Forty years down the road, ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ is still fun-fun-fun
- Craig Shapiro
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 17 hours ago
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
In what director Tim Burton, who made his feature debut with “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” calls the sports sequence, our hero leaves a posse of racers in his dust.
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“PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE: THE CRITERION COLLECTION”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1985, PG for rude humor
Best extra: The 2005 “Hollywood’s Master Storytellers” interview with Paul Reubens
SENDING PEE-WEE halfway across America on a quest of near-mythological proportions wasn’t Paul Reubens’ intention when he started the script for his man-child’s movie debut. Instead, he was pretty much rewriting Disney’s “Polyanna” (1960) with Pee-wee in the Hayley Mills role.
“Basically, Pee-wee comes to a small town and makes everybody smile,” he says in a 2005 commentary with director Tim Burton.
That changed one day when Reubens was walking around the Warner Bros. lot with the film’s producers and noticed that everyone was riding a bicycle. “I said, ‘Where’s my bike?’” It wasn’t long before he was given a bright orange, restored, 1947 Schwinn Racer, and that’s when he saw the light.
“The second I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m writing the wrong movie. The movie is, Pee-wee loves his bike more than anything in the world,’” Reubens recalls. “I went back to the bungalow, threw the script in the garbage and started writing again.”
(1-3) It’s only a dream, but it’s a good one: Pee-wee is carried to the podium after winning the race and receives his crown. (4-6) Rested and ready for another perfect day, he shines up his beloved bike and glides through the park.
And there you go. When his bike is stolen, Pee-wee roams the streets looking for it — then heads to Texas when a sham fortune teller tells him it’s in the basement of the Alamo. There’s more to it than that. In the commentary, Burton, who was directing his first feature, says the great thing about making a movie that flew under the radar was getting to try every genre.
“It’s like a sampler,” he says in a fun new interview with actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade (“Submarine”). “Let’s make a biker movie. Now, let’s make a road picture, then a horror movie, and a little bit of a chase movie.”
Pee-wee eventually lands in San Antonio, only to learn, after fidgeting through a tour of the Alamo (he’s asked to hold his question until the end), that there is no basement. Back at the bus station, he sees on TV that his beloved bike, which was stolen by the envious rich kid Francis Buxton (Mark Holton, “A League of Their Own”), was given to a bratty child star.
Back to L.A., where he sneaks onto the Warner Bros. lot — as a member of Milton Berle’s entourage, no less — dresses as a nun, reclaims his bike and, with security on his tail, wreaks havoc on a bunch of film productions and a Twisted Sister video.
The finale finds Pee-wee and Dottie (Elizabeth Daily, “Valley Girl”), who has a big-time crush on him, at the drive-in for the premiere of the big-screen treatment of his big adventure.
The stars? James Brolin (“Westworld”) as the hunky P.W. and Morgan Fairchild (TV’s “Falcon Crest”) as the sultry Dottie.
(1) Mark Holton is the envious rich kid, Francis Buxton, who offers Pee-wee a wad of cash for his bike. Fat chance. (2-4) Off on his errands, Mr. Herman chats up Dottie (Elizabeth Daily) at the bike shop, where he picks up a new horn, then pops into the magic shop to load up on supplies. (5-6) Pee-wee is dismayed, to put it mildly, when he finds that his bike has been stolen.
VIDEO/AUDIO
Both the new 4K UHD and Blu-ray restorations were created from the 35mm original camera negative and supervised by Burton, and there are some notable differences. Highlights and mid-tones are graded darker on the 4K where colors and contrasts on the Blu-ray are slightly more vibrant. The latter, though, has a slight reddish push because it can’t produce the 4K’s expanded palette. The 4K varies between 30 and 40 megabits per second more, meaning it provides much more information than the Blu-ray – especially with the natural film grain.
Got that? The final score: With its added resolution, the 4K disc is more in line with what audiences saw back in the day.
The two Criterion discs are matted in the original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio, but when Burton and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper (“Dog Day Afternoon”) shot the movie, it was in the 1.37:1 open-matte format then shown in theaters at 1.85:1, probably with a cardboard cutout to hide the areas of the frame that weren’t intended to be seen. Case in point: The old “Pee-wee” VHS was in open matte and you could see the long chain being pulled through a compartment on the bike when Pee-wee goes to town. Burton and Reubens both laugh about it.
The 4K also includes the standard HDR10 and adds Dolby Vision grading.
As for the audio, the original 2.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm magnetic print-master, while Criterion also provided the six-channel DTS HD soundtrack ported over from the 2011 Blu-ray. Go with what moves you.
Dialogue and effects are clear as a bell, but the main draw is Danny Elfman’s delightful, spritely score. It was his first and kicked off a long run of collaborations with Burton: “Beetlejuice” and “Batman” and “Edward Scissorhands” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Sleepy Hollow” and, well, you get it.
(1) Pee-wee interrupts Francis’ bath to pump him for information, then, told by a fortune teller that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo, heads for Texas. (2-7) Along the way, he hitches a ride with the escaped con Mickey (Judd Omen), befriends the waitress Tina (Jan Hooks), dreams that a dinosaur feasts on his bike, sings train songs with Hobo Jack (Carmen Filpi) and goes full cowboy at the rodeo.
EXTRAS
“Hollywood’s Master Storytellers” is a fitting forum for Reubens because he tells some good ones, like how Burton came to direct “Pee-wee.”
After turning in the script, Reubens gave the studio a list of something like 100 directors, all of whom had made movies that he liked. Wouldn’t you know it? The studio came back with one name, and he’d made a couple of films that Reubens didn’t like. Reubens asked for another week and went into overdrive.
At a party that night, a colleague in The Groundlings, the L.A. improv group where Reubens cut his teeth, told him that she’d seen Burton’s “Frankenweenie” that afternoon and that he would be perfect. The late Shelley Duvall, who voiced Sue Frankenstein in that 1984 short, concurred.
Guess what? Warner Bros. knew all about Burton and had been trying for a while to get him on board. He had already passed on 10 scripts and the studio wasn’t about to send him this one. Reubens’ agent sent a copy instead and Burton agreed that day.
“I love that story,” Reuben says.
In his new interview, Burton says he identified with Pee-wee and that Reubens felt that affection. “I think that’s why he felt comfortable with me making the film.”
Reubens is also asked in the “Storytellers” interview about how he came up with his alter-ego. The Groundings, he recalls, had an extended improv about a comedy club and everyone was trying to come up with characters who would do stand-up. Reubens’ comic was so terrible that he couldn’t remember the punchline to his own jokes.
“And that became Pee-wee. He came out that day and hasn’t changed much to this day.”
And that, folks, brings us to the bottom line. If you’re looking for 91 minutes of Fun with a capital F, look no further. “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” hasn’t aged a bit. It’s a certified hoot.
— Craig Shapiro and Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
(1&2) Cassandra Peterson — Elvira, to you B-movie fans — is Biker Mama, who gives Pee-wee one chance to show why the gang shouldn’t beat him up. Naturally, he wins them over. (3&4) Disguised as a nun, he sneaks onto a film set to reclaim his bike, which has been given to the film’s bratty child star, then leads security on a chase through the studio. (5) Home free, he stops to save the occupants of a burning pet store.
EXTRAS
“Hollywood’s Master Storytellers” (36 mins.) 2005 interview with Paul Reubens
Audio commentary with Reubens and director Tim Burton (2005)
Audio commentary with composer Danny Elfman (2005)
New interview with Burton and actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade (28 mins.)
New interviews (38 mins.) with producer Richard Abramson, production designer David L. Snyder, co-writer Mark Warhol and editor Billy Weber.
Panel Discussion (24 mins.) Excerpts from the 40th-anniversary screening of the film hosted by comedian Dana Gould.
Deleted scenes (11 mins.)
“Pee-wee’s Big Adventure: Why Don’t You Take a Picture?” is a four-page essay by podcast host/culture critic Jesse Thorn.
(1&2) Pee-wee’s at the drive-in for the premiere of the movie based on his big adventure, starring James Brolin as P.W. and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie.
SPECS:
100 GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
Captured on 35mm film stock in the 4-perf open matte and then matted into the 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio.
Video bitrate: Varies from the lower 70 Megabits per second to nearly 100 Mbps, with a running time of 91 minutes.
Box office: $41 million worldwide, with a production budget of $6 million.
Rotten Tomatoes: Top Critics’ 61 percent, Moviegoers 79 percent
IndieWire website – Tim Burton’s Top 20 films: “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” landed No. 2, between “Ed Wood” (1994) and No. 1 “Batman Returns” (1992).