Oeuvre: Tim Burton - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Once upon a time, there was a school called CalArts.  In this school, legendary Disney animators, men of great talent who worked with Walt himself, met in classroom A113 to teach a new generation of talented youngsters the art of animation.  These artists would grow to change the face of the industry forever.  They included Pixar founder, John Lasseter, Iron Giant director, Brad Bird, stop-motion titan, Henry Selick, and a shy, thin, quiet young man with dark clothes, tangly, wiry hair, and an affinity for German expressionism named Tim Burton.

Shortly after graduating, Burton and several other students went to work for the Mouse House and Burton was given the chance to direct a short film of his own creation.  The film, 'Frankenweenie', which we will get to eventually, was deemed "too dark for children" and Burton was fired.  But all was not lost, for a man named Paul Reubens saw the movie.  Impressed with this up-and-coming director's visual style, Reubens offered Burton the chance to direct his first feature film based on a television show Reubens conceived and starred in.  Burton agreed and that brings us to 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.'

The world that Pee-wee inhabits must seem alien and Neverland Ranchy to the uninitiated but I will try my best to explain.  Pee-Wee is a grown man with the mind of a child.  He is not mentally retarded, rather he has in him the spirit and logic of youth.  This is never expressly stated, but the movie does its best to convey, from his amazing house complete with fire pole, a Breakfast Machine that would make Rube Goldberg's mouth water, and a secret room hidden in a hedge containing Pee-wee's most prized possession, his Bike, that Pee-wee lives in the best possible world as perceived by a child.  Adults behave how children perceive them to behave.  Serious at one moment and silly the next, to the eye-rolling embarrassment of Pee-Wee.  "If I were grown up, this is how things would be!"

Pee-wee's bike, the envy of all, is stolen during one of Pee-wee's daily trips to the Magic Shoppe.  The Police won't help and so Pee-wee embarks on a cross country road trip to reclaim his lost treasure.

Reubens is really a marvel as Pee-wee Herman.  He has been playing the part for almost 35 years now.  The character is an absurd creation.  Mathematically, it should be creepy and yet, it works.  Its entirely possible that Pee-wee Herman is the perfect vessel for this sort of performance.  Can you imagine Paul Reubens bringing that sort of logic to Willy Wonka?

The screenplay by Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol, and the late, great Phil Hartman is brimming with energy and humor.  It hops from one small story to the next with a feverish determination.  In a mere 90 minutes, we are treated to dinosaurs, water wrestling, an escaped convict with a real dark past, singing hobos, clown doctors, a bucking bronco, the Alamo, a leather clad biker gang, and a ghost story from a trucker named Large Marge, my personal favorite.  There's so much more going on in this movie, almost too much, but the throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach really works to this film's benefit.

If you watch Frankenweenie or any of Burton's college shorts like 'Vincent', you can see that Burton's vision was sharply defined even at a young age.  However, his trademark style is not fully apparent here, though glimpses of his skewed doors and preference for black and white stripes do appear here and there, as does his love of stop-motion animation.  The production design by David L. Snyder is fun and the editing by Billy Weber is fine.  Weber has edited Days of Heaven, The Warriors, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Midnight Run, The Thin Red Line, Miss Congeniality, The Love Guru, and The Tree of Life.  What a strange career that man has had.

The only part of this movie that is definitively Burton is the score by lead singer of Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman.  The soundtrack is bouncy and robust though far more lighthearted than his more iconic scores we will hear in the near future.  

Overall, 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' is a fun film with a great sense of imagination and a slightly tweaked universe.  Burton directs with a firm hand and there's never a moment where I felt like he didn't know what he was going for.  This is by no means a "substantial film" but it is a good time.