PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) - Criterion

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Criterion

Original Release Date August 9, 1985
Written by Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Louise Salinger, Alice Nunn
Language English

Purchase your copy from Criterion HERE

by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Excellent

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a masterpiece. Nothing before or after it so perfectly hits all the home runs this film does. Everything about it, great and small, works. And I love all of it to the point that it's hard to pin down what my favorite aspects are. The characters and performances are weird, but the world around them is fun and only occasionally scary. Even then, it's a carnival spookhouse type of scary rather than being anything too serious. It's a world where Pee-wee (Paul Reubens) who is definitely a ...kid? ...guy? ...imp? can hitchhike and end up riding with both an escaped convict on the run AND later, a ghost and end up basically making friends with both. At one point, he angers an entire biker bar and then wins them over with the guileless power of dance! The dance isn't very good, but it's perfect!

This is a world where a really nice, custom Schwinn is one of the axes on which an entire world turns. Everyone who sees it loves it, and some, like local rich kid Francis (Mark Holton), covet it with an entitled, jealous avarice. When his beloved bike goes missing, Pee-wee is set on this quest to retrieve it that will lead him across the United States, through numerous different film genres, in and out of the lives of enough colorful characters for two parades. The aforementioned convict, ghost, and biker gang; a diner waitress (Diane Louise Salinger) straight out of a Douglas Sirk -style melodrama who yearns for adventure and romance but can't escape the orbit of her boyfriend who looks like Bluto's stunt double; cowboys, fortune-tellers, and magicians abound, and Pee-wee is friends with an entire BMX team, who seem to travel exclusively as a pack! It's just so vivid, so diverse, and above all, so joyous.

It's hard for me to fully express how much I love Pee-wee. He is, as I said, somewhat ageless; honestly more akin to a trickster god than anything resembling a real person. He's innocent and direct in the way everyone says they appreciate in children but secretly find kind of hilariously annoying. He's also a little stinker. He tends to stir shit up, but most especially when people are trying to rain on his parade. It's never too severe. You'll just end up chewing some prank gum or something equally innocuous. Most people that encounter more severe consequences, only tend to do so as a result of their own actions, by trying to force him to fit into their more ordered, less freewheeling world. But maybe most importantly to me is that Pee-wee is allowed to be uncool. He is allowed to fail, to embarrass himself, to faint, and to be afraid, and then is allowed to recover from it all, perhaps with a tossed-off "I meant to do that." He doesn't let it phase him.

Paul Reubens was a treasure. As Pee-wee Herman, he projected a sense of freedom that was formative and important to me as a young person. He was free to follow his passions, free to be weird and uncool and to take those things in stride, free to just express himself within the world and, in the language of the film, the world loves him for it. These qualities are powerful things to internalize, I say as someone who is still trying to do so. I'm glad that I, and other weirdos at large, have someone like Pee-wee as a lighthouse. 

The Packaging: Excellent

This is the standard Criterion release plastic case, wider and sturdier than your usual Blu-ray cases, which is a good start. The cover illustration, by Luigi Olivadoti, captures the child-like feel of Pee-wee and his world, as well as the zaniness, and the almost impossibly overstuffed feeling of the film with an image crammed full of vehicles, animals, people, dinosaurs, a devil, and the horrifying visage of Large Marge (Alice Nunn). It's colorful and practically vibrates with energy; all of which perfectly matches the feel of the film contained within. One fantastic detail is there is an additional, bespoke illustration on the disc itself, of Pee-wee in the middle of his dance from the biker bar! I've loved disc art since my days collecting CDs, and this one is a winner.

There's also a booklet with an essay by podcaster Jesse Thorn that dives into the origins of the film, and the careers of Tim Burton and especially Paul Reubens. Thorn does a really excellent job of explaining the arc of Pee-wee's rise as well as the queer undertones to the persona, which while not explicit, are undoubtedly there. Representation is important, even if you only fully realize it in hindsight.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

The Criterion transfer here looks and sounds incredible, and there's so much to see and hear! The constant changes in location, and the revolving door of characters who appear for mostly a single scene means there are always new visual and design styles. Interiors, exteriors, day, night, on sets, on locations, with all kinds of crazy costumes and design eye candy! That's not even mentioning the German impressionist moments, the neon lights and other crazy colors, the stop motion, etc. I love when a release includes the original, unrestored trailer (as this release does) and you're really able to appreciate all the work done to improve the visual clarity and color balance.

The audio, specifically Danny Elfman's score, sounds just absolutely incredible. To be clear, I had no problem with the dialogue or sound effects mixing or anything like that, but what really caught my attention was that score. Elfman uses his usual bag of eclectic tricks; whimsical instrumentation being the primary one, but also a zany quality that perfectly encapsulates Pee-wee's energy. My favorite bit is when Pee-wee heads to rival kid Francis' house to confront him and knocks on the front door, which Elfman underscores by mimicking Pee-wee's many fast knocks followed by big, heavy knocks. It's a rhythm that's present in a lot of the film and I wonder how much of that originated from this scene and was incorporated retroactively?

Special Features: Excellent

The special features here are truly excellent, with several reasonably lengthy features dedicated to exploring just how this unicorn of a film came to exist. There's also a really touching reunion (emceed by Dana Gould!) where you fully feel how special this group of people are, and how special the film still is to them. But. Given how integral Tim Burton's early short work (Frankenweenie [1984], and Vincent [1982]) was to him landing this gig--a fact that is repeated numerous times throughout the features--I would really have liked to see them included here.

Tim Burton & Richard Ayoade (28:10)
"I Meant to Do That" (37:38)
Deleted Scenes (11:06)
Paul Reubens on Hollywood's Master Storytellers (36:10)
Reunion (24:26)
Trailer (1:26)

In Summary: Must Own

It's a miracle that Pee-wee Herman got over. The character just feels too unique and too odd to have been given the chance to find such a wide and lasting appeal. Pee-wee still feels special, and there might be no better encapsulation of Pee-wee or his ethos than Big Adventure. Here, Pee-wee has no agenda aside from experiencing and enjoying the world and passively encouraging others to do the same.

The film is, likewise, a miracle. It launched Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's careers in cinema, which are undoubtedly net positives for weirdos and outsiders everywhere. The inherent gentle and inviting strangeness of the characters and world feel more like a cartoon come to life than numerous movies where that is the actual plot. Pee-wee's first film shows that even the biggest of adventures can come from some of the most mundane events, if you're just open enough to pursue them.