Before Batman, before Edward Scissorhands, before even Beetlejuice, there was Pee Wee Herman.
Way back before Tim Burton regularly shilled for Disney, he was a director of singular, kooky vision who has risen from the ranks of a misunderstood Disney animator to becoming possibly one of the most instantly recognizable (visually speaking, of course) directors in the game. And yet no one leaps straight into feature films with something as perfectly weird as Beetlejuice, and so Burton found that his proving ground was to helm the first movie outing for the whacked-out, man-child, children’s host alter-ego of Paul Reubens, Pee Wee Herman whose show, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, had proved to be a sizable hit.
However, rather than adapting the show outright (good news: no creepy, sentient armchair – bad news: no Lawrence Fishburn as Cowboy Curtis), Reubens and Burton instead created a whole new world from the ground up and thus the term Burton-esque was formed…
For Pee Wee Herman, life is good. Waking up every morning in a house packed with toys and starting his day with Mister T cereal spread over bacon and eggs arranged into the shape of a smiley face, his greatest pleasure in life – other than buying random shit from the local joke shop – is his beloved bike, which is his pride and joy despite being coveted by the local, spoilt, rich “kid”, Francis Buxton. However, during a trip to town to pick up some fresh supplies (trick gum and super loud bike horns don’t grow on trees, you know), Pee Wee returns to his bike only to find that it’s been stolen!
After the police prove to be no help at all (“What exactly leads you to belive that the Soviets were involved?”) and the local town’s people are also unable to shed any light on the theft, Pee Wee decides to try and find his bike himself and so a road trip ensues that will take him all the way to Texas.
On the way – like any good road movie – our bow-tied hero meets a bunch of disparate (and in some cases desperate) people on his journey such as escaped criminal Mickey, creepy truck driver Large Marge, lonely waitress Simone and many more as he forges a path that lead everywhere from the Alamo to the Warner Brothers studio lot.
But with nightmarish clowns, stop-motion dinosaurs, Simone’s very jealous boyfriend and Warner Bros. finest security guards standing between him and his adored possession, can Pee Wee be reunited with his bike once and for all?
While a union between an embryonic Tim Burton and Pee Wee Herman would never result in anything as simple to categorize as merely “weird”, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure nevertheless impresses by doing that very thing that all kids movies should strive to contain – enough ingeniously hidden, darkly sardonic content to appeal to adults too which turned out to be right up Burton’s alley. Set in a world that wisely chooses not to explain its hero’s childish demeanor at all – is supposed to be a man-child or a man playing a child? Is he a man-child? Who pays his rent? If there’s other immature grown ups around, why are there also normal ones? – it’s probably best to view the impressively large universe that’s been created as some odd, emotionally stunted world that’s like a more innocent version of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster that contains a whip smart sense of humor that’s far too savvy for the little ‘uns.
However, Burton doesn’t nail you with his wit immediately, instead letting this fantasy reality play out as a fairly standard kiddie flick along with Herman goofing around while getting ready for the day while his cartoonishly intricate, Rube Goldberg breakfast making device does its thing. However, after Burton has essentially gotten us to buy this whole, ludicrous existence with only the lightest of brush strokes, he starts to drop the really good shit the second his awesomely flamboyant bike is stolen. From here, the movie becomes still one of the most accomplished things the king of kook has ever pulled off and that’s no small claim from the man who made Beetlejuice and updated Batman before everyone started doing it.
The jokes and references soon start to come at a rate that could be accurately described as delirious and from there the movie simply refuses to slow down as the director’s eye for inventive set pieces is truly something to behold. Be it a vengeful Pee Wee wrasslin’ with Fancis in his swimming pool sized bath tub like Tarzan fighting a crocodile to a stunning nightmare sequence where Herman’s bike is melted down by evil-faced clown doctors, virtually every visual motif that Burton became famous for is thoroughly bench tested here into perfection.
Helping enormously is the score from Oingo Boingo front man Danny Elfman who, like Burton, used this movie as a litmus test to see how far he could push his particular brand of weird and thus goes far harder than anyone would reasonably expect for a silly little kids film. However, the end result ranks alongside Jerry Goldsmith’s score for The ‘Burbs as one of the most genuinely funny scores ever written and even as early as this, you can see the synergy between composer and director positively crackle as the latter gives the former endless room to play his trade. Behold the craftmanship as a despondent Pee Wee drifts ever deeper into paranoia and despair as virtually everyone around is riding bikes in the wake of the theft or the sheer joy of or leads opening dream where he effortlessly wins the Tour de France.
Of course, what with all the kudos I’m hurling at the director and composer, it would be easy to ignore the fact that, even locked into the persona of his helium voiced alter ego, Reubens proves to be a comedic performer some some skill. Yes, there’s a lot of abrasive screaming involved (it is Pee Wee Herman after all) but he also displays impressive subtlety in the quieter moments – watch him fidget and tut while surrounded by enthusiastic tourists while on a rather patronising tour of the Alamo (“Can you say that with me? “Adobe”.)” or attempt to discuss the finer points of chasing one’s dreams (“Everyone I know has a big “but”; let’s talk about your big “but”, Simone.”). Of course, it’s the gmbigger moments that resonate the most and the final, frenzied chase through Warner Bros’ studios is essentially Burton taking good natured pot shots at Hollywood long before the likes of Ed Wood. Let’s put it this way, if I ever was to visit Warner Bros. and they didn’t have a Santa movie, a surfer flick, a Godzilla movie and a Twister Sister music video all being shot within twenty feet of one another, I’d feel profoundly ripped off.
Possibly one of the most enjoyably audacious debuts I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure is exactly that and much more besides. In fact, the movie contains so much fun, it’s like unraveling a sweater that someone keeps knitting, and knitting, and knitting, and knitting and…. Anyway, if for some unfathomable reason you are yet to enjoy this film, I’d get on it right away – and be sure to tell ’em that Large Marge sent ya.
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