Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Directed by Tim Burton
The eccentric and childish Pee-wee Herman embarks on a big adventure when his beloved bicycle is stolen. Armed with information from a fortune-teller and a relentless obsession with his prized possession, Pee-wee encounters a host of odd characters and bizarre situations as he treks across the country to recover his bike.
18 connections found
View:
18 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Pee-wee's Big Adventure to
And while it was a little exciting to see the Delorean from Back to the Future again, this particular subplot eventually leads into a Pee-Wee's Big Adventure ripoff - as the two characters are chased throughout the studio.
Though it's not quite his best work (that remains Pee-Wee's Big Adventure), Big Fish does mark Tim Burton's most accomplished and (for lack of a better word) grown-up movie to date.
The plastic accomplishments of his films, starting with 1985's Pee-wee's Big Adventure, have always been their signature achievements, and at least twice, in 1990's Edward Scissorhands and 1994's Ed Wood, Burton's sympathy for earnest, unassimilated dreamer-types nourished his visual imagination with some palatable emotion.
Two masked twins are particularly creepy, especially with a payoff reminiscent of the “Large Marge” scene in Burton’s first major film, “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” — the source of Generation X nightmares that continue into middle age.
If you had asked most audiences and critics in 1985 if Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure director Burton would be one of the most recognized and prominent directors in film history, most of them would have laughed.
Miss Peregrine clamps down on the liabilities enough to let the assets shine, and thirty years after Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, they’re still assets well worth paying attention to.
From Adam Sandler in Billy Madison to Will Ferrell in Elf to Steve Carrell in nearly every role he’s taken, this contemporary incarnation of the comedic man-child finds its origins in Pee-wee Herman.
Advertisement
Seemingly just as committed to the drama was composer Marco Beltrami, whose loud, intense, unnerving score seems mashed together from the most propulsive elements of Bernard Herrmann's music for "Psycho" and Danny Elfman's music for "Pee-wee's Big Adventure."
With that, he's envisioned a sort of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure for SpongeBob, in which the hapless hero sets out on a quest to find the balding King Neptune's treasured crown.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Directed by Cathy Yan
Visuals
But Yan’s breakneck energy and quirky approach keep the movie as an entertaining slice of pop weirdness, like a grittier “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”
Films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, The Goonies, and Jumanji are just a few of the films that I would watch on repeat throughout my childhood and as a teenager.
Advertisement
As Pee-wee Herman says in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" to the woman who has a crush on him: "You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me.
The style of this film is not unlike Pee-wee's Big Adventure, as it follows a comically innocent weirdo around the country, through all sorts of strange adventures and characters.