“Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” Review
Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) goes on a crazy cross country trip to retrieve his bicycle in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” which also marked the directorial debut of Tim Burton.
When you look at a famous director’s filmography, it’s sometimes enlightening to look at their first ever feature film. Often made with a smaller budget and lesser known actors, seeing the first time a director attaches their name to a film can show you how a well-known talent got their start. In some debuts, the filmmaker in question has their style more or less completely formed like Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater and Spike Lee. In other cases, elements of a director’s style are present but have yet to amass into what we now know they can accomplish. Filmmakers of this type include John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton.
While Burton found his traditional style of combining the gothic, B-movies, strange sets, supernatural elements and quirky characters by his second film “Beetlejuice,” his first is very interesting because, whenever Tim Burton is talked about, this film is almost never mentioned. This is a shame because “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” is not only an entertaining comedy which introduced millions of children to the character of Pee-wee Herman but it also has many elements that would go on to define Burton as a deeply original filmmaker.
Much like Burton’s other films, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” is set in a world which mirrors our own but has a fantastical quality to it which makes it feel as magical as a Disney animated film. In this world, Pee-wee Herman (Paul Ruebens) is a childlike adult whose most prized possession is the greatest bicycle in cinematic history. When the bike is stolen, Pee-wee goes on a cross-country journey to reclaim his bike and meets a lot of interesting characters along the way.
While most of the people I know who have seen the film like it, the big factor as to whether this film is for you depends on if you find Pee-wee Herman annoying. In my opinion, Paul Ruebens’ performance is charming and hilarious because of how much enthusiasm he has. I really like the idea of a grown man acting like a kid if it’s done well and Pee-wee Herman falls perfectly in line with characters like Mr. Bean, Michael Scott from “The Office” and Brennan Huff and Dale Doback from “Step Brothers.”
Reubens, who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay, understands great comedic timing with his character and also knows that, despite being a happy-go-lucky guy, Pee-wee does need to show more sides to his personality. Some of my favorite moments involving Pee-wee are when he tries to act tough despite the fact that he wears a suit and bow-tie and has a voice that makes Alvin and the Chipmunks look butch. Ironically, the more serious Pee-wee takes his journey, the more funny it is for us.
Being a road trip film, the many characters Pee-wee encounters are so memorable that they could have their own films like Simone (Diane Salinger) the waitress who wants to go to Paris, an escaped convict named Mickey (Judd Omen) who has an unbelievably funny backstory for why he ended up in jail and Dottie (E.G. Daily) who is a master of bikes and has given Pee-wee’s a lot of James Bond-type gadgets. While Pee-wee is enough to hold the film, it's truly the side characters that make this road trip worth taking.
With a fun cast of supporting characters including Pee-wee’s love interest and bike expert Dottie (Left), the film has more than enough colorful scenes to make it a comedy classic.
As a comedy, the film makes me bust a gut and that can be attributed to the talents of the three screenwriters (which included the late great Phil Hartman), Paul Reubens’ acting and Tim Burton’s bizarre direction. While the film doesn’t have as much of Burton’s visual signature, there are many scenes that make you aware of his presence behind the camera.
In particular, the film has way more dark moments than you’d expect in a film called “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” One of the best examples is the scene where Pee-wee is stranded in the middle of nowhere at night and a trucker named Large Marge (Alice Nunn) picks him up. She then proceeds to tell him about the worst auto accident she’s ever seen and it’s later revealed when Pee-wee is dropped off at a diner that the trucker was a ghost. In fact, Large Marge was the dead driver from her story. The one who died in an accident that sounded “like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building.”
Like the freaky tunnel scene from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” this scene is a masterclass in dark humor. While it may have freaked us out as kids, the dark moments of “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” are unbelievably funny to watch as an adult. What also makes me laugh about the film is just how crazy it can be.
One scene involves Pee-wee angering a group of bikers by knocking over their motorcycles. However, when it looks like they’re going to kill him, Pee-wee impresses them by doing a strange dance to “Tequila” by The Champs and they then agree to help him to get his bike. Burton never shows us Pee-wee telling the bikers his story so I don’t know what’s funnier: that they think that he had his motorcycle stolen or that they know it was a bicycle but they’re helping him for the sake of principle. Sometimes the film is so surreal that I have no choice but to laugh.
Adding to the surreal nature of the film is its origins. While not intentional, the film is kind of a bizarre remake of the 1948 Italian neo-realist masterpiece “Bicycle Thieves” although I’m willing to bet that most of the people who have seen “Bicycle Thieves” haven’t seen “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and vice-versa. Even the way that Reubens, Hartman and Michael Varhol came up with the flow of the script was hilarious as they just followed the instructions of Syd Field’s famous book “Screenplay,” which is used as a guide by many screenwriters, step-by-step.
While not the most gothic of Tim Burton’s stories, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” is still one of his best films and is an endearing comedy guaranteed to entertain the young and the young at heart. It’s the right amount of silliness we all could use.
