Tim Burton seems to love making books into movies (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, etc.); he does this one more with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, as he successfully produces another odd, yet satisfying film.

The movie starts out playing creepy, eerie music while showing maps, old time pictures of villains, and images of children with peculiar talents and powers. Moviegoers’ first glimpse is of a “Welcome to Florida sign;” this is where we meet Jake, a lonely kid with seemingly no friends.

The movie effectively utilizes flashbacks to show when Jake was young and when his grandfather would tell him stories of a house in another part of the world . . . where children with peculiar talents and powers live. His grandfather shows him old-time photographs of the children — pictures of a girl who can float, a boy who is invisible and a boy with bees living inside him, among others.

Originally, young Jake believes these tales, but once bullies tell him the stories are make-believe, he thinks his grandpa lied to him. His grandpa tries to explain that all the stories are true, but it’s no use; even Jake’s dad thinks Grandpa is making up the stories and going crazy. When Jake turns 18, he decides to go where his grandpa said the house was and find out for himself.

This movie has everything any viewer could want — fantasy, romance, action and even some humor. The effects in the movie are extraordinary and really make all the children’s talents look real. I advise seeing the film in 3D since it makes the scenes that much more thrilling and exciting.

Ella Purnell (Emma) and Samuel L. Jackson’s (Mr. Barron) performances are essential to the movie and are great casting.

With most fantasy films, it tends to get cheesy as the story goes along. This, however, was not the case in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children; I highly suggest seeing this film.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox