Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - re:View

October 1, 2023 11:49 AM

Red Letter Media Re:Views Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, the first feature film directed by Tim Burton, with their old friend, Macaulay Culkin (pictured here with the former President of the United States)
posted by riruro (23 comments total)

This discussion is a fun appreciation of a great movie, with an entertaining aside on alternate Star Wars scores. I also enjoyed the segment where they talked about reimagining the film as a modern Tim Burton production, with his current budget and style. This is very fun to imagine, but would make for a worse movie, so no reboots, please and thank you!

(Also, thanks for posting but can we not shoe-horn Trump into fun posts he has nothing to do with? Just a small request for future consideration, not a criticism of this post.)
posted by the primroses were over at 12:31 PM on October 1, 2023 [18 favorites]

This is very fun to imagine, but would make for a worse movie, so no reboots, please and thank you!

If they could get James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild, it might just work though...
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 1:09 PM on October 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

I just showed this to my kids (14 and 8). They had no idea about Pee Wee Herman so this was completely out of left field for them. They loved it, and they don't always appreciate the 80s movies I make them watch, but for PWBA they were hooked from the very start. As a kid I watched this movie countless times on HBO back in the day and I'm happy to report it still holds up. You can see how it had a pretty low budget, but Tim Burton was young and full of energy and made it work anyway. The Elfman score is also great. Too bad Burton didn't stick around for the sequel.
posted by zardoz at 2:30 PM on October 1, 2023 [6 favorites]

He was in a class of his own. I loved the Great Adventure.
posted by mule98J at 3:50 PM on October 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

I rewatched this after Paul Reubens died and it's just so kind and weird and fun. I know a lot the things, like "I know you are but what am I?" are classic playground taunts but they really became a shared cultural language.

It's a kid's movie for adults but it maintains its innocence. We're all in on the joke in such a way it's not really a joke but a shared experience.

I'm still so delighted that someone like Pee-Wee Herman got to be such a pop culture phenomenon. I don't think we quite have room for someone like him today and we're lesser for it.
posted by edencosmic at 4:15 PM on October 1, 2023 [7 favorites]

I enjoyed this discussion. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure really is a great film and I find myself reminded of it often even though I first watched it on DVD aged 30.

A friend from Texas claims that the scene where Pee-Wee proves to Dottie where he is by singing is completely accurate. I travel to Texas quite often but have not yet gathered the courage to try it.
posted by AndrewStephens at 4:54 PM on October 1, 2023 [5 favorites]

My first exposure to Pee Wee was the late night HBO show in 1981 and it was MUCH more risqué and weird..he really toned it down for the movies (even in the 80s shoe mirrors would have been cinematic scandal.)

Pretty sure that show was my first exposure to a Dobbshead sticker in the wild too..

God bless Pee Wee and the chaos he embodied.
posted by chronkite at 5:10 PM on October 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

Rewatched a couple of years ago. Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen? Pee-Wee is such an asshole.

Morgan Fairchild

Just checked out her IMDB. Morgan Fairchild works *a lot*.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:28 PM on October 1, 2023

To this day, I cannot call anyone from Texas without doing the thing.
posted by credulous at 5:33 PM on October 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

A friend from Texas claims that the scene where Pee-Wee proves to Dottie where he is by singing is completely accurate.

My Texan friend agrees with your Texan friend.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:55 PM on October 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

We just rewatched this movie and I think it remains Burton’s best overall? It’s dumb and goofy and nonsensical and fun and delightful and shouldn’t work but it does. The motorcycle ride might be one of my favorite shots in any movie.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:46 PM on October 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is one of those movies that was filmed in open matte - they shot it in 1.33:1 then used a matte on the projector to cut off the top and bottom and make it widescreen. Then the original could be used to make a tv version without using pan and scan.

I bring this up because for the longest time I never got the "infinite bike chain" gag because when I saw it on tv or vhs, you could see below the storage compartment where the chain was running down to the ground. And scene with the funny road signs at night I thought was extra weird because you could see the track the signs were rolling on towards the stationary car instead of looking like a moving car heading towards stationary signs.

It's a movie full of weird gags, and kid me just thought these were more weird bits that were going over my head. It was only when I saw it as an adult in widescreen that I picked up on what was really happening - the tv version was showing us stuff that was always supposed to be off-camera.
posted by thecjm at 6:52 PM on October 1, 2023 [12 favorites]

I have a soft spot for the bike chain thing because it was the first time I ever saw and noticed a movie mistake, the first time I got a peek behind the curtain.
posted by Hatashran at 7:04 PM on October 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

We just rewatched this movie and I think it remains Burton’s best overall?

It's the only film of his I like. Everything else he's directed has been dreck, imo.
posted by dobbs at 7:05 PM on October 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

Saw this at a local indie theatre after his death and it was fantastic. i watched his show as a kid but didn't realize that came After he did the movie.

About half the theatre did the Texas line, too.
posted by lkc at 9:02 PM on October 1, 2023

I like the story of how he bought Syd Field’s Screenplay and wrote the movie literally by the book: “It’s a 90-minute film, it’s a 90-page script. On page 30 I lose my bike, on page 60 I find it. It’s literally exactly what they said to do in the book,” laughed Reubens. “There should be like a MacGuffin kind of a thing, something you’re looking for, and I was like, ‘Okay, my bike.’”
posted by credulous at 9:16 PM on October 1, 2023 [8 favorites]

It's the only film of his I like. Everything else he's directed has been dreck, imo.

Ed Wood would like a word.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:27 AM on October 2, 2023

I love RLM. But once in a while they show their ages. I'm about 10 years older than they are, and they completely miss the idea that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is very much like an old Warner Brothers cartoon, logic-wise.

One of my favorite films of all time. I never really liked any other Tim Burton film, but I love this one.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:57 AM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying I can hit up say, a Buc-ees north of San Antonio, stand in front of the Wall of Jerky and belt out "THE STARS AT NIGHT -- ARE BIG AND BRIIIIGHT!" and this will work? I'm going to need some video of this.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

I bring this up because for the longest time I never got the "infinite bike chain" gag because when I saw it on tv or vhs, you could see below the storage compartment where the chain was running down to the ground. And scene with the funny road signs at night I thought was extra weird because you could see the track the signs were rolling on towards the stationary car instead of looking like a moving car heading towards stationary signs.

They mention this at 38:29
posted by Pendragon at 10:17 AM on October 2, 2023

Paging Mr. Herman. I agree with the top YT comment, it is the best bad acting ever. And ingenious to see him out of character but playing himself.
posted by credulous at 11:36 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Large Marge probably scared the crap outta me as a kid. As an adult, I was bemused that Tom Wait's Big Joe and the Phantom 309 was essentially the same story.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:40 AM on October 3, 2023

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying I can hit up say, a Buc-ees north of San Antonio, stand in front of the Wall of Jerky and belt out "THE STARS AT NIGHT -- ARE BIG AND BRIIIIGHT!" and this will work? I'm going to need some video of this.


Might depend on time of day and how many people are there, but I honestly think your chances are good

(source: am a texan)
posted by RustyBrooks at 4:45 PM on October 3, 2023