At this point of his career, many would be hard pressed to be surprised by a Tim Burton film. With over 20 years of films including Batman, Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, and 2014’s Big Eyes, Burton has always been able to make his films, the Burton way. Burton’s recent release, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, did not only bring the element of surprise, but falls in line with some of Burton’s most entertaining work.

Miss Peregrine is based on the novel of the same name written by Ransom Riggs. The film concentrates on Jake, whose grandfather leaves clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times. While traveling to Wales with his father, he finds the school Jake had only heard of from his grandfather’s bedtime stories known as Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children. What follows is a mash-up of classic films, Groundhog Day, X-men, Harry Potter while drawing memories of Burton’s past film Big Fish.

Once Jake arrives at the school and meets Miss Peregrine and the peculiars reminding us of the X-men. Children who instead of having “mutant powers” have “peculiarities.” Emma is light as air.   Bronwyn is as strong as 10 men and as endearing a character as it gets. Claire who has a mouth in the back of her head. There’s an invisible boy, another who has bees in his body, another who can project his dreams through his eyes just like a movie projector and twins who I spent most of the film loving but also wondering what their peculiarity is. These children’s peculiarities and performance stand out in the film. They become what you want to see and once the film transitions from the house, it loses the audience.

When Jake leaves the “loop” to return back to his father, one watching would wonder, would Harry Potter leave Hogwarts? Would any of the mutants leave Professor’s X’s school? Would Luke leave the Millennium  Falcon? While Jake is the protagonist in the film, I found his character to be bland.

While Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is based on a book, Burton does a great job of making it feel completely original and, most importantly, like a Tim Burton film. It’s enchanting, gorgeous, creepy, and mystical. In a year, that has been full of ups and downs, it is good to see Tim Burton, doing what he does best, bringing the peculiar to the big screen.

Reel Talk gives Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children 3 Reels