Bruce Bogtrotter is an overweight boy from Roald Dahl's book Matilda. He steals a slice of Miss Trunchbull's cake and is punished by being forced to eat a whole 18 inch chocolate cake in front of the whole school.
Appearances[]
Matilda[]
Book[]
In the book, Bruce is 11 years old and overweight. He only appears in the chapter "Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake" in which he is called up by Miss Trunchbull and accused of stealing a slice of her personal chocolate cake. After a moment, she decides to punish him by forcing him to eat a whole 18-inch cake, pretending to be kind. Bruce does extremely well in the task, but Miss Trunchbull grows angrier because she planned to make Bruce sick and her plan is failing. Bruce is nearly stuffed when he has one more slice to eat, but Matilda and the other children encourage him to finish, and he ends up succeeds. At the end, Bruce is so full that his belly is poking out of his button-up shirt and he is unable to move. Furious that her scheme failed, Miss Trunchbull smashes the platter over Bruce's head, but this does not bother him because he is so full of cake.
1996 film[]
In the film, Bruce is still 11 years old and overweight. His role is extended slightly as he lives on the same block as Lavender, helps the kids in Miss Honey's class catch the newt for Miss Trunchbull's drink, and is seen throwing cake in Miss Truchbull's face at the end of the movie.
Bruce finds the chocolate cake task very hard and needs cheering on at the end by the others. After he succeeds in eating the cake, Miss Trunchbull smashes the platter over Bruce's head, much like in the book. This does not bother Bruce, but he is dragged away out of the hall and his fate is unknown after this; Bruce is either let off or most likely put in Chokey. He is also shown to be quite intelligent while helping Matilda and her friends catch the newt. Bruce was later seen at the end of the movie during Miss Truncuhbull's defeat where he stuffs a large amount of chocolate cake into Trunchbull's face (as possible payback).
Bruce was portrayed by 12-year-old Jimmy Karz.
Onstage Musical[]
Bruce's role is extended enormously as his role is the biggest male child's role available. Bruce has many lines in songs and scenes. He has an amazing singing voice as proved in the song "Revolting Children." In the show, Bruce is very skinny, is the same age as Matilda, and is in Miss Honey's class. He does the cake task very well, until the last verse when he starts to struggle until Matilda says, "Come on Bruce, do it!" There is a song "Bruce" to the cake scene. Afterwards, Bruce is taken to the Chokey for succeeding, but does not get hit over the head with a plate.
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