netflix lists the film at 1 hour 43 minutes and classifies it as family, comedy, adventure, fantasy and animation. The opened title page lists English original audio alongside multiple audio and subtitle options; those service details can vary by region.

Does the expanded plot suit Dahl’s prank-driven book?

Netflix describes this as the first screen adaptation based on Dahl’s book of the same name. Rather than simply stringing together the Twits’ cruelties and practical jokes, the film builds toward a town-level conflict: the couple pursue power, while children and magical animals organize against them. That shift offers a clear adventure framework, but it changes the rhythm. In the book, the Twits’ misbehavior is the point; in the film, their tricks also serve a larger story about stopping them.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
#1 Best Overall

The question is whether the new scale deepens the material or dilutes it. A takeover plot can give the pranks consequences and create momentum, yet it may leave less room for the sheer pettiness that makes the Twits funny. The Guardian’s Cath Clarke, reviewing the film on 14 October 2025, argues that the expansion makes the story “flabbier.” That is one critic’s assessment, but it identifies the adaptation’s central trade-off: more plot, less concentrated nastiness.

Does the film preserve the Twits’ comic cruelty?

The gross-out tricks are still part of the film’s identity, not an incidental reference to the book. Netflix’s official synopsis names Wormy Spaghetti and the Dreaded Shrinks, and writer-director Phil Johnston has said he loves the characters’ “terrible tricks,” lack of self-awareness and lack of human decency. The premise therefore retains a connection to what made the Twits memorable: they are not merely antagonists, but appalling people who take pleasure in being appalling.

The tension comes from what surrounds those antics. If a story’s villains become instruments for a lesson in kindness, their cruelty can feel less like the joke and more like a problem the film must explain away. Clarke argues that the empathy message overwhelms Dahl’s gruesome humor. Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com, by contrast, found value in the empathy theme while also identifying underdeveloped elements. Those reactions suggest a real disagreement about balance, rather than a simple consensus that the film has either preserved or abandoned Dahl’s tone.

How do empathy and political satire affect the tone?

Empathy gives the expanded story a moral direction: the children and animals are not only trying to defeat the Twits, but also represent a different way of treating others. That can make the adventure more accessible as a family film. It also places the story at some distance from Dahl’s pleasure in letting repulsive characters remain repulsive without softening them.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

The film adds another tonal complication through political satire. Clarke describes Mrs. Twit as Texan and the fictional city as Triperot, and sees the satire as a risk to the story’s balance. Political references can give adults an extra layer to notice, but if they dominate, they may pull attention away from the children’s adventure or make the villains feel like topical caricatures rather than comic grotesques. The available reactions do not establish how every audience will read those choices.

Do the animation and voice cast support the material?

The film is animated by Jellyfish Pictures. The Radio Times excerpt praises the voice cast while describing the computer-generated imagery as having a variable picture-book aesthetic. That combination points to a production trying to evoke an illustrated storybook while giving it the scale and movement of a feature-length adventure; the excerpt’s qualification matters, because it does not describe the visual style as uniformly successful.

Rank #4

Netflix lists Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Natalie Portman, Emilia Clarke, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Ryan Lopez, Timothy Simons, Nicole Byer, Jason Mantzoukas and Alan Tudyk among the voice cast. The breadth of the ensemble suits a story that has grown beyond the two central villains, though the cited reactions do not identify a single performance as the deciding factor in the film’s success.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

What does the music add?

Netflix Tudum says David Byrne wrote and produced three original songs performed by the cast: “We’re Not Like Ev’ryone Else,” “Lullaby” and “The Problem Is You.” Byrne and Paramore’s Hayley Williams co-wrote and performed “Open the Door” for the end credits. The songs give the feature a musical dimension alongside its comic set pieces and adventure plot; the official information establishes the credits, not whether the songs strengthen or interrupt the film’s tone.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

How does the film compare with the book’s reach?

Netflix reported in 2023 that The Twits had been translated into 41 languages and sold 16 million copies worldwide. Those are Netflix’s publisher-reported figures, repeated by Netflix Tudum and the Roald Dahl Story Company; they are not independently audited current totals. They do, however, underline why an adaptation has to serve two audiences at once: people who know the book’s episodic cruelty and newcomers meeting the characters through a more conventional family adventure.

For readers who want to compare the source material directly, Roald Dahl’s original The Twits book is the natural point of reference. The adaptation’s key change is not simply that it invents new events, but that it makes the Twits’ private campaign of nastiness part of a broader struggle over a town.

Is The Twits worth watching?

The film is most likely to satisfy viewers open to a family adventure that borrows Dahl’s grotesque comic ingredients but gives them a more explicit story about resistance and empathy. Readers hoping for the book’s tight concentration on the Twits’ shameless pranks may find the expansion and moral framing less satisfying. Clarke’s Guardian review is sharply critical; Tallerico’s RogerEbert.com response sees value in the empathy theme despite weaknesses, while the selected excerpts from the Guardian, AV Club and Radio Times show differing judgments rather than a definitive critical consensus.

Netflix’s page lists the film for streaming, though availability can change by territory. The core adaptation question remains a matter of taste: whether the larger plot makes the Twits’ awful behavior feel consequential, or makes them less funny by asking the audience to look past it.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Quick Recap

SaleBestseller No. 1
The Twits
The Twits
$5.99
SaleBestseller No. 4
The BFG
The BFG
$6.74
SaleBestseller No. 5

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

More from the Screening Room

  1. Watchmen Chapter I: Trailer, Voice Cast, Release Date, and PlotAdmit one · BlogWatchmen Chapter I: Trailer, Voice Cast, Release Date, and PlotOpened09 OCT 2026Runtime2 min
  2. Watchmen Chapter I: Trailer and 2024 Digital, 4K UHD and Blu-ray Release DatesAdmit one · BlogWatchmen Chapter I: Trailer and 2024 Digital, 4K UHD and Blu-ray Release DatesOpened09 OCT 2026Runtime2 min
  3. The Wild Robot Movie Trailer: A Stranded Robot Adopts an Orphaned GoslingAdmit one · BlogThe Wild Robot Movie Trailer: A Stranded Robot Adopts an Orphaned GoslingOpened08 OCT 2026Runtime1 min
Recommended PC Tool
Recommended PC Tool
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?Free scan - under a minute
Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?Free driver scan

Two free Windows tools

One Free Minute Could Fix That PC

Before you go - each of these free tools takes about a minute and tackles what quietly slows a Windows PC down.

Special offer. View Outbyte info, uninstall instructions, EULA, and Privacy Policy.