Need to preface this one by saying that the title might not imply what you think.
As in, newer generations (especially not from the US) most likely don’t know that “Pee Wee” isn’t slang for something (and i hope it never was), it’s just a comedy character played by late American comedian Paul Rubens, which developed the character of Pee-wee Herman with Phil Hartman (of Simpson fame), originally debutting for a sketch, then getting its own weird “kids comedy show” called “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”, and success eventually brought the Pee Wee persona to the big screen, with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) also being the first feature lenght film directed by Tim Burton, with also Danny Elfman debuting here as a composer.
I didn’t grow up with the old show as i’m not american and “too young for that shit” at the time, but with the Burton film arriving here too i remember vaguely Rubens face, but regardless, the film launched Burton’s (and Elfman’s) whole career and is still fondly remembered.
I rewatched this very recently, like two weeks ago, and i can say it still holds up, a surreal cartoony live action ride brimming with irony and zany humour under its own mask of false naivetè.
Given, you have to understand what “Pee Wee Herman” is, and basically he’s a flamboyant manchild that dresses up like a golden age ventriloquist dummy, moves like one too, has a weird laugh, a child-like impatience and “lust for fun”, always surroding himself with some weird contraptions, and basically following his quirky autisms where they take him, be it a fixation on bycicles or something else.
So indeed, an idiot sauvant for the ages, even though i’m not sure how much well modern audiences would take to his character, as he may come off ironically pervish, which is almost funny in hindsight, thought the character isn’t that, and is more on an outcast living in his own world, hence perfect for Burton’s debut, he build a career on this sort of weirdos, after all.
But we’re not here to talk about his Big Adventure.
We are here to remember they tried making him a film series, following up in 1988 with Big Top Pee Wee, which has been mostly forgotten at best by audiences.
I never saw it before and honestly didn’t even know it existed until i accidentally stumbled upon it while searching for films about the circus.
There’s no need to try and warn you of spoilers since Big Adventure was a road movie about Pee Wee trying to get back his beloved bike that got stolen, and this isn’t really a sequel per sé.
In the sense that Pee Wee Herman is played by Paul Rubens and is the main protagonist, and this being the second film with the character/persona, but you don’t need to know anything about what he did in the first first, as it’s basically a reboot or a “stand alone sequel”, pick what you like.
Here instead of living in a Wallace & Gromit style house filled with Rue Goldberg machines and inventions, he’s a farmer with a talking pig assistant, Vance, his fiancee, Winnie, while making weird experiments on vegetables in the safety of a greenhouse.
The townfolks don’t like his quirky personality, but there’s no time for that as a storm is approaching, but don’t get your hopes up, that results in the tempest bringing an entire circus unto Pee-Wee’s backyard, and him – as he would – decides to join the circus, despite not knowing a single circus trick or act, and with the townfolks also hating the circus and its performers too…
One thing that sticks out immediatly is the romance. Not only that, Pee Wee being also horny and a cheat. Kinda. Definitely a hair fethicist, beyond any doubt.
I think it’s unfair to blame the not working on director Randall Klaiser, whom directed Grease, Blue Lagoon and Flight of The Navigator (among others) before this, nor on Rubens performance per sé, even Danny Elfman is back as a composer, and that helps, but it’s the script that fundamentally doesn’t really work, as do the changes to Pee Wee’s persona, especially the fact he has romantical interests to begin with, right off the bat the dream sequence where he has hordes of women swoon and chase him around feels not out of character per sé… it feels too realistic and makes the character less magical and weird, and ultimately diminishes its appeal as an outlandish yet wide eyed clown that experiences everything for the first time with a childish sense of discovery and wonder.
I’m sorry, just don’t see Pee Wee caring about this to begin with, even in the first film he was kinda bothered by it as not annoyance per sé, but just another thing in the way of his hyperfixation, so to start him off as already engaged into a romantical relationship and trying to have intercourse with his love interest on the pic-nic blanket (or perv-sniff her hair after said attempt cock-blocked by kids being nearby) feels weird.
It’s very tame for today’ standards, mind you but it just feels inappropriate.
Plus this feeds into the bigger issue at hand, it’s that bringing Pee Wee and his brand of naivè lunacy into a more realistical and slighlty more grounded dimension kinda kills the magic Big Adventure had, and this a movie with a talking pig and a circus swept as-is by a tornado like Dorothy in the Wizard Of Oz, with an inexplicable 2 cm wife, among other things.
It’s still all taking place in a kitchy over the top cartoony, exaggerated world, but the added smidge of realism also bring one to ask questions that honestly shouldn’t be asked about a Pee Wee film, like “why the townfolks hate him”, “how does the wiener tree work”, it all is “because”, obviously, but since it deals in less absurdity, it makes one inclined to wonder about the proceedings, unlike where you didn’t question at all stuff like Pee Wee meeting ghost trucker Large Marge.
Also, Big Adventure being a road movie worked since you get to learn of Pee Wee as he meets all sorts of strange persons and other over the top weirdos, here we don’t really go anywhere, though the pacing suffices by basically throwing various scenes at the viewer, helped (ironically) by the very flimsy nature of the plot that brings – literally – the circus and its zany members to Pee Wee,
obviously they also couldn’t do another “Pee Wee lost his beloved object” plot again without coming off as creatively bankrupt, but ironically it feels like there’s too much plot, despite it being indeed as flimsy as it sounds, with him becoming involved in the circus and having a romantic relationship where maybe they should have picked one of the two instead of both.
not helped by how the other characters act far too normal, to the point that instead of serving as juxtaposition to Pee Wee (or fitting into the surreal nature of his cartoonish world like in Big Adventure), they seem confused, unsure how to even react to him and what to make of what he has become, much like audiences did. As in, even more than their characters are supposed to.
Plus the townfolks are just randomly hostile to the point you wonder what’s the point, since neither this or most of the humour work, and it’s still mind boggling how the crux of a Pee Wee movie is about romance, with his falling in love at first sight with an italian circus performers (played by Valeria Golino of Rain Man and Hot Shots! fame) despite being already romantically engaged with Winnie, the town teacher he has lunch with every day.
I dunno, it just feels that while Reubens wanted to do more with the persona of Pee Wee, and while there’s no real taboo on clown personas such as Pee Wee having a romantical aspect to them. this direction of slightly more realism hurts it and basically kills the unique quality that made the first movie (and i suppose Pee Wee’s Playhouse) appeal to both kids and adults.
Ironically making Pee Wee more human and thus less of a clown just makes Pee Wee less interesting, and the rest of the movie isn’t captivating enough– or that funny – to make this rise above the plateau of inoffensive mediocrity better enjoyed (maybe) by a younger audience.
Though it’s really unfair to compare this to Big Adventure – even if you HAVE to -, since he fought the mighty Godzilla (and King Ghidorah too) and lived to tell the tale in that one.
Yet, it is a bad follow up to Big Adventure, but not a bad or offensive film in itself (no more than others at the time, anyway), it’s just a mostly well meaning (i think) attempt to do something different with the character that doesn’t work since the script brings too much realism into this surreal ’50s americana cartoon dimension, again, some realism, but that’s enough to dispel most of the appeal of the Pee Wee character and the world, as the flimsly plot is paradoxically still too much plot than necessary.
And making Pee Wee “horny” was a bad call, in hindsight, i don’t think it quite fits the character or series, and strikes me more at an attempt to make it more “edgy”, or something to expand the character of Pee Wee, and i kinda get the angle, but still, not sure such a thing was needed in the first place since it’s all still corny and silly, and the execution doesn’t work proper.
I’d lie if i said i did enjoy this one, and that i struggled to get through it, since its not really much funny or interesting, and not one that aged that well, for that matter, even though i did not hate it, and it’s under 90 minutes (86 but in reality 80 of actual film), so it’s not even that big of a time sink, plus it’s acted pretty well by the fairly good cast.
It’s incredibly hard to hate a movie like this, after all, but unless you have already seen all other Pee Wee material… it’d still recommend you just rewatch Pee Wee Big Adventure instead, though i do have to stress it’s not completely awful of a watch, even with its flaws (not being that funny for a comedy is a bit of an issue, for one), it has some charm to it and at the very least that makes Big Top Pee Wee a cute curiosity from the era, though one you shouldn’t be in a hurry to (re)discover.
Though, i wanna stress out that Paramount did fuck Rubens over (figuratively so, anyway) as they terminated his contract and throw him out the very day after the disappointing opening weekend box office numbers for Big Top Pee Wee came in. Jesus.
This before the whole “adult cinemas incident” happened (you know i had to mentioned this eventually, though i think the whole thing is peak American puritanical bullshit), Rubens career died for a decade because of that, though he managed to eventually get work again in the industry, do a lot of voice acting gig, and even resurrect the Pee Wee Herman persona for a 2016 Netflix film, Pee Wee’s Big Holiday, his final feature film before his death in 2023.
Guess we’ll check that out next year, maybe.
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