Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
by Tim Burton
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Diane Salinger, Elizabeth Daily, Judd Omen, Mark Holton, Pee Wee HermanDirector: Tim Burton
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-04
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Movie Review: Why DOESN'T the Alamo have a basement? - 15 Unanswered Questions about Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
There's no basement at the Alamo!
Let's get one thing out of the way: Pee Wee's Big Adventure is an awesome movie. It's the struggle of good versus evil, skinny versus fat, rich versus poor; it's got nearly all the classic themes in cinematic history. I really do enjoy it. Having said that...
Picture Pee Wee Herman for a moment. Red bowtie, nasally voice, plastered smile, infantile brain capacity, rubbery arms, pedophilic appearances, sideways cocked face during nearly all speech, Rainman suit. Weird guy, right? Well, the truth is, Pee Wee Herman was an idiot savant, an engineering genius with a severe case of Tourette's Syndrome. Think about it. He had the facial tics; the awkwardly inappropriate, glottal giggle; the irritatingly incessant, self-amusing laugh; and the eardrum rupturing, parrot-raping honk. Doubt his brilliance? Oh, you clearly don't remember how he mechanically set up breakfast, with everything from an egg-head egg breaker to a life sized Abe Lincoln mannequin flipping flap jacks. Genius, I say. Considering that, the biggest problem I have with the movie is Pee Wee's chain and lock used to secure the bike. Essentially it was just a 50-foot chain with one lock on it. You'd think a brain like Pee Wee's, and an obsessively unhealthy love for a bike, would have led to better security.
Beyond the normal review, here are the fifteen most puzzling questions I take from Pee Wee's Big Adventure:
Question: In his original hitch-hiking attempt, did Pee Wee rob Toad from Super Mario Bros. in order to make his nap-sack on a stick?
Question: Did Pee Wee Herman, a man (?) with obvious psychological issues, really hitch-hike through the desert and get picked up by Large Marge, a bull dyke truck driver with Bride of Frankenstein hair, who also happened to be a ghost? Or was it a hallucination?
Question: How exactly did Pee Wee manage to pay for his extravagant house filled with enough contraptions to resemble that old Mouse Trap board game? Did he have a lucrative eBay business set up, or was he selling meth?
Question: Why did Francis Buxton - a morbidly obese, rich kid with a 6-ft. deep indoor pool with an obvious aversion to exercise - want Pee Wee's bike?
Question: Why weren't the kids in the bike clue creeped out by Pee Wee's obvious pedophiliac tendencies?
Question: Why was Dottie fixing Pee Wee's horn? Seems like a lame excuse for Pee Wee to hang out near the bike club.
Question: How much exactly did Francis pay the stereotypical Italian hooligan to steal Pee Wee's bike?
Question: Why did everyone show up to Pee Wee's ridiculous impromptu interrogative meeting?
Question: After Pee Wee successfully hitch-hikes and gets a ride with escaped convict Mickey, why does he help Mickey evade capture at the police roadblock? Seems kind of hypocritical to me considering Pee Wee's current criminal chase.
Question: Since Simone (the waitress) and Andy (her boyfriend) are an obvious reference to Olive Oil and Bluto, does that make Pee Wee Popeye, or is he another Olive?
Question: Why did everyone laugh when Pee Wee asked if the Alamo had a basement? I've been there, and it's VERY overrated, and VERY small. The better question would be, "Why DOESN'T it have a basement?"
Question: When Pee Wee is about to be murdered in the biker bar and asks for a last request, why does he choose to dance like an epileptic on top of the bar in a bad Coyote Ugly impersonation? More importantly, why isn't he beaten to within an inch of his life precisely for the dance?
Question: Dreams about clown nurses disassembling his bike and carrying it through hallways of funhouse mirrors and doors to perform surgery?! Wasn't it obvious that Pee Wee was on LSD?
Overall it's a very fun movie, but don't think too much while watching it or you'll come up with some very odd questions.
Summary of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Call in the FBI. Alert the President. Advise all ships at sea and break out the Batphone because this is no ordinary adventure: this is Pee-wee's Big Adventure! Pee-wee's bicycle, the keenest bike in the world, is missing. It's his most prized possession...and he's just got to get it back. Searching high, low and in between, Pee-wee hits the open road and encounters riotous adventures with bikers, bums, cowboys, cons, a phantom trucker and a waitress with wanderlust and even Warner Bros. Studios.Former animator Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Batman, Mars Attacks!) made his feature directorial debut with this delightful comedy, coscripted by the late Phil Hartman (who also appears briefly as a reporter). Wisely, they keep the story simple so as to concentrate on the characters: Pee-wee's most prized possession, his shiny new bicycle, is stolen, and he sets off on an obsessive cross-country journey, determined to recover it. Pee-wee's awkward and childish attempts to be cool and mature ("I meant to do that!!") are hysterical, as when he tells his girlfriend (Elizabeth Daly): "There's things about me you don't know, Dottie. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand.... I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." Look for Saturday Night Live vet Jan Hooks in a hilarious bit as a tour guide at the Alamo. And beware of Large Marge! --Jim Emerson
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