Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985) * * *

 

Directed by:  Tim Burton

Starring:  Paul Reubens, Mark Holton, Elizabeth Daily, Diane Salinger, Jan Hooks, Jason Hervey, Alice Nunn

Pee Wee's Big Adventure was the unleashing of the Pee Wee Herman character on to the world.  It is inspired comedy with haunting visuals courtesy of Tim Burton, a funny and effective combination.  We all wish we had Pee Wee's problems.  He wakes up each morning via a Rube Goldberg-style alarm which also cooks his breakfast.  He doesn't appear to have a job, and he seems to have all the money and friends he needs.   One is Dottie (Daily), who clearly wants to be more than a friend and does everything but send Pee Wee a written invitation stating so.  But Pee Wee's only love of the world is his bicycle, which he wraps up in a cocoon of chains when he parks it one day.   When he returns, he finds it is stolen and starts an epic journey to retrieve it. 

The bicycle, except for a few bells and whistles, is not much different than any other bike, but it's Pee Wee's bike.  He first blames his frenemy Francis Buxton (Holton), a spoiled rich brat who, like Pee Wee, is a child in an adult's body.  Francis is an obvious suspect since he tried to buy the bike for an exorbitant sum, though not for Francis, but soon Pee Wee ventures on his own to the Alamo to find his bike.  Why The Alamo?   This was information courtesy of a phony psychic who marvels Pee Wee when she says, "You're here because you want something,"  

Pee Wee Herman's narrow view of the world is limited to his bike, but he manages to be childlike without being childish.   When he's visiting The Alamo and impatiently waits for the tour guide to bring the group to the "basement", we see him behave like a child would, complete with a tapping foot and hostile eye rolls.  He maintains a certain degree of worldliness to a point, but not enough to prevent him from trekking to San Antonio to visit its non-existent basement.  A psychic told him there was one, so it must be true.  Along the way, Pee Wee encounters ghost truckers, an annoying train hobo who endlessly sings, a sweet waitress who wants to visit Paris, Pee Wee running afoul of bikers in a biker bar (where he performs his famed Tequila dance), and even Pee Wee's story being made into a movie.  

Pee Wee's Big Adventure scores with its sly humor and its sense of spooky fun, all of which meshes into a satisfying comedy.  Pee Wee's Playhouse came next, followed by a second Pee Wee Herman movie (Big Top Pee Wee), which I saw when it was released and didn't care for it, but may require a second viewing.   Then, Reubens' career was derailed by an indecency charge in 1991 when he was arrested for masturbating in a porn theater.   It's a pity and now Reubens has passed away, but we won't soon forget Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which remains a comical big-screen debut for the nerdy guy with the gray suit and red bowtie.