Tim Burton's 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children' Trailer Teases A New World Coming

I actually saw this trailer a couple months ago when 20th Century Fox invited some journalists to see their CinemaCon footage. It was preceded by a wonderful and nostalgia-tugging "best of Tim Burton" sizzle reel. The lovely clip was scored to "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which of course is not a Tim Burton film. That's ironic and fitting, since many of Tim Burton's films, nay nearly all of Tim Burton's films since the Henry Selick-directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, have been adaptations of someone else's work. And such is the case with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. This trailer is basically an expanded version of the earlier teaser from back in March, and it is so complete that I imagine it's the last trailer we will see unless there is a "special effects sizzle reel" teaser closer to the September 30th release date.

This one was supposed to come out on Christmas, and I am trying not to make too much of its date shift beyond Fox really wanting Assassin's Creed to break out and believing that this fantasy adaptation could be a hit anytime. Sadly September is an incredibly crowded weekend, with Lionsgate's Deepwater Horizon, STX's The Edge of Seventeen, and Relativity's much-delayed Masterminds. But then September is always the time when I start begging for daytime screenings so I'm not away from my kids every night for the last four months of the year.

The good news is that this is one press screening that I can bring my daughter to (maybe my son, I'll ask around when the time comes). I am currently debating whether or not to read the first Ransom Riggs novel with said daughter and/or son before the film comes out. Should I be versed in the source material, or should I walk into the theater with no prior opinions beyond the hope that Tim Burton has followed up the terrific Big Eyes with a solid fantasy entry?

I will be honest, the film looks "fine," basically playing like a cross between X-Men and one of those lower-profile "young man discovers that he's the special" fantasy movies (think Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant) that came and died in the wake of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. If this didn't have Tim Burton's name attached, it would barely be on my radar. But it is and thus it is.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, starring Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Ella Purnell, Allison Janney, Terence Stamp, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, and Samuel L. Jackson, opens September 30th. As always, we'll see.