Other movies from my childhood have joined The Criterion Collection but something about the inclusion of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure feels especially validating to ‘80s kids. The Breakfast Club and Time Bandits were older kids’ movies. The Rock and Armageddon were added contemporarily, but with this, someone reached into the VHS era and decided yes, this was important.
This is my first time seeing Tim Burton’s surreal vision on screen in 4K, thanks to the Criterion Collection. The difference between Pee-wee’s (Paul Reubens) house and dream sequences vs. all the real world locations is palpable.
It’s such a bright road trip that the dark scenes really stand out with 4K. His bike is introduced in a deep, black garage space. The rainy back alley where he visits the psychic has oppressive shadows. The falling car gag, animated eyeballs, Large Marge (Alice Nunn) and the dinosaur park with glowing red T-Rex and green brontosaurus all occur against a pure night sky.
In the new interview between Burton and Richard Ayoade, they address A.I. Burton has already seen his work used by A.I. so this will age well. Even the filmmaking talk reflects Burton comparing his first film to the rest of his career.
An audio interview with producer Richard Abrams, production designer David L. Snyder, co-writer Michael Varhol and editor Billy Weber describes a previous movie pitch that bombed, stories of Burton’s delayed payroll he’d probably never tell, the evolution of Large Marge, blending multiple locations and many more facts.
I must never have seen this movie on DVD or Blu-ray because I’d never seen these 11 minutes of deleted scenes before. It’s more surreal Burton and Reubens magic from 1985 including Amazing Larry, another nightmare and more scenes in the studio lot chase.
The late Reubens appears via a 2005 Hollywood Master Storytellers interview and the original DVD commentary with Burton.
The 40th reunion features the same below-the-line people along with E.G. Daily, Diane Salinger (in her waitress costume), Mark Holton and the Chiodo Brothers.
Careful, if you leave the menu on too long they give you Large Marge, the single most terrifying image in cinema history.