'Blu-ray or Bust' - MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

'Blu-ray or Bust'

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (2016, PG-13, 127 minutes, 20TH CENTURY FOX)

Tim Burton knows how to tell a good story. His unique visual style is the earmark of several films that you easily recognize as his work. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, BEETLEJUICE, and PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE are classics of cinema, and all showcases of the magnificently odd.

PEREGRINE is no exception; it blends his naturally creepy side with an author who delved into creepy via old photographs of weird kids. Ransom Riggs’ 2011 young adult novel, which at times reads like a strictly adult one, captured the curiosity of those old, age-worn pictures and pieced together a lovely tale of spooky children and menacing, monstrous adults. Now Burton shows you what Ransom intended visually, and it mostly pays off.

PEREGRINE tells the story of teenage Jake (Asa Butterfield—you’ll remember him as the intense “Ender” from ENDER’S GAME), a socially awkward (weren’t we all) young man caught up in an awkward stage of life. His recently departed grandfather, who told him tales of the titular home of living oddities as a boy, bids him seek out the place for answers concerning said grandfather’s life—and death. The journey from there is ripe with signature Burton touches (he designed the bad guys, and there is even a moment—a rather intense and awful moment—when dolls are brought to life not with the usual CGI, but with the director’s preferred style of stop motion animation). Miss Peregrine herself is played with a confident vitality by Eva Green (Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful”, CASINO ROYALE); she is a no-nonsense caretaker of the children known as “Peculiars”, and her fierceness is that of an over-protective mother. A direct interpretation of the falcon she represents in human form, and a fine portrayal it is.

While Burton chose actors that all fit their roles quite nicely, this is a big budget, effects riddled film, and you lose some of the typical practical effects he was always such a fan of using. These are the moments when the film seems less Burtonesque and more…well, Disney-like. And this ain’t your typical Disney fare.

By hiring on screenwriter Jane Goldman (KICK-ASS, KINGSMAN) to adapt Riggs’ books, Burton shows the confidence he has in other auteurs; by not sticking to the first book scene for scene, there are other opportunities created that clearly dictate this not as a franchise, but more of a complete tale. The ending of the film is entirely different than that of the original work, and there have even been some changes to some of the characters. Diehard fans of the written series might be irritated, but I applaud the changes. No need to suck the public’s pockets and patience dry with five films when you can pack a whole lotta story in an allotted screen time and not waste time with extraneous and unnecessary scenes.

The special features offer something rather unique as well; author Riggs was allowed on the set, and spends an ample amount of time in the first documentary being a fanboy and explaining how he not only accepts the changes made to his material, but his shock at being included in much of what went on. There is also an hour devoted to the Peculiars, and a much lesser amount given to Samuel L. Jackson and the rest of the baddies.

It is refreshing to see Burton still respecting tales created by others, and to see that he is still an author himself, creating visual stories and worlds with the knowing hand of a man who revels in the peculiar. Next, he’ll be revisiting the world of BEETLEJUICE; let us hope his style, and voice, stay intact.

Film Grade: A-

Special Features: A+ (seriously—you give an author the opportunity to peek around the set that you built, based on a world he created, and you’re gettin’ an “A+” from me every time)

Blu-ray Necessary: Indubitably

-- T.S.Kummelman