Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure Review

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Pee-Wee Herman is a little boy inhabiting the body of an adult in a cartoonish world. When his bike is stolen, Pee-Wee sets out on an odyssey to the Alamo, Texas (where his bike is apparently stashed), meeting all manner of weirdos along the way.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1985

Running Time:

90 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

A one-off comic masterpiece from Tim Burton, featuring the infantile kids’ TV character Pee Wee Herman’s search for his stolen bicycle. Given an incredible lease of life by Burton’s visual imagination (he was a Disney animator before directing this, his first feature) Pee-Wee is a bizarre collection of episodes that never stop jumping around thanks to Danny Elfman’s witty score and the sharpest writing, courtesy of Phil Hartman (The Simpsons) and Paul Reubens himself.

Together, Burton and Herman make use of every type of screen comedy – verbal, visual, slapstick, sexual, even cartoon-in a film which holds as many delights for adults as for their offspring.

Burton's first feature revels in the weird, the unpredictable, the infantile and the absurd. A dazzling debut.
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