Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a rare movie that's both mainstream success and a cult classic. From the humor, the performances, and production design, Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a movie that really shouldn't work nearly as well as it does.
Many '80s movies come across today as too loud, too crass, or even cringy, but Pee-wee's Big Adventure, due to its production value and costume design, has a timelessness that other films from the era lack. While some think that the movie is a classic '80s comedy that deserves an update, because Pee-wee's Big Aventure was never tied to one particular date and time, it doesn't seem a part of it.
The Production Design
The film, with its extremely clever production design, is able to bring to life the 1950s-on-steroids aesthetic of Pee-Wee Herman's world. What kind of place does someone like Pee-Wee inhabit? What would be part of that world and keep the manchild Pee-Wee entertained?
The colors, the homemade machines, the design of the signature bike are perfect and reflect the candy-colored interior of Pee-Wee's life to a T. This is exactly what a world with Pee-Wee in it would look like and though it ended up being one of Tim Burton's lowest-grossing movies, he was the perfect choice to realize Pee-Wee's world.
The Childlike Humor
"I know you are but what am I" is a playground classic and Pee-wee uses it in the movie to hilarious effect. Pee-wee and Francis, the jealous bike coveter, start fighting over Francis calling Pee-wee names. Pee-wee's not having it, and the famous comeback begins.
It's repeated and every variation of the taunt is used until the ultimate capper: "I don't make monkeys, I train them." Childlike naivete is a key to the whole film and the whole exchange has become and beloved and much-shared meme. Like The Goonies, which still holds up today, without the childlike humor, much would be missing.
The Performances
The performances are keyed off two things; Paul Reubens as Pee-wee and the world he habits. Either the actors are playing at his pitch (Mark Holton as Francis) or below, and others are much more subtle but still in the same world (Elizabeth Daily as Dottie).
It's not easy to go over the top but only so far over the top, but the supporting cast does just that. Reubens and his cast never allow themselves to go too far to become annoying, and instead, just keep up with Reuben's energy and feed off it.
The 'Loner' Esthetic
Dottie, the bike store owner, has a crush on Pee-wee. Pee-wee has a crush on Dottie but he can't bring himself to do anything about it, even when Dottie finally makes the first move. He turns on his James Dean shrug and his Marlon Brando bad boy persona and delivers the classic excuse for bad boys staying free everywhere: “You don’t wanna get mixed up with a guy like me, Dottie. I’m a loner, a rebel.” And he leaves, giddy to have his new, louder horn, and walks away into the lonely, but still crowded, streets.
Pee-wee is right, he is a loner who lives in his own world and no one else needs to apply. But it is this element about his character that needs to break down for Pee-wee to get his bike back: he has to ask for help and he can't be a loner anymore.
The Ever-Inventive World Of The Film
This film rewards multiple viewings. Pee-wee has made every part of his life a game -- from frying eggs and squeezing orange juice, to toasting bread. Every part of his day is ritualized and elaborate, just so he can eat a bit of cereal and then get up. Even feeding his dog is fascinating to watch.
To Pee-wee, it's all play, and once he's had his fun, if not his food, he's done. From Pee-wee's house to his bike, and his world, in general, inventiveness is key. There is something to look at in almost every frame, and it's always something interesting.
The Relatable Humor
Pee-wee has to get his new, louder horn from the pretty Dottie at the bike store, so off he goes, using his microphone to share his humming to the entire park. Spotting BMX kids doing tricks, Pee-wee attempts to do his own.
Since his bike is way too heavy for wheelies, he puts his feet on the handlebars, then off to one side, and then the other, finally crashing in front of a bunch of kids. But who hasn't done something stupid and potentially dangerous, fallen or crashed, and then sprung up to declare, "I meant to do that!" That moment is everyone and just one of the ways that Pee-wee remains endearing and relatable.
Francis - The Perfect Villain
Francis Buxton is a kid a lot of people knew growing up: a spoiled bully with too much money and indulgent parents who don't only give him everything he wants, but then demands that everyone else do the same.
Francis is the perfect villain for Pee-wee, as he's everything Pee-wee isn't: selfish, uncaring, cold, and heartless. The audience fears what he would do to Pee-wee's bike, and Francis acts as the perfect foil for Pee-wee throughout the movie.
The Love Story
This love isn't about a man and a woman. Instead, it is about a boy loving his bike. Its loss is felt as a sense of panic and the ultimate injustice, as something Pee-wee loves has been taken away.
The relationship between Pee-wee and his bike is akin to a child and their dog or their favorite stuffed animal. It's also a part of Pee-wee's innocence and he has to recover it, no matter what. This love story is the heart of the movie and feels believable and is timeless.
The Bicycle
The whole movie is built around how cool Pee-wee's bicycle is, and it needs to be believable. Fortunately, Ruebens found the perfect bike with a '40s "Atomic Era" appeal. It's an immaculately restored, cherry-red 1947 Schwinn racing bike. According to birthmoviesdeath.com, the bike was a gift to Reubens from the Warner Brothers studio after he kept seeing them on the lot and asked where people were getting them. The gift also became the inspiration for the movie script.
And while replicas were used for the movie, they were all based on Reuben's original. Of course, it's the theft of the iconic bike that is the motivation for the whole movie, and one believes that Pee-wee would be desperate to get it back. It's a delightfully engaging plot that still holds up today for its innovativeness.
Large Marge
Large Marge, the driver of the phantom 18 wheeler in the movie, is the ghost trucker who picks up lonely hitchhikers on deserted stretches of highway. But in fact, her character is a 1970s trucker song come to life.
According to kekbfm.com, Marge's storyline follows Red Sovine's song, “Phantom 309" almost to a T: a hitchhiker is picked up by a trucker, left at a truck stop, and then told that "Big Joe," the trucker that picked him up, actually died 10 years earlier. Alice Nunn as Marge pulls it off, too. She seems like a trucker with something obviously "off" about her, and she doesn't blink during her whole scene.