Pee-wee's Big Adventure

I'm a bit of a Pee-wee Herman novice. Maybe I wasn't the right age, but I never watched him when I was a kid and I didn't understand the appeal. My partner Nicole is a big fan of him, so we sat down to watch this movie together. She was in it for the nostalgia (having watched his films and TV show when she was a kid) and I was in it because it's a Tim Burton film. About fifteen minutes into it, and Pee-wee is riding his bike around while being obnoxious, and I turn to Nicole.

"Is there a point to this film? I don't get it".

She was laughing at Pee-wee's antics, and didn't understand the fact that I didn't get it. I just didn't understand Paul Reubens' schtick, nor did I understand where the film was going. As he stopped and talked to another man-child named Francis (Mark Holton) I asked tentatively,

"Are they meant to be children?"

I was starting to get a grasp on the character, but it still just seemed to be a bunch of random stuff happening.

That is, until Pee-wee's beloved bike got stolen.

I was outraged.

Pee-wee travels across America, meeting the oddest assortment of oddball midwest characters you could imagine (I was reminded a little bit of the more recent comedy, Paul). I laughed as he met each one with his own exagerrated brand of immaturity. Soon I was even doing the 'haHA!' laugh that he does (much to Nicole's annoyance). I cheered him on as he got closer and closer to his bike, and I loved the 'Hollywood' version of Pee-wee's adventure that ended the film.

It was exactly the mix of goofy hilariousous and dark, offbeat strangeness that I expected from an early Tim Burton film. It had a bouyant inventiveness that his latest films have lacked, and I can totally see how he managed to launch his career as a big name director from this movie.

Most of all though, it's Paul Reubens' film. I know Reubens has a bad wrap for his 1991 indiscretions at an adult movie theatre (it's amazing how many people jump to the incorrect assumption that he's a pedophile), but his performance as Pee-wee Herman is so oddly unique that I could quite easily see the character making a successful comeback for his fans (provided Reubens doesn't get too old in the meantime). Yes, it took me more than 20 years to get the joke, but I get it now and sometimes it takes that long to develop a true appreciation of what we don't initially understand.

DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITER/SOURCE: Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Based on the character and TV show created by Paul Reubens.
KEY ACTORS: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, Judd Omen, James Brolin, Alice Nunn, Morgan Fairchild

RELATED TEXTS:
- The early '80s TV show The Pee-wee Herman Show.
- After the success of the Tim Burton film, Reubens spun the character off into a children's TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse. This was followed up by another film, Big Top Pee-wee.
- Sometimes I used to find Pee-wee a little remniscent of the (more toned down) Australian metafictional character Norman Gunston, who had his own TV show in the '70s, The Norman Gunston Show.
- Tim Burton's next couple of films after this were Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissorhands.
- For other films about bicycles being stolen, see The Bicycle Thief and #omgimtrending.