Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie: A Hello-Goodbye Experience

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie is Tim Burton's adaptation of Ransom Rigg's debut novel of the same title. Miss Peregrine is the first part of the Peculiar trilogy followed by Hollow City and Library of Souls.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie is Tim Burton's adaptation of Ransom Rigg's debut novel of the same title. Miss Peregrine is the first part of the Peculiar trilogy followed by Hollow City and Library of Souls.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Gamesradar.com

Basically, the Peculiar Children is the Gothic-slash-Victorian era X-men. These peculiars or most commonly known as the "Syndrigasti" possess powers of different kinds and same with all people with extraordinary abilities, they are ostracized by the society they live in. Ymbrynes (read: Professor X) take care of these children and are housed in a time loop where a single day is the same day forever. The loop is not accessible by non-peculiars to protect the syndrigasti from the "world's dangers."

Included in this "world's dangers" are the wights and the hollowgast. These monsters hunt down the peculiars to eat their souls. What makes these creatures deadly is that wights can shape-shift while hollowgasts are invisible. There are only two peculiars who have the ability to see them. 

Hollowgast: A Slenderman - Cthulhu hybrid - Youtube.com

Okay, enough of the story telling.

Officially released on the 30th of September, the film adaptation has been available to movie theaters worldwide. It is directed by Tim Burton and starred by Eva Green, Samuel Jackson, Terrence Stamp, Asa Butterfield and Emma Purnell to name a few. 

The film packs a dark fantasy adventure about Jake (Asa Butterfield) who is living an ordinary and somehow boring life. Jake is very close with his grandfather, however, as he is growing up, their relationship is slowly fading away. Jake dismisses his Grandfather Abe's (Terrence Stamp) tall tales about the peculiar children.

When Abe is killed by an arch-nemesis wight, Barron (Samuel Jackson), his last words to Jake is to meet an Ymbryne named Ms. Peregrine (Eva Green). Jake is deeply affected by his grandfather's death that his parents think he is unstable and somehow losing his mind. Dr. Golan (Allison Janney), Jake's psychiatrist advises him to go on a vacation. Jake then suggests to his father to visit Cairnholm in Wales. This is where Jake meets the peculiar children and the start of their adventure.

If you are a fan of Tim Burton, you will notice how dominant his trademarks are in the film, from skeleton warriors, to the sadistic claymation scene where Enoch animated his creations only to kill each other. Did I even mention the classic Tim Burton female protagonist?

Classic Tim Burton female protagonist: Big round doll eyes and wavy blond hair - Screenrant.com

However, it looks like the first novel is interpreted and portrayed on an entirely different level. We all know that there will always be something different when a novel, a comic book or even a video game is translated into the big screen, as the director and/or the producer will add their creativity into it. What's unacceptable though, and this is in my opinion, is when central characters are modified and a big part of the plot is changed. You will find below some of the things that do not stay faithful with the novel.

On characters:

• The abilities of Emma and Olive are switched. Olive can create and manipulate fire while Emma can float. Her ability to control air is added in the film.
• Dr. Golan is a male psychiatrist.
• Barron is not the wight who started the immortality experiment, it's Miss Peregrine's brother, Caul.
• Fiona and Bronwyn are older compared in the film. Olive is a kid in the novel.
• The Hollowgasts consume the souls of a peculiar, not only its eyes to become a wight.

Left: Olive in the book. Right: Olive in the film - thebookllama.wordpress/Pinterest

The romantic interests in the film are also different. Though Enoch is jealous of the Jake - Emma couple, there is nowhere in the novels that will show Enoch ending up with Olive. As you can see, Olive is just a little adorable kid who can float. What the film does not portray is the romantic relationship between Hugh (the bees master) and Fiona (she who can control plants).

On the movie plot, Grandpa Abe remains dead in the novel, while he is resurrected in the film by killing Barron in the past. The children remain to live in 1943, whereas in the book, their age has reset and they live with Jake in the present.

  

I would say that the film is quite successful in its effort to introduce the Peculiar universe. It has somehow provided the origin story of the wights and the hallowgasts, the story of Grandpa Abe as a wight/hollowgast hunter and on saving Miss Peregrine from the wights themselves. However, the peculiar trilogy is never meant to be created as an all-in movie. As the trilogy progresses, many unanswered questions are satisfied and are well integrated in the story. What you think is the explanation to one thing holds a deeper significance as the trilogy is ending.  

A fan of the trilogy will feel like the movie is bloated with revelations in the mistake of compressing everything into one film. Though the movie may be condensed in terms of the revelations and origin stories, it fails to give more content on the other peculiar children themselves. It's like, "hi, this is (insert character name here) and he can (insert peculiar ability here). Okay, off to my life now.

The ending of the film is bad. What makes it bad is the resolution to the conflict (Miss Peregrine and the other ymbrynes are saved from the wights - this does not happen until book 3). What makes it worse is that all hopes for Hollow City and Library of Souls being in the movie are gone. There will be no more peculiar animals from Hollow City or we will never explore Devil's Acre, the loop in Library of Souls.  

Since you'll never see an emu-raffle, here's a photograph - aliveontheshelves.com

Though the film is flawed from the perspective of someone who read the trilogy, I think it has done well for someone who just wants to watch a movie with all its fat and juicy elements.

It's just hard not to see that emu-raffle galloping in the big screen. I'm dying to see one.