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Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
Warner, widescreen 1.85:1/16x9, languages: English DD 5.1 [CC], French Digital Mono, subtitles: English, French, single side-dual layer, 28 chapters, rated PG, 90 min., $24.95, street date 5/2/2000. Supplements:
Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, Judd Omen. Call the FBI! Alert the President! Advise all ships at sea and break out the batphone! Pee-wee Herman's bicycle, the "neatest" bike in the world, is missing. It's his most prized possession…and he's just got to get it back. Searching high, low and in between, Pee-wee hits the open road and encounters riotous adventures with bikers, cowboys, crooks and a phantom trucker. Finally, Pee-wee's quest leads him to Warner Bros. Studios where security is tight, the soundstages are busy and his spiffy, super-deluxe red bicycle is in the hands of a spoiled-brat child star. But Not For Long! Get ready for great fun, crazy excitement and big laughs in Tim Burton's directorial debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
All I can say is this: It's about time! I bought my DVD player in July 1998, and had things gone as they should, Pee-wee's Big Adventure would have been one of my very first acquisitions. I've loved this movie for years and gladly would have owned it on DVD. According to promotional materials from Warner Bros. - including old "Buy Four, Get One Free" booklets - Pee-wee was supposed to appear on DVD in the fall of 1997! Obviously, that didn't happen; only two and a half years later do we finally get this classic on DVD. Was it worth the wait? Yeah, if the earlier editions wouldn't have included this one's supplemental features; honestly, those are the most appealing aspect of this DVD for me, since I already owned a decent laserdisc copy of the film, although I'm certainly happy to have Pee-wee it its original theatrical aspect ratio. But more on those issues later; now I just want to address my feelings about the film itself. Is Pee-wee the funniest movie of all-time? Maybe not, but it's awfully close. It's one of those rare comedies that gets better on repeated viewings and always offers new information; I've watched it at least 15 or 20 times and I don't get sick of it in the least. The appeal of Pee-wee is hard to define, but obviously comes from a combination of a well-written script and terrific performances. The movie almost completely lacks a plot; the entire story loosely revolves around Pee-wee's attempts to regain his stolen bicycle. However, the affair goes onto such broad tangents and covers so much territory that such a description of the story is needlessly limiting; really, Pee-wee comes across more as a linked conglomeration of comedy sketches In other reviews, I've slammed movies for failing to feature a coherent plot, so it may seem unfair or irrational that I will praise Pee-wee for the same issue. However, the difference is that the other plot-less films suffered from that problem; they didn't work due to their lack of narrative. Pee-wee, on the other hand, works darned well without a harshly-imposed story; in fact, attempts to more strictly structure the picture would have completely ruined the appeal of the project, which is based on the film's gleeful embrace of an incredibly broad variety of genres and settings. Of course, Pee-wee (Paul Reubens, though you won't get the film's promotional materials to admit that - everything related to it says "Pee-wee Herman in...") and his associates clearly don't live in a world that even remotely resembles ours or any other that ever existed. Actually, that may be a little extreme, because it's not like the thing takes place on Mars; however, any locale in which an odd man-child like Pee-wee can be so fully accepted - and viewed as normal - doesn't appear anywhere in the US, and it never has. But that's part of the fun: Pee-wee behaves how he wants and no one blinks an eye. A similar motif occurs in Stuart Little, though the whole talking mouse thing's even more extreme. (And the results aren't nearly as entertaining, either, but that's a different issue.) The script itself is good, and provides a lot of opportunities for entertainment, but Pee-wee stands as a classic due to two main issues: the performers and director Tim Burton. Back at the time, few had heard of Burton - this was his first feature film - and I know I just assumed that Pee-wee worked so well due to the genius of Reubens. I discovered just how wrong that assumption was in 1988. That year we got the next part of the story, Big Top Pee-wee, directed - for reasons unknown - by Grease and Blue Lagoon honcho Randal Kleiser, and we also received Burton's next project, Beetlejuice. While it didn't compare with Pee-wee, the latter was quite good and remains a fine film. BTPW, on the other hand, was one of the most disappointing movies I've seen; it was completely joyless and unfunny. As such, I learned that maybe Pee-wee was as great as it was not just because of Reubens' persona; obviously something else was needed, and Burton clearly provided the perverse style needed to make the project work. I really think it's Burton's influence that keeps Pee-wee from being a kids' film. Oh, it may be plenty entertaining for young 'uns, but without Burton, I think much of its appeal would have remained for that crowd. This DVD's audio commentary mentions that a "G"-rating had once seemed desirable, but while there's frankly little about Pee-wee that dictates its "PG"-rating - if there's any profanity, I can't recall it, and sex and violence are also virtually absent - I simply cannot imagine it as a "G"-rated kids' movie. In fact, I can't imagine Pee-wee as anything other than an adult-oriented film. Maybe I'm too close to the movie to judge - I love it too much - but it's always seemed like a very adult picture to me. In fact, for years I thought it was "R"-rated, even though there's nothing that would even remotely justify such a mark. The movie just appeared too daring and wicked to just be "PG". Maybe it's because Burton does bring a wittily sinister sense to the project that it got the "PG" rating. Objectively, it doesn't make sense, but subjectively, the film appears too bizarrely adult to be "G". That was Burton's gift; his presence inspired what could have been an insipid children's piece to be one of the most visually-clever and fascinating movies ever made. Of course, the performers deserve a lot of the credit. Reubens is on-screen for the vast majority of the film, and he never fails to entertain. As Pee-wee, he can make the most innocuous lines and make them hilarious; tons of material in Pee-wee would have failed in the hands of other actors. (If we ever got a new Pee-wee, though, it would have to be Alan Cumming; I don't think he could do the persona justice - it's Reubens' baby and always will be - but I never realized just how much Cumming looks like Pee-wee - they're virtually twins!) Reubens is the focus of the movie and just as Burton's direction makes the film work, Reubens' performance completes the picture. It also benefits from a pretty-uniformly excellent supporting cast. Virtually without exception, every component of the other inhabitants of Pee-wee's world seem to fit. I tried to find a weak link and I couldn't; all the actors fill their roles wonderfully. Mark Holton gives Pee-wee the perfect foil as spoiled rich kid Francis. He also seems equal parts man and boy, though I wish they'd gone more for the "boy" look in his swimming pool scene; something about the appearance of Holton's armpit hair distracts me. Other favorites among the cast are Judd Omen's wickedly menacing escaped convict Mickey, and Carmen Filpi's Hobo Jack. Filpi especially makes the most of his limited screen time and offers some of the movie's best laughs with his renditions of old-time songs like "Skip To My Lou". I hope my mention of these two doesn't slight the others, because they're all terrific, all the way down to spunky little Speck the dog. Is there anything about Pee-wee I don't like? Not much. I've never cared for the film's two dream sequences; the film itself is odd enough and something about these scenes always seemed pointless and unentertaining, especially since they don't do anything to reinforce or move along the story. Of course, a lot of the rest is mainly fun for fun's sake, but the difference is that all those scenes are entertaining, whereas the dream sequences are not. But other than that, I can't think of much I'd change about Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The movie keeps up a relentless pace of hilarious material that rarely lags, and it's a consistent treasure from start to finish. I've loved this film for 15 years now, and it hasn't grown in the least bit tired during that time; put simply, it's one of the greatest movies ever made. Pee-wee's Big Adventure appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. As I earlier alluded, this is the first time the movie has appeared in its original aspect ratio; the previous releases were full-frame and actually offered more information on the top and bottom. A lot of people like that kind of image, but Pee-wee was always the poster child for folks who prefer the theatrical aspect ratio, even when it seems to offer no advantage, such as these fullframe examples. Pee-wee gets trotted out by people like me to demonstrate the evils of fullframe transfers because in the unmatted version, we saw all sorts of things we shouldn't have witnessed. For example, during the scene in which Pee-wee pulls an extremely-long bike chain from a case, we can see the chain come through a hole in the bottom; obviously, we were never meant to observe this. Burton and Reubens mention this in the audio commentary, but funnily, they almost seem to prefer the fullframe version because it adds to the warped sense of unreality. Still, I'm happy to get the original finally, even though I definitely could have lived with the fullframe cut as well. The only time I missed the fullscreen image was during the scene in which Pee-wee shows a picture of himself; I find that photo very entertaining in its own right, and the matted version makes it a little harder to see. Well, at least the stillframe option makes it easy for me to pause it if I want to do so! Anyway, onto the quality of the picture. Sharpness seems consistently quite good, with only some moderate softness that appears during a few wider shots. I noticed some very mild moiré effects at times - such as in a screen door - but no jagged edges. I also detected a few small instances of artifacts from the anamorphic downconversion on my 4X3, but these were pretty rare. The print used for the transfer looked fairly clean; I saw some occasional speckling and maybe a nick or two, but no grain or more significant flaws such as scratches or hairs. Pee-wee features a lot of bold primary colors, and the DVD does a decent but unspectacular job of rendering these. Hues seem fairly accurate but slightly bland; they lack the immediacy I would expect, largely because older, low cost movies like this usually offer slightly flat images such as this. Black levels appear nicely dark and deep, though shadow detail looks inconsistent; at times, it seems nicely translucent but on others it appears a bit too heavy. Still, although Pee-wee clearly isn't perfect, it's ultimately a very satisfactory image. Also pretty good is the film's remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The movie originally featured a Dolby Surround track, and while I can't say this one opens things up much, it still sounds nice for a 15-year-old low-budget film. The forward soundstage tends to stick pretty close to the center, with only mild activity coming from the sides. Effects from the right and left seems pretty localized, and they don't pan terribly smoothly; the sounds go slightly abruptly from one channel to the next. The surrounds feature very few effects; I might have noticed one or two from back there, but that's about it. Danny Elfman's terrific score comes nicely from all five channels, however; it's unquestionably the best part of the soundstage. That also goes for the quality of the audio. Elfman's score sounds nicely bright and smooth and offers some strong bass as well; it really comes across with surprisingly clarity and boldness. Effects tend to be fairly thin, though decently realistic, and dialogue sounds clear and intelligible but flat and lifeless. The music is what redeems this entire affair and lifts it to "B" level. I don't know if I'd consider Pee-wee to be a true special edition, but it does contain a few nice supplements that excite fans such as myself. First up is the running audio commentary from writer/actor Reubens and director Burton. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two were recorded together; frankly, I'd assumed they'd be taped separately and spliced together, but I was happy to discover differently. Having them with each other definitely helps the commentary, since they feed off each other pretty nicely. It doesn't appear that either man is much of a chatterbox - the track starts slowly - so it's good that they good spark each other in some ways. As much as I'd like to do so, I can't say that this is a great commentary; neither guy provides a very engaging presence, though Burton is more animated than I expected. Still, they provide a fair amount of interesting details about the film, something that's very valuable to me since I so dearly love the movie; I knew very little about it, so every little bit of detail is appreciated. One nice touch: rather than mixing them into mono, Burton appears from the left speaker and Reubens comes from the right. (Whoops - probably shouldn't use that description for him!) The two men have somewhat similar voices, so this helps us differentiate between them. Granted, it wouldn't have been all that difficult, but I just thought it was a nice presentation. For anyone who might have a setup that only allows one channel, this will explain why you won't hear both participants; for example, my secondary TV only has one audio input, so I can only get the left channel, which would mess up this part of the playback. More commentary can be found from composer Danny Elfman during a track that combines his remarks with the movie's score. The music is presented in full 5.1 glory, and Elfman's statements appear during the parts that offer no score. Since Pee-wee is a very music-heavy movie, this means that we don't get to hear a whole lot from Elfman, but what he says is pretty interesting. He discusses Pee-wee itself to a degree but spends more time musing about his career and relating the various processes through which he goes to write his scores. Actually, it's probably a good thing that Elfman's time is limited since even with that restriction he pretty much runs out of material before the end; the guy even admits he has nothing to say at one point! In any case, it's a nice little extra. Another terrific bit comes in the "Deleted Scenes" section. For a Pee-wee fanatic like myself, this is an extremely wonderful addition. These are four clips in total, and the entire section runs for about 11 minutes. Three of the scenes have no relation to anything in the movie, whereas the final one shows parts of the climactic studio chase that were excised. Although I was insanely happy to see these, I have to agree that they were properly snipped. Of the four, the first - which introduces us to Amazing Larry, who we briefly see during Pee-wee's meeting in his basement - is probably the only one that really could have stayed in the film, but it lacks much purpose and takes the focus off Pee-wee for too long; it's a neat little gag but not strong enough on its own to warrant inclusion. As I already mentioned, I found the movie's two dream sequences to be the worst parts of Pee-wee, so I'm awfully happy that a third - which appears in the "Deleted Scenes" area - didn't make the cut. It's no better or worse than the other two, but if I didn't like those, there's no reason for me to enjoy this one. Another scene shows Pee-wee in the hospital after he crashes his borrowed motorcycle. There we briefly meet his doctor - who makes a mutated appearance in Pee-wee's second dream sequence - and he receives a visit from the biker gang. The scene isn't terrible but it seems pointless and not too funny; as with the Amazing Larry bit, it focusses too much on the gang and not enough on Pee-wee. Some scenes get away with this - such as the great Alamo tour piece - but at least those gave us some good Pee-wee as well; his exasperated reactions to Jan Hooks' inane tourguide comments make the scene hilarious. Nothing like that happens in the hospital scene, so it was a logical omission. Finally, we find parts of the movie studio chase that were cut, and this was another good choice. The chase borders on being too long as it is, and while some of these parts are fun - we finally get to see the payoff for the "boomerang bowtie" gag set up early in the film - they add little and they really would have slowed down the pace. Granted, I'd guess that they could have been tightened up with some minor editing - what we see doesn't match the manic pace of the finished product - but it still would have been overkill to include all this stuff. Nonetheless, I'm overjoyed that we get to see it plus the other three scenes. Another nice piece features "Production Sketches and Storyboards" with a commentary from production designer David Snyder. Mostly this section offers storyboards; we also see some production plans and drawings, but the majority of the material comes from the boards. The piece runs as a continuous video program that goes for about 11 and a half minutes. 'm not a huge fan of storyboards, but this segment works pretty well if just because it offers a look at some of the ways the finished product differed from the plans, something that's especially true during the opening scene's boards. Snyder's comments mainly offer a general look at his work without too much specific about Pee-wee itself, but they make for a nice addition to this program. Overall, it's a worthwhile segment for fans. After all that, the DVD finishes with some of the old stand-bys. The film's theatrical trailer appears, and we also get a couple of text sections. "The Writers" provides brief but acceptable biographies of the three screenwriters: Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Why in the world these didn't just appear in the "Cast and Crew" area I don't know, but in any case, we find entries for four of the actors, Elfman and Burton there. These are pretty standard and range from relatively informative (Burton) to almost nothing (Diane Salinger) with one terrific exception: we actually get a funny biography for Pee-wee Herman! I thought that was a very nice touch to round out the package. So was it worth my nearly two-year wait to get Pee-wee's Big Adventure on DVD? Yeah, I'd say so, because it seems pretty clear Warner Bros. took so long because they wanted to get it right. While a diehard fan such as myself certainly would have loved to find even more supplemental features - I don't honestly think I'd ever get tired of hearing about the movie - I'm still awfully happy to find what we get. It's recommendation time, and if you don't already know what I'm going to say, you haven't bothered to read any of the preceding paragraphs. Pee-wee's Big Adventure is unquestionably one of my top ten films of all-time, and it's arguably the funniest movie ever made. The picture is just as entertaining now as it was 15 years ago, and I don't think that will ever change. The DVD provides unexceptional but solid picture and sound, and it provides a few well-chosen and compelling supplements. The fact of the matter is this: Warner Bros. could have done a fairly slipshod job on this DVD and still gotten my recommendation because I so adore the movie. However, that's not an issue, because this is a very good package that performs well in all categories. My advice? Order yourself a copy of the Pee-wee's Big Adventure DVD as soon as possible; you won't regret it!
Current as of 5/4/2000
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