Based on the book of the same name, the fantasy world of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children is about to come to life on screen – and it’s both weird and wonderful.
Miss Peregrine is the woman who runs a secret home for children – but no ordinary children. Like an Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (home to the X-Men), each of the residents of the home have special talents or oddities about them, known here as ‘peculiarities’.
The trailer opens with Jake (Asa Butterfield) being introduced to the world of peculiarities by a girl who can control air – which she shows off in a big way, by draining a large room in a sunken, submerged ship. He is shown the Home, meeting a number of the ‘peculiar’ children living there. His ability to control his shock at some of the more interesting peculiarities of the residents makes him seem reasonably comfortable there, if a little out of place in the fact that he’s the only one who isn’t peculiar.
But of course, Jake’s not just any boy. He is, as we are quickly told, also peculiar, just like the other children in the Home. And not only does he have to learn the extent of what he can do, he apparently has to defend the home itself from an unknown evil. Tim Burton’s influences are most clear in the dark side to the trailer – in the slightly creepier peculiarities, in the quirky style of many of the characters, and in the strange monster shown at the end.
With a star-studded cast including Samuel L. Jackson and Dame Judi Dench, as well as several talented child actors like Butterworth and Pixie Davies, this epic fantasy film has a lot of potential.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children opens its doors September 30th.
Isobel Sheene
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