Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Lynn Barker on Dec 21, 2016

Rating:

Check out Kidzworld’s Blu-ray review of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a colorful fantasy film with magic and scares. Would it make a good gift or keeper?

By: Lynn Barker

In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, teen Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield) learns that the many wild stories of monsters and “gifted” people from his grandpa’s past are true. He lives an adventure complete with time loops and kids with weird magical talents. These different but nice tweens and teens need protection and Jake learns that he might be more like them than he thinks.

The first peculiars Jake meets. Are they ghosts?Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Grandpa’s Bedtime Stories

Since Jake Portman was a toddler he was mesmerized by his grandpa Abe (Terrence Stamp)’s fantasy stories of growing up during World War II on an island where there was a magical children’s home headed up by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and peopled by kids and teens with amazing supernatural abilities. Now that he’s 16, Jake starts to question just how true grandpa’s tales were. Jake’s visits to a psychiatrist (Allison Janney) seem to convince him of a new “truth”.

Miss Peregrine is proud of the childrenCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Grandpa and the Peculiars

When Jake sees his grandfather killed by a weird, tall, blind and very frightening creature that only he can see, he decides that he must investigate the island and the school for his own sanity and to see if grandpa was just crazy or not. Jake travels with his doubting dad to Wales looking for Miss Peregrine and her strange school. Arriving at the home he finds it destroyed by a World War 2 bomb but returning later on, he starts to see several occupants and they match old pictures of the peculiar kids who lived there. Are they ghosts?

Many of the peculiars are ready for battleCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Where or When Am I?

Going outside Jake sees that the mansion is restored. Jake has entered the peculiars’ “time loop” where it is always the day the bomb fell and Miss Peregrine always “re-sets” the same day before it falls. Thus, neither she nor the kids are harmed or ever really age. There is an invisible boy, a boy who can make people move as he likes, a boy with bees living inside him, a girl with teeth in the back of her head, a firestarter girl, a super-strong girl, a girl who can make plants grow into giant ones, mysterious twins and more but Jake is attracted to Emma (Ella Purnell) a gorgeous teen girl who can defy gravity and control air.

Jake and some of the peculiars watch moviesCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Truth

Jake learns that his grandfather visited them and other peculiar kids in other time loops throughout his life. He was doing so as their protector because only he could actually see their enemies headed by power-hungry shape-shifter Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads a group of malformed eyeless humans known as the Wights who are determined to live forever by consuming the eyeballs of Peculiars!

Miss Peregrine demonstrates her time-bending skillsCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Their monstrous henchmen are called Hollowgasts and that is what Jake saw kill his grandpa. In fact, Jake is also a Peculiar and like grandpa Abe before him, is the only one who can see them. Miss Peregrine is an Ymbryne, a being who can change into a bird and actually control time and form the protective time loops. Can Jake work with the good guys to save Miss Peregrine and the kids?

Miss Peregrine has to defend the homeCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Special Extra Features

There are several nice ones on this Blu-ray set with many of the extras involving cool director Tim Burton and lots of footage shot on set.

The Peculiar Story tells us about the original novel. The author talks about being thrilled that visionary Tim Burton was going to make the movie based on his story. The screenwriter talks on adapting it and changes made for the film. We hear from heads of departments on make-up, costuming, visual effects, music and production design with the book’s author taking us on a brief tour. Interesting!
Hollows & Ex-Hollows is an extra featuring the Samuel L. Jackson character Barron who is an evil shape-shifting baddie out to use the peculiars for his own purposes. The book author based him on a weird bus driver he had as a kid. Jackson talks about the character, his make-up, costume and time on set as does Tim Burton. We see some of his unique sketches. Barron’s props and those of other “Hollows” are discussed by the actors. We learn that their big white contact lenses were super painful! Well worth a watch.
Map of Days explores the maps showing where the time loops in the story are. The same day will happen again and again unless the loop is broken. We are told all about the real life old, spooky house where much of the film was shot and move on to Blackpool Tower which was recreated on set as well as shooting on an amusement pier in the real Blackpool, England. Stunts are shown and explained and as many real locations as possible were used. Actor kids had fun throwing real snowballs. Cute!
“Wish That You Were Here” is a music video by Florence and The Machine. It is a beautiful song played over scenes from the film. Nice.
Gallery is unusual in that it shows several very old photographs and compares them with the characters development for the film. Tim Burton’s unique sketches are shown as well. Worth a flip through for sure.

Director Tim Burton with some of the film's weird toysCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Wrapping Up

“Miss Peregrine” is a uniquely Tim Burton fantasy film and it’s very entertaining. It combines scary with magical and a little romance. This Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set is really great. The film looks and sounds first notch and I enjoyed the “how we did that” extras although a commentary and blooper reel would have been cool. The plot is pretty complicated if you haven’t read the novel but there is so much to watch that you might not care.

Jake flies the beautiful Emma like a kiteCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

For great imagination and crazy eye-candy the film and this home entertainment pack would make a great gift, especially for Tim Burton and fantasy film fans. We can go four stars.