Pee-wee's Big AdventureAs a kid, I'd wake up on Saturday mornings, pour a big bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (if I was lucky) or Corn Flakes (if I was unlucky), and do what millions of other children did: I turned on the networks, and surfed between the channels, watching television. Mostly this consisted of cartoons, which were little more than twenty-three minute animated commercials for toys, but among them was a strange, live-action show--in the "tradition" of shows like Captain Kangaroo, et al--called Pee-wee's Playhouse. My mother described it as weird (rightly so), but I didn't care. But it wouldn't be until later in life when I learned that the show was more or less a spin-off from the movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. And what's that they say about "buts"?
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Pee-wee's Big Adventure was itself an adaptation of the stand-up routine featuring the character created and played by comedian Paul Reubens, The Pee-wee Herman Show. The show contained more adult humor than the film to follow--it was featured on HBO, after all--and certainly more than the show created later with children in mind (with a few hilarious exceptions). Pee-wee Herman became a popular persona, both because of his eternal boy-like attitude, his charmingly nerdy costume (a suit a bit too small and the ubiquitous red bow tie), and who can forget that laugh? Again, my mother got it right, and described him as the quintessential "nerd"; fine by me, as "nerd" was never a dirty word for me. It was part performance art, part live-action cartoon, with colorful sets and equally colorful supporting characters, played by fellow comedians including Phil Hartman and Lynne Marie Stewart from Paul Reubens' days with the comedy group, the Groundlings. Because of its popularity, Pee-wee was brought to the silver screen in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, an idea lampshaded at the end of the film when the titular character in the film has his own life's story adapted into a movie. Pee-wee's Big Adventure also marks the theatrical debut of director Tim Burton, as well as his long-running collaboration with composer, Danny Elfman, whose contributions produced such an iconic work of weirdness and fantasy, that their signature style would define their other films going forward, including Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure follows an odyssey of the puer aeternus to reclaim his beloved bicycle following its theft; in this, the film is loosely adapted from the Italian film, Bicycle Thieves. Pee-wee rightly suspects his adversarial nemesis, Francis Buxton (Mark Holton) of absconding with it; but when Francis provides an air-tight alibi, he begins a desperate quest to scour the neighborhood for clues, a selfish process which nearly alienates him from his friends like Dottie (Elizabeth Daily), who harbors a crush for Pee-wee. Pee-wee is passionate about his bike, but he is no detective, and is ill-advised by an unscrupulous fortune teller to seek his bike in the "basement of the Alamo", leading him to hitchhiking across the United States. As Pee-wee embarks on his bizarre, Kerouac-esque journey on the road, he encounters all walks of life outside of his sheltered one back home, including an escaped convict named Mickey (Judd Omen), a Francophile truck stop waitress named Simone (Diane Salinger), and even the phantom of a truck driver named "Large Marge" (Alice Nunn), who recalls her own demise in the form of an exceedingly creepy ghost story and special effects. In a way, losing his bike proves to be a valuable learning experience for Pee-wee, a fact he discloses to Dottie over the phone, when he describes that the search taught him humility. The world of Pee-wee's Big Adventure is real enough, but there's always the sense of everything being staged, or better, exaggerated from reality just a shade. The people Pee-wee visits prior to his bike's fateful disappearance--including Dottie and Mario (Monte Landis), of "Mario's Magic Shop"--are conveyed as constants in Pee-wee's world, familiar faces and "neighbors", further reinforcing the idea of the setting being like a demented version of a show like Howdy Doody, or even Sesame Street. Pee-wee's naive enthusiasm is so strong and infectious, that even though we know otherwise, we might still believe that Pee-wee will find his bike in the basement of the Alamo, that "El Dorado" he constantly chases, only to come up short when reality sinks in. Of course, when the bike does make its fortuitous reveal, it leads Pee-wee to a movie set, a literal dream factory where the lines between fantasy and reality are stretched the thinnest. And while Pee-wee's antics on the Warner Brothers' set lead to unintended mischief and chaos--in true Looney Tunes fashion, with no small amount of irony--it also leads to an opportunistic producer named Terry Hawthorne (Tony Bill) to capitalize on Pee-wee's story and make it into a movie, albeit one where it gets dressed up for thrill-seeking audiences a la James Bond. I like to think that the episodes of Pee-Wee's Playhouse chronologically follow this film, and that after the excitement and fanfare of Pee-wee's "big adventure", that he continued to live a simple life free from anarchy and serious conflict. Life can be strange and exciting, and that's fine for a while; and if you're lucky, they make a movie about it. But it's better if you learn a little something...and get that bike back.
Recommended for: Fans of an unhinged, vibrant comedy with a certain innocent--if weird--charm...something with a quirky, simple elegance. And I challenge you not to get the song "Tequila" by The Champs stuck in your head for days, and maybe a certain weird dance popularized by Pee-wee in his (borrowed) platform shoes.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure follows an odyssey of the puer aeternus to reclaim his beloved bicycle following its theft; in this, the film is loosely adapted from the Italian film, Bicycle Thieves. Pee-wee rightly suspects his adversarial nemesis, Francis Buxton (Mark Holton) of absconding with it; but when Francis provides an air-tight alibi, he begins a desperate quest to scour the neighborhood for clues, a selfish process which nearly alienates him from his friends like Dottie (Elizabeth Daily), who harbors a crush for Pee-wee. Pee-wee is passionate about his bike, but he is no detective, and is ill-advised by an unscrupulous fortune teller to seek his bike in the "basement of the Alamo", leading him to hitchhiking across the United States. As Pee-wee embarks on his bizarre, Kerouac-esque journey on the road, he encounters all walks of life outside of his sheltered one back home, including an escaped convict named Mickey (Judd Omen), a Francophile truck stop waitress named Simone (Diane Salinger), and even the phantom of a truck driver named "Large Marge" (Alice Nunn), who recalls her own demise in the form of an exceedingly creepy ghost story and special effects. In a way, losing his bike proves to be a valuable learning experience for Pee-wee, a fact he discloses to Dottie over the phone, when he describes that the search taught him humility. The world of Pee-wee's Big Adventure is real enough, but there's always the sense of everything being staged, or better, exaggerated from reality just a shade. The people Pee-wee visits prior to his bike's fateful disappearance--including Dottie and Mario (Monte Landis), of "Mario's Magic Shop"--are conveyed as constants in Pee-wee's world, familiar faces and "neighbors", further reinforcing the idea of the setting being like a demented version of a show like Howdy Doody, or even Sesame Street. Pee-wee's naive enthusiasm is so strong and infectious, that even though we know otherwise, we might still believe that Pee-wee will find his bike in the basement of the Alamo, that "El Dorado" he constantly chases, only to come up short when reality sinks in. Of course, when the bike does make its fortuitous reveal, it leads Pee-wee to a movie set, a literal dream factory where the lines between fantasy and reality are stretched the thinnest. And while Pee-wee's antics on the Warner Brothers' set lead to unintended mischief and chaos--in true Looney Tunes fashion, with no small amount of irony--it also leads to an opportunistic producer named Terry Hawthorne (Tony Bill) to capitalize on Pee-wee's story and make it into a movie, albeit one where it gets dressed up for thrill-seeking audiences a la James Bond. I like to think that the episodes of Pee-Wee's Playhouse chronologically follow this film, and that after the excitement and fanfare of Pee-wee's "big adventure", that he continued to live a simple life free from anarchy and serious conflict. Life can be strange and exciting, and that's fine for a while; and if you're lucky, they make a movie about it. But it's better if you learn a little something...and get that bike back.
Recommended for: Fans of an unhinged, vibrant comedy with a certain innocent--if weird--charm...something with a quirky, simple elegance. And I challenge you not to get the song "Tequila" by The Champs stuck in your head for days, and maybe a certain weird dance popularized by Pee-wee in his (borrowed) platform shoes.