Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) - Au Revoir, Pee-Wee...

"I don't have to see it, Dottie. I lived it."

Director

Tim Burton

Cast 

Paul Reubens - Pee-Wee Herman

E.G. Daily - Dottie

Mark Holton - Francis Buxton

Diane Salinger- Simone

Judd Omen - Mickey

Alice Nunn - Large Marge

Jon Harris - Andy

Nostalgia really hits home when a cherished and highly appreciated part of it leaves us.
Seldom does news of a celebrity's death really sting. I recall being sincerely morose when Muppet creator Jim Henson passed away in 1990. And when comedian John Candy died in 1994, I felt bummed out that day and for a few days after.
Of course, death is always a sad thing. 

Upon hearing of Paul Reubens' death on July 31, I couldn't help but feel a lingering sadness. Reubens, known especially for his long running character Pee-Wee Herman, is among the biggest personalities I enjoyed in my childhood and after. With such sadness comes the reality that nothing lasts forever. Time plows ahead like a speeding train. We all have to go. But before we do, our past fades more and more. Thankfully, we do get to hold on to memories for as long as we can.

No doubt I'm one among millions who have paid their respects publicly with similar sentiments. Pee-Wee is the first comedian I was ever enthralled with. I could never be in a bad mood after watching Pee-Wee Herman. 

Back in the day, his presence on television, whether in an interview, on his Saturday morning show "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" or in his movies "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" or "Big Top Pee-Wee" (1988) would instantly draw me to the screen. I also caught his 2016 Netflix movie "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday" as soon as it came out. I had to watch it. I just had to.

Disney's "Flight of the Navigator," released in 1986, which also stars Reubens (credited as 'Paul Mall') as the voice of the spaceship is another favorite of mine from back then. I always knew that ship sounded like Pee-Wee. I didn't learn that it was him until years after.

The plot of "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" is simple. Pee-Wee's (Paul Reubens) most prized possession, his customized bike, is stolen. He immediately suspects the local rich kid, Francis (Mark Holton) who, earlier, tries to buy Pee-Wee's bike. He tried to persuade Pee-Wee to sell it to him since it was his birthday. Pee-Wee laughs in his face telling him, "It's not for sale, Francis." The interaction ends with Francis declaring, "You'll be sorry, Pee-Wee Herman." 

After the bike is lifted, Pee-Wee doesn't receive much help from the police nor his friends.

Desperate, he consults a psychic who claims his bike is in the basement of the Alamo.

So, he sets off on a journey to find it himself, starting at the Alamo. 

Unfortunately, the trip ends in complete disappointment. There's no basement at the Alamo. 

Now, his bike could be anywhere!

Pee-Wee Herman is silly and juvenile but he's not stupid nor anti-social. This adolescent persona of his doesn't wear thin in the movie as Pee-Wee acts accordingly, though still humorously, to the situations he encounters. He starts off nonsensically, utilizing his signature prop comedy as a setting for his home. As the story progresses, Pee-Wee becomes a relatable and sympathetic character. He develops as a character thanks to the variety of folks he meets along his journey. 

Pee-Wee gets a lift from an escaped convict. He's also picked up by the ghost of a truck driver. He makes friends with a diner waitress named Simone, who tells him about her hope to one day visit Paris, France. 

He also gets some bad advice from a fortune teller. And impresses an unfriendly biker gang with his signature dance to the song "Tequila" by The Champs. 

And by the end, Hollywood pics up his story and turns it into a motion picture. The movie ends with all the characters Pee-Wee met along the way watching this movie at a drive-in. Pee-Wee, reunited with his bike, turns to his love interest, Dottie, and says "C;mon, Dottie. Let's go!"

"Let's go? Don't you wanna see the rest of the movie?"

"I don't have to see it, Dottie. I lived it." Bad experiences can certainly be as beneficial to us as the good ones. There ya go, kids.

While the movie has plenty of originality in its story and humor, I heard in an interview somewhere that "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" takes some inspiration from an early Italian movie with a similar, though more dramatic, premise. I had to look up the title. 

"Ladri di Bicicleta" (1948), also known as "Bicycle Thieves" or "The Bicycle Thief" tells a story set in post- World War II Rome of an unemployed poor father who ends up finding a job that requires him to own a bike. 

However, his bike ends up stolen. He's forced to either find his bike or face losing his job leaving him unable to feed his family. While the film is available on YouTube, I haven't yet watched it. 

For those who don't know, "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" is director Tim Burton's first feature length film. Burton's dark surreal style comes through in small doses. In one scene, while Pee-Wee is in a hospital bed, he has a nightmare in which he finds his damaged bike. Doctors, dressed as evil clowns, haul it away in an ambulance. They wheel on a stretcher down a long corridor that's clearly Burton's far out style. As a surgeon tries to "repair" the bike, he shakes his head in defeat, pulls down his surgical mask, and has an evil grin painted on his face. 

I understand how much of an acquired taste Pee-Wee is. Either people love him, or don't care for his adolescent humor. 

My own love of satire and caricaturisation is definitely thanks in large part to Pee-Wee Herman. The "usual gang of idiots" over at "Mad Magazine," my other guilty pleasure, paid him quite the compliment at the height of his career. They depicted his significance in the satirical comedy world on the cover of "Mad" issue no. 273 from September 1987. It's one of my favorite covers as it equates Pee-Wee to their own humor by putting him on par with the magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.

Honestly, I can't name anyone else who made me laugh as hard as he did when I was just in single digits. 

Sometime in my youthful past, we obtained a copy of Pee-Wee's 1981 stage show "The Pee-Wee Herman Show" which aired on HBO. It would later become his Saturday morning program. Back then, the adult jokes went clear over my innocent head.
I just watched it on YouTube for the first time in nearly 30 years.

I remember talking about both "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and "The Pee-Wee Herman Show" as far back as my days at Garner Preschool in Alameda.

Diane Salinger and Paul Reubens in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."

There's a part of the stage show that made me laugh to the point of tears when I was young.

In a segment called "Pen Pals From Around the World," Pee-Wee reads a letter from a kid in Israel.

They way he reads it out loud is hilarious.
"Shalam, Pee-Wee! My name is Shalomo." It makes me grin just hearing it in my head. Watching it as a kid, I would rewind that part over and over again.
Again, in my boyhood days, "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" was an established part of my Saturday morning routine. That, along with other programs such as "Garfield and Friends," "Beetlejuice," and my personal favorite "The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show" were all the reasons I needed to wake up early on Saturday morning.
"Now we've given you fair warnin'! It's gonna be that kind of mornin' -
For bein' wacky!
For getting nutty!
Golly, it's cuckoo!
At Pee-Wee's Playhouse!"
That's the last stanza of the theme before Pee-Wee gave his signature dorky laugh.

In fact, some actors from "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" have cameos in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." 

John Paragon, who plays Jambi, stars as a movie extra in red armor on the Warner Brothers backlot. Lynne Marie, who plays Miss. Yvonne on Pee-Wee's show, plays the nun on the movie set. 

It's also worth mentioning that Alice Dunn, who plays "Large Marge" also plays a truck driver in the so-totally 80s skateboarding movie "Thrashin'." 

And Diane Salinger (Simone) would star alongside Paul Reubens again in Tim Burton's 1992 Batman sequel "Batman Returns" as well as in "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday."

One subtle detail that might be unnoticed to some, but I doubt it, is the "Mrs. Gulch" theme from "The Wizard of Oz" that plays during the bicycle chase scene around the Warner Brothers studio. 

Speaking of which. the entire film score, composed by Danny Elfman, sounds a little similar to his score for Burton's 1988 comedy "Beetlejuice." They both have a fast-paced rhythm that intensifies. The score for "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" is whimsical like a children's show while "Beetlejuice" is spookier. 

But there's one story and that sticks out in my memory involving "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."

'Mad Magazine' no. 273 from Sept. 1987

Once, sometime between kindergarten and second grade, my mom took me along with my older brothers and a friend or two of theirs to our local video store, California Video, after school. While my brothers planned to rent a movie, I wanted something for myself. I wasn't interested in whatever they were going to check out.

I knew before going in what I wanted to check out - "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." Mom was waiting in our '86 Toyota van. I ran out to ask if I could rent it. 

She was certainly no fan of Pee-Wee. "He's too silly," she would say. So, she gave a staunch "no." I begged and pleaded, but mom being the Italian woman she is didn't move so easily in those days when it came to decisions. I walked back into the store and told my brothers a big feckkin' lie with bells and whistles hanging off. I told them mom said it was ok to rent Pee-Wee's movie.
They did. My inexperienced adolescent brain thought mom would never find out. Or, when she did, it would be too late to return in. I might be in trouble, but at least I'd get to watch Pee-Wee Herman. Of course, she saw the VHS tape the minute we got back to the van.
Needless to say, I didn't watch "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" that evening. The other guys got to rent their movie. I had to return mine right then and there and didn't get to rent anything. Shame on me.
No matter. I had seen it before, and many times after. "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" was, and still is, a movie I don't grow tired of watching. 

I've never written any kind of sendoff to a celebrity like this. It's my own little thought bubble in a huge pool of other fans making their own tributes, memories, and send-offs. 

Pee-Wee is different for me.

This is a movie that may strike someone who has never watched it as completely stupid and pointless simply because it stars Pee-Wee Herman. The movie, speaking as objectively as I can, really isn't as stupid as some might think. It's well structured. The story and flow are well done. The score is catchy. There's a lot for the eyes to take in. It's relatable. And it has a truly original style as I said before. 

Pee-Wee's typical goofy comedy is well paced, being heavy in the beginning and then scooting aside a little so as not to get in the story's way.

It's a movie among a handful that has left a big impression on me, along with "A Christmas Story," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "Ghostbusters," and Disney's "Pinocchio." 

I guess you can call me overly nostalgic, or too sentimental, or just weird and corny for being morose over Paul Reuban's passing.
All I want to say to scoffers out there is...I know you are, but what am I?
Farewell, Pee-Wee! I pray you're with God.