Pee-wee's Big Adventure#Cast

Pee-wee Herman, a childlike man in a grey suit with a red bow-tie, has a cherished, heavily accessorized bicycle. His neighbor and enemy, Francis Buxton, wants the bicycle and offers to buy it. Pee-wee refuses; as he rides off, Francis warns him he'll be sorry for turning down his offer.

Dottie is an employee at the local bike shop who has a crush on Pee-wee, but he does not reciprocate. As Pee-wee goes on a shopping spree, his bike is stolen, but the police are not overly concerned with the theft. Pee-wee assumes Francis took it, and confronts him, but Francis' father convinces Pee-wee that Francis was not responsible. Pee-wee offers a $10,000 reward for the bike. Francis, who did indeed pay to have someone steal the bike, is disturbed by Pee-wee's relentlessness and pays to have the bike sent away. That evening, Pee-wee holds an unsuccessful evidentiary meeting of friends and neighbors to find the bike, and rejects Dottie's offer of help. He then visits a phony psychic who misleads Pee-wee into believing his bike is in the basement of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. In haste he leaves his wallet behind.

Pee-wee hitchhikes to Texas, getting rides from a fugitive convict named Mickey, and from Large Marge, the ghost of a truck driver. At a truck stop, Pee-wee finds his wallet is missing, and pays for his meal by washing dishes. He befriends Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. As they watch the sun rise from within a roadside dinosaur statue, he encourages her to follow her dreams, but Simone tells him about her boyfriend, Andy, who disapproves. Andy appears and tries to attack Pee-wee, who escapes onto a moving train. Pee-wee arrives at the Alamo, but learns at the end of a guided tour that the building does not have a basement.

At a bus station, Pee-wee encounters Simone, who tells him she broke up with Andy and is on her way to Paris. She tells Pee-wee not to give up searching for his bike. Pee-wee calls Dottie and apologizes for his behavior. Andy spots Pee-wee and resumes chasing him. Pee-wee evades Andy at a rodeo by disguising himself as a bull rider. He is forced to ride a bull, and gets knocked out before the bull pursues Andy. He visits a biker bar to make a phone call, and a biker gang threatens to kill him after he accidentally knocks over their motorcycles. He wins them over by dancing to the song "Tequila" in a pair of platform shoes, and they give him a motorcycle for his journey, which he crashes immediately.

He awakens in a hospital and sees on television that his bike is being used as a prop in a film. Pee-wee sneaks into Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank and grabs the bike. Security guards chase him across the studio lot and through several active sets before he escapes. Pee-wee then discovers a burning pet shop and rescues the animals. The firefighters declare Pee-wee a hero, but the police arrest Pee-wee for his intrusion at the studio. They return Pee-wee to the studio to face Warner Bros. president Terry Hawthorne. After Pee-wee pleads his case that the bike belongs to him, Hawthorne decides to drop the charges and return Pee-wee's bike in exchange for the rights to adapt his story into a film starring James Brolin as "P.W. Herman" and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie. In the film, presented as a James Bond parody, the characters must retrieve their stolen motorbike – which contains an important microfilm – from the Soviets. Pee-wee has a cameo role as a hotel bellhop, though his voice has been dubbed.

Seeing the film at a drive-in theater, Pee-wee gives refreshments to the different people he met along his journey. He also encounters Francis, who tells reporters he that he taught Pee-wee how to ride. Francis claims to be knowledgeable about Pee-wee's bike, but sets off one of the bicycle's gadgets, catapulting himself into the air. Ultimately, Pee-wee decides to depart with Dottie, claiming to have already "lived" the adventure on screen.

• Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, an eccentric man-child whose bike was stolen.
• Elizabeth Daily as Dottie, a bike shop employee who is Pee-wee's friend and has a crush on him.
• Mark Holton as Francis Buxton, a spoiled man-child who is Pee-wee's enemy and neighbor.
• Diane Salinger as Simone, a tourist stop waitress who dreams of visiting France.
• Judd Omen as Mickey Morelli, an escaped convict who claims he was incarcerated for cutting a tag off a mattress.

Selected supporting players, in order of appearance

{{Cast listing|

• Monte Landis as Mario, the owner of a magic shop where Pee-wee purchases several tricks and gadgets that become plot devices.
• Daryl Roach as Chuck, the owner of a bike shop where Pee-wee purchases accoutrements for his bike.
• Starletta DuPois as Sgt. Hunter
• Prof. Toru Tanaka as the butler of the Buxton family.
• Ed Herlihy as Mr. Buxton, the father of Francis.
• Ralph Seymour as Francis' Accomplice, who steals Pee-wee's bike and sells it to Warner Bros. Studios.
• Lou Cutell as Amazing Larry, a magician friend of Mario.
• Erica Yohn as Madame Ruby, a con artist who runs a "psychic" operation.
• Alice Nunn as Large Marge, a ghostly truck driver.
• Jon Harris as Andy, Simone's gigantic, dimwitted, short-tempered boyfriend.
• Carmen Filpi as Hobo Jack, whom Pee-wee meets on a train.
• Jan Hooks as Tina, the Alamo tour guide.
• Luis Contreras as Biker No. 2
• Cassandra Peterson as Biker Mama, of Satan's Helpers.
• Jason Hervey as Kevin Morton, a bratty child star.
• John Paragon as Movie Lot Actor
• Lynne Stewart as Mother Superior, in Kevin Morton's film.
• Phil Hartman as Reporter
• Michael Varhol as Photographer
• Patrick Cranshaw as Hobo
• Sunshine Parker as Hobo

}}

Special appearances

• James Brolin as "P.W."
• Morgan Fairchild as "Dottie"
• Tony Bill as Terry Hawthorne, the president of Warner Bros. Studios.
• Twisted Sister

Director Tim Burton has an uncredited cameo appearance as the street thug who confronts Pee-wee in a rainy back alley.{{cite web |title=15 Fun Facts About Pee-wee's Big Adventure |website=Mental Floss |date=August 7, 2015 |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/66919/15-fun-facts-about-pee-wees-big-adventure |access-date=July 30, 2019 |archive-date=July 30, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730201815/http://mentalfloss.com/article/66919/15-fun-facts-about-pee-wees-big-adventure |url-status=live}} Veteran comedy star Milton Berle also has an uncredited cameo, entering the Warner Bros. lot and telling jokes to his entourage as Pee-wee sneaks in with them.{{cite news |url=https://www.sacurrent.com/movies-tv/still-claiming-pee-wee-30-years-later-remembering-12-late-big-adventure-actors-2458517 |title=Still Claiming Pee-wee 30 Years Later: Remembering 12 Late Big Adventure Actors |last=Martinez |first=Kiko |newspaper=San Antonio Current |date=August 4, 2015 |access-date=August 24, 2024}}

File:2014, Brontosaurus - panoramio.jpg roadside attraction.]]

After a failed audition for Saturday Night Live in 1980, Paul Reubens developed The Pee-wee Herman Show for the Groundlings sketch comedy theater in Los Angeles, which led to an HBO special in 1981 and several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.{{cite magazine |last=Abramovitch |first=Seth |title=Pee-wee Herman's "Dark" Reboot: Paul Reubens Is Ready to Stage a Comeback |magazine=The Hollywood Reporter |date=January 30, 2020 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/pee-wee-hermans-dark-reboot-paul-reubens-is-ready-stage-a-comeback-1273962/ |access-date=May 7, 2025}}

Steve Martin introduced his manager Bill McEuen to Reubens, who subsequently hired him on as a client and convinced him to go on an American tour.{{cite magazine |last=Newman |first=Jason |title=9 Crazy Things We Learned From Pee-wee Herman's 92Y Event |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=March 23, 2016 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/9-crazy-things-we-learned-from-pee-wee-hermans-92y-event-110194/ |access-date=May 7, 2025}} Reubens's tour of 22 cities was billed as The Pee-wee Herman Party and included sold-out shows at New York's Carnegie Hall and Los Angeles's Universal Amphitheater, where Warner Bros. executives greenlit a full-length Pee-wee Herman film.

File:Pee-wee Herman's Bicycle.jpg]]

Reubens's original concept was a remake of Pollyanna (1960), his favorite film, with Pee-wee Herman in the Hayley Mills role. While writing the script, he noticed that many at Warner Bros. rode bicycles around the backlot and requested one of his own. This inspired him to start a new script.{{cite AV media |last1=Burton |first1=Tim |author-link1=Tim Burton |last2=Reubens |first2=Paul |author-link2=Paul Reubens |year=2000 |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |type=DVD audio commentary |url=https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/pee-wees-big-adventure/ |access-date=September 25, 2016 |publisher=Warner Home Video |id=45431258 |isbn=0-7907-4940-8}}

After writing a tentative screenplay, according to producer Richard Gilbert Abramson, Warner Bros. had approved a director for the film but it was a choice that neither him, McEuen or Reubens felt was appropriate for the project.{{cite book |last=Gaines |first=C. |title=Inside Pee-Wee's Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon |publisher=ECW Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-55022-998-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ec_9mT3_QkC |access-date=May 7, 2025}} Taking inspiration from Sylvester Stallone, who refused to cede creative control to studios, Reubens turned down Warner Bros.'s choice for the director, and the studio then told him to find someone "approvable, available, and affordable" within a week.{{cite web |last=Silliman |first=Brian |title=NYCC 2019: Paul Reubens says Sly Stallone was his inspiration for his Pee-wee director search |website=SYFY |date=October 4, 2019 |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/nycc-2019-paul-reubens-panel |access-date=May 7, 2025}}

Reubens had heard about Tim Burton at a party the same night that he had gotten permission from the studio to get an extension on his director search. "I screened 'Frankenweenie and I spoke to Shelley Duvall, who was a friend of mine who was in (the film)," Reubens explained. "I knew Tim was the director about 15 seconds into Frankenweenie, like the second or third shot of it. I was looking at the wallpaper in this bedroom and the lighting and just going, 'This is the guy who has style and understands art direction.' Those were two really important things for me and my baby, I guess, and you know it just happened to luckily all work out."{{cite web |title=AICN Legends: Quint talks with Paul Reubens about all things Pee-Wee! Including the 3 (!!!)... |website=Ain't It Cool News |date=February 10, 2012 | url=https://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/53493 |access-date=May 7, 2025}}

After hiring Burton, Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol revised the script.{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/46/mode/2up p. 47]}} They read Syd Field's 1979 book Screenplay and wrote the script according to the book's advice. "It's a 90-minute film, it's a 90-page script," Reubens explained. "On page 30 I lose my bike, on page 60 I find it. It's literally exactly what they said to do in the book...There should be like a MacGuffin kind of a thing, something you're looking for, and I was like, 'Okay, my bike.'"{{cite magazine |url=http://www.scriptmag.com/features/sxsw-recap-five-things-you-ought-to-know-about-pee-wee-herman |title=SXSW Recap: Five Things You Ought to Know About Pee-wee Herman |magazine=Script Magazine |date=March 28, 2011 |access-date=April 23, 2018 |archive-date=April 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423102055/http://www.scriptmag.com/features/sxsw-recap-five-things-you-ought-to-know-about-pee-wee-herman |url-status=live}} The film has been described as a "parody" or "farce version" of the 1948 Italian classic Bicycle Thieves.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gj2qbAsmHK4C&pg=PA7 |title=Vittorio De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives |first1=Stephen |last1=Snyder |first2=Howard |last2=Curle |date=May 18, 2018 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |access-date=May 18, 2018 |via=Google Books |isbn=9780802083814 |archive-date=April 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413174434/https://books.google.com/books?id=gj2qbAsmHK4C&pg=PA7 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/05/21/pee-wees-big-adventure-tim-burton-1985-at-2/ |title="Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" (Tim Burton, 1985) at 5:15 p.m... |last=Wilmington |first=Michael |date=May 21, 2000 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |access-date=May 18, 2018 |archive-date=April 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426075747/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-05-21/entertainment/0005210315_1_pee-wee-herman-tim-burton-bruce-lee |url-status=live}}

Filming locations included Glendale, Pomona, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica (Third Street Promenade), Burbank, Cabazon — at the Wheel Inn Restaurant (1958-2013) and Cabazon Dinosaurs{{cite web |last=Potts |first=Kim |date=October 18, 2011 |title=Famous Movie Locations: Wheel Inn Restaurant from Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Cabazon, California) |url=http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/08/10/famous-movie-locations-wheel-inn-restaurant-pee-wees-big-adventure/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018153133/http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/08/10/famous-movie-locations-wheel-inn-restaurant-pee-wees-big-adventure |archive-date=October 18, 2011 |access-date=August 21, 2011 |website=Moviefone}} — and Port Hueneme in California, as well as San Antonio, Texas.{{Cite web |title=Pee-Wee's Big Adventure {{!}} 1985 |url=https://movie-locations.com/movies/p/Pee-Wees-Big-Adventure.php |access-date=August 13, 2023 |website=movie-locations.com}}{{Cite news |last=Jacob |first=Mary K. |date=August 2, 2023 |title=Longtime owner of Pee-wee Herman's real playhouse tells all |url=https://nypost.com/2023/08/02/longtime-owner-of-pee-wee-hermans-real-playhouse-tells-all/ |access-date=August 13, 2023 |newspaper=New York Post |language=en-US}}{{cite web |url=http://www.platial.com/hundredflowers/map/3027#Pee_Wee's_Big_Adventure |title=Filming locations of Pee-wee's Big Adventure |website=Platial |access-date=April 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225348/http://www.platial.com/hundredflowers/map/3027 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=dead}} While the exterior of the Alamo was real,{{cite web | last=Marks | first=Michael | title=Pee-wee Herman’s quick trip to San Antonio left a lasting impression | website=Texas Standard | date=2023-08-01 | url=https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/paul-reubens-pee-wee-big-adventure-san-antonio-texas-death-movie-obituary/ | access-date=2025-05-23}} interior shots were filmed at the Mission San Fernando Rey de España in Mission Hills, Los Angeles.{{cite web | last=Nichols | first=Chris | title=Follow in Pee-wee Herman's Footsteps Across L.A. | website=LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles | date=2020-08-27 | url=https://lamag.com/lahistory/road-trip-movies-how-to-make-pee-wees-big-adventure-your-own | access-date=2025-05-23}} While there wasn't a basement at the Alamo during filming, there now are two. "One is underneath the gift shop of the visitor's center," explained Becky Dinnin, director of the Alamo. "The other is underneath Alamo Hall, which is now used as a reception venue that we rent out."{{cite web | last=Martinez | first=Kiko | title=Still Claiming Pee-wee 30 Years Later: The Alamo Actually Has Two Basements! | website=San Antonio Current | date=2015-08-05 | url=https://www.sacurrent.com/movies-tv/still-claiming-pee-wee-30-years-later-the-alamo-actually-has-two-basements-2458505 | access-date=2025-05-23}} Reubens later toured the basement of the Alamo in 2011 while serving as a guest judge on Top Chef: Texas.{{cite web | last=Solomon | first=Dan | title=How Paul Reubens’s ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ Defined Texas for Non-Texans | website=Texas Monthly | date=2023-07-31 | url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/paul-reubens-pee-wees-big-adventure-alamo-texas/ | access-date=2025-05-23}}

Burton and Reubens clashed with Warner Bros. studio executives over the shooting schedule.{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/48/mode/2up p. 49]}} Burton hired CalArts classmate Rick Heinrichs for scenes involving stop-motion animation.{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/48/mode/2up p. 49]}} Large Marge's claymation transformation was created by the Chiodo Brothers.{{cite web |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/the-further/3473180/happy-80th-birthday-large-marge/ |title=Happy 80th Birthday, Large Marge! |last=Squires |first=John |website=Bloody Disgusting |date=December 5, 2017 |access-date=May 29, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://screenrant.com/killer-klowns-pee-wee-big-adventure-large-marge-connection/ |title=What Killer Klowns From Outer Space & Pee Wee's Big Adventure Have In Common |last=Bachman |first=Mara |website=Screen Rant |date=April 24, 2020 |access-date=May 29, 2024}}

The film features several of Reubens' fellow cast members from the improvisational comedy troupe the Groundlings who had previously appeared in The Pee-wee Herman Show, namely Hartman, Lynne Marie Stewart, John Paragon and John Moody.{{cite web |url=https://groundlings.com/about/history |title=Our History |website=The Groundlings |access-date=December 16, 2024}} Hartman, Stewart and Paragon would also later appear on Reubens' TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse.{{cite web |url=https://collider.com/pee-wees-playhouse-history/ |title=The Glorious Beginnings of the Delightfully Absurd 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse' |last=Farley |first=Lloyd |website=Collider |date=July 12, 2024 |access-date=December 21, 2024}} Stewart would also appear in the films Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016), as well as the 2010 Broadway revival of The Pee-wee Herman Show.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/arts/television/lynne-marie-stewart-dead.html |title=Lynne Marie Stewart, Miss Yvonne on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse,' Dies at 78 |last=Ruberg |first=Sara |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 23, 2025 |access-date=May 7, 2025}} Diane Salinger would also appear in Pee-wee's Big Holiday.{{cite news |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/adam-graham/2016/03/18/review-pee-wees-big-holiday-another-wild-adventure/81952482/ |title=Review: Pee-wee's 'Big Holiday' another wild adventure |last=Graham |first=Adam |newspaper=The Detroit News |date=March 18, 2016 |access-date=December 16, 2024}} Jan Hooks was also a fellow Groundling, and both she and Hartman would go on to become cast members of Saturday Night Live in 1986.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/arts/television/jan-hooks-of-saturday-night-live-fame-is-dead-at-57-.html |title=Jan Hooks of 'Saturday Night Live' Fame Is Dead at 57 |last=Keepnews |first=Peter |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 9, 2014 |access-date=December 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010132923/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/arts/television/jan-hooks-of-saturday-night-live-fame-is-dead-at-57-.html |archive-date=October 10, 2014}}

Twisted Sister appeared in the film following an earlier encounter between frontman Dee Snider and Reubens at an MTV New Year's Eve party, where the two expressed mutual admiration for each other. In early 1985, the band were visiting California to perform several shows at the Long Beach Arena when Reubens contacted Snider about the band possibly doing a cameo in the film during the chase scene, which he envisioned passing through a Twisted Sister video shoot. While Snider initially suggested the songs "We're Not Gonna Take It" or "I Wanna Rock", much to his delight, Reubens specifically requested "Burn in Hell".{{cite web |url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/twisted-sister-pee-wees-big-adventure/ |title=How Twisted Sister Ended Up in 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' |last=Wardlaw |first=Matt |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |date=August 1, 2023 |access-date=June 3, 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Pee-wee's Big Adventure / Back to School

| type = Soundtrack

| artist = Danny Elfman

| cover =

| alt =

| released = 1988

| recorded =

| studio = CBS (London)

| genre = Film score

| length =

| label = Varèse Sarabande

| producer =

| chronology = Danny Elfman

| prev_title = Forbidden Zone

| prev_year = 1980

| next_title = Beetlejuice

| next_year = 1988

}}

Reubens initially approached Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh to score the film, but Mothersbaugh was unavailable, due to a scheduling conflict.{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/devos-mark-motherbaugh-remembers-pee-wees-playhouse-collaborator-paul-reubens/ |title=Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh Remembers Pee-wee's Playhouse Collaborator Paul Reubens |last=Monroe |first=Jazz |website=Pitchfork |date=August 1, 2023 |access-date=May 29, 2024}} However, he would later compose the theme song and other episodic music for Reubens' television series Pee-wee's Playhouse.{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/devos-mark-mothersbaugh-says-pee-wees-playhouse-changed-the-trajectory-of-his-career-3477235 |title=Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh says 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' "changed the trajectory" of his career |last=Wilkes |first=Emma |website=NME |date=August 2, 2023 |access-date=August 24, 2024}}

Burton then recruited Danny Elfman, the lead singer/songwriter of Oingo Boingo (who had also composed the music for 1982's Forbidden Zone), to score Pee-wee's Big Adventure.{{cite web |url=https://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/362-danny-elfmans-score-tied-pee-wees-big-adventure-to/ |title=Danny Elfman's score tied Pee-wee's Big Adventure together—and launched a career |last=D'Angelo |first=Mike |date=January 16, 2014 |website=The Dissolve |publisher=Pitchfork |access-date=September 25, 2019 |quote=Elfman, by contrast, was the singer and primary songwriter for a small cult band, Oingo Boingo... His only previous experience as a film composer was Forbidden Zone...}} Elfman was hesitant at first, given his lack of scoring experience,{{cite magazine |url=http://www.boingo.org/articles/FanfareArticle.html |title=Danny Elfman: Wunderkind of Filmmusic |last=Silber |first=Frederic |magazine=Fanfare |date=1989 |via=Boingo.org |access-date=March 23, 2018 |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725092050/http://www.boingo.org/articles/FanfareArticle.html |url-status=dead}} but had written the main title theme by the time that he signed on.{{cite AV media |last=Elfman |first=Danny |author-link=Danny Elfman |date=2000 |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |type=DVD audio commentary |url=https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/pee-wees-big-adventure/ |access-date=September 25, 2016 |publisher=Warner Home Video |id=45431258 |isbn=0-7907-4940-8}}

Elfman's original score draws inspiration from film composers Nino Rota{{cite web |url=https://www.vulture.com/2015/07/danny-elfman-on-8-of-his-iconic-scores.html |title=Danny Elfman Tells the Stories Behind 8 of His Classic Scores |last=Collette |first=Olivia |date=July 6, 2015 |website=Vulture |publisher=New York |access-date=September 24, 2019 |quote='I really went heavily into a Nino Rota inspiration for Pee-wee's Big Adventure, so if you heard something circuslike, I can only imagine that it came from that place,' Elfman said. |archive-date=September 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925050028/https://www.vulture.com/2015/07/danny-elfman-on-8-of-his-iconic-scores.html |url-status=live }} and Bernard Herrmann.{{efn|"As for the Herrmann touch, Elfman was able to draw from that reservoir in some of the film's more inspired dream sequences. 'There was some strange and wonderful music of Herrmann's that influenced me, in particular, Jason and the Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Mysterious Island.'"}} "The Breakfast Machine" was inspired by Rota's score for The Clowns (1970), while Elfman's use of staccato strings, particularly when Pee-wee first discovers his bike has been stolen, echoes Herrmann's score for Psycho (1960).{{cite web |url=https://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/362-danny-elfmans-score-tied-pee-wees-big-adventure-to/ |title=Danny Elfman's score tied Pee-wee's Big Adventure together—and launched a career |last=D'Angelo |first=Mike |website=The Dissolve |date=January 16, 2014 |access-date=May 7, 2025}} The Dissolve writer Mike D'Angelo observed that Elfman also seemed to be emulating the works of Warner Bros. cartoon composer Carl Stalling, noting, "At that point, Burton had spent his entire career as an animator, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is a live-action film with a distinctly animated sensibility. In keeping with that approach, Elfman often has the music respond directly to whatever's happening onscreen, just as the music in a cartoon would."

In 1988, record label Varèse Sarabande released an album featuring 20 minutes of re-recorded cues from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, combined with cues from another Elfman-scored film, Back to School (1986).{{cite web |url=https://www.dannyelfman.com/elfman-burton/pee-wees-big-adventure |title=1. Pee-wee's Big Adventure — Danny Elfman |website=Danny Elfman |access-date=August 25, 2024}} While the scores for both films were recorded in Hollywood, the album was recorded in London and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Coleman.{{cite AV media notes |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure / Back to School: Original Motion Picture Scores |last=Elfman |first=Danny |author-link=Danny Elfman |date=1988 |type=LP liner notes |publisher=Varèse Sarabande |id=704.370}}

Elfman went on to score nearly all of Burton's films,{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/48/mode/2up p. 48]}} excluding Ed Wood (1994), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).{{cite web |url=https://screenrant.com/tim-burton-movies-danny-elfman-not-do-music-score/ |title=The 3 Tim Burton Movies Danny Elfman Didn't Do The Music For (& Why) |last=Williams |first=Jordan |website=Screen Rant |date=January 15, 2023 |access-date=May 7, 2025}}

{{Track listing

| title1 = Overture/The Big Race

| length1 = 3:07

| title2 = Breakfast Machine

| length2 = 2:36

| title3 = Park Ride

| length3 = 1:14

| title4 = Stolen Bike

| length4 = 1:44

| title5 = Hitchhike

| length5 = 0:56

| title6 = Dinosaur Dream

| length6 = 0:48

| title7 = Simone's Theme

| length7 = 1:35

| title8 = Clown Dream

| length8 = 1:58

| title9 = Studio Chase

| length9 = 1:24

| title10 = The Drive-In

| length10 = 2:02

| title11 = Finale

| length11 = 3:12

}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Pee-wee's Big Adventure

| type = Soundtrack

| artist = Danny Elfman

| cover =

| alt =

| released = 2010

| recorded = June 27 and 28, 1985

| studio = Burbank

| genre = Film score

| length =

| label = Warner Bros. Records

| producer = Danny Elfman

| chronology = Danny Elfman

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

In 2010, both the original score sessions and re-recordings were released by Warner Bros. Records as part of The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box. The album also included additional cues, alternate versions and a restored "Studio Chase" sequence.

{{Track listing

| headline = The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Box (Disc 1)

| title1 = Main Title/Bike Race

| length1 = 2:54

| title2 = The Breakfast Machine

| length2 = 2:40

| title3 = The Bike

| length3 = 1:42

| title4 = The Park Ride

| length4 = 1:19

| title5 = The Mall

| length5 = 1:12

| title6 = Music Shop And Beyond

| length6 = 1:05

| title7 = Stolen Bike/Lonely Walk

| length7 = 1:42

| title8 = Francis' House

| length8 = 0:34

| title9 = The Bath

| length9 = 1:32

| title10 = The Basement

| length10 = 2:14

| title11 = Hitch Hike

| length11 = 0:57

| title12 = Edsel Over the Edge

| length12 = 1:21

| title13 = Simone's Theme

| length13 = 1:37

| title14 = Dinosaur Dream

| length14 = 0:49

| title15 = Andy Chase

| length15 = 0:51

| title16 = Alamo

| length16 = 0:19

| title17 = Bus Station/Simone

| length17 = 1:04

| title18 = Clown Dream

| length18 = 2:00

| title19 = Studio Chase

| length19 = 1:25

| title20 = Pet Shop

| length20 = 2:11

| title21 = The Drive-In

| length21 = 2:04

| title22 = Finale

| length22 = 3:07

| title23 = Large Marge

| length23 = 0:52

| title24 = The Fork

| length24 = 0:27

| title25 = Rain/Fortune

| length25 = 1:39

| title26 = Andy Chase 2

| length26 = 0:26

| title27 = Cowboy Pee-wee

| length27 = 0:33

| title28 = Andy & the Bull

| length28 = 0:26

| title29 = Stolen Bike/Lonely Walk

| note29 = Film Version

| length29 = 1:40

| title30 = Hitch Hike

| note30 = Film Version

| length30 = 0:57

| title31 = Simone

| note31 = Film Version

| length31 = 2:09

| title32 = Dino Dreams

| note32 = Film Version

| length32 = 0:47

| title33 = Studio Chase

| note33 = Film Version

| length33 = 3:58

}}

The film also features "Burn in Hell" by Twisted Sister{{cite web |last=Blazenhoff |first=Rusty |title=How Twisted Sister got that cameo in 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' |url=https://boingboing.net/2022/08/12/how-twisted-sister-got-that-cameo-in-pee-wees-big-adventure.html |access-date=1 August 2023 |website=boingboing.net |date=August 12, 2022}} and "Tequila" by the Champs.{{cite web |last=Nayman |first=Adam |title=The Weird Delight of 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' |url=https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/8/6/21356909/pee-wees-big-adventure-paul-reubens |website=The Ringer |date=August 6, 2020 |access-date=August 1, 2023}}

Pee-wee's Big Adventure opened on August 9, 1985, in the United States in 829 theaters, accumulating $4,545,847 over its opening weekend, and went on to gross $40,940,662 domestically.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure received generally positive reviews on its release before eventually becoming a cult film.{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/50/mode/2up p. 50]}} Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of 53 critics gave it a positive review, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The critical consensus reads: "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure brings Paul Reubens' famous character to the big screen intact, along with enough inspired silliness to dazzle children of all ages."{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/peewees_big_adventure/ |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=Fandango |access-date=September 19, 2024 |archive-date=July 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731214242/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/peewees_big_adventure |url-status=live}} Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/peeweesbigadventure |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=September 19, 2019 |archive-date=June 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603054038/http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/peeweesbigadventure|url-status=live}}

In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilmington wrote, "The wrong crowd will find these antics infantile and offensive. The right one will have a howling good time."{{cite news |last=Wilmington |first=Michael |date=August 9, 1985 |title=Pee-Wee's Adventure' is an Oddly Comic Odyssey |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-pee-wee-big-adventure-review-19850809-story.html |access-date=August 1, 2023}} David Ansen of Newsweek described the film as "Mattel Surrealism, a toy-store fantasia in primary colors and '50s decor. Whoever proposed teaming up Pee-wee (a.k.a. Paul Reubens) with 26-year-old director Tim Burton knew what they were doing ... Together they've conspired to make a true original—a live-action cartoon brash enough to appeal to little kids and yet so knee-deep in irony that its faux naivete looks as chic as the latest retrofashions."{{cite magazine |last=Ansen |first=David |author-link=David Ansen |date=August 26, 1985 |title=Hollywood's Silly Season |magazine=Newsweek |page=62}} Variety compared Reubens to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/1984/film/reviews/pee-wee-s-big-adventure-1200426509/ |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |magazine=Variety |access-date=April 6, 2008 |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106160346/http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117793920?refcatid=31 |url-status=live}}

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times did not review Pee-wee's Big Adventure upon its original release. However, in 1987, the film topped his Guilty Pleasures list, with Ebert saying he was impressed by "how innocent, how playful and how truly eccentric" the film was, and how the film created "a whole fairy-tale universe" comparable to Alice in Wonderland or Lord of the Rings.{{cite episode |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJxbIOTOITA |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |last2=Siskel |first2=Gene |author-link2=Gene Siskel |title=Guilty Pleasures - 1987 |date=May 16, 1987 |series=At the Movies |network=Buena Vista Television |via=YouTube |time=1:30}} Ebert also mentioned Big Adventure in his review of Big Top Pee-wee (1988), explaining how moving away from the "zany weirdness" of the first Pee-wee Herman film led to a sequel that was "not as magical".{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/big-top-pee-wee-1988 |title=Big Top Pee-wee Movie Review & Film Summary (1988) |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=July 22, 1988 |website=Roger Ebert |access-date=March 23, 2018 |archive-date=January 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111124741/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/big-top-pee-wee-1988 |url-status=live}}

A more negative assessment came from Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, who gave Pee-wee's Big Adventure a rare zero-star rating in his print review, writing that he had enjoyed Herman's guest spots on Late Night with David Letterman but "[o]bviously, Pee-Wee is tolerable only in Pee-Wee doses ... You have to be a lot funnier on the big screen than on the tube to sustain a feature-length story."{{cite news |last=Siskel |first=Gene |author-link=Gene Siskel |date=August 12, 1985 |title=Pee-Wee Herman gets laughs to match his name |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} Siskel included the film in his unranked year-end list of the worst movies of 1985.{{cite news |last=Siskel |first=Gene |author-link=Gene Siskel |date=December 22, 1985 |title=Siskel's top 10 Movies of the year |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} Vincent Canby of The New York Times was also negative, writing that, apart from a few scenes, it was "the most barren comedy I've seen in years, maybe ever."{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby |date=August 9, 1985 |title=Screen: 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure', a Comedy |newspaper=The New York Times |page=C15 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/09/movies/screen-pee-wee-s-big-adventure-a-comedy.html |access-date=August 1, 2023}}

The film was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Family Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical).{{cite web |url=http://www.youngartistawards.org/pastnoms7.htm |title=7th Annual Youth In Film Awards |website=Young Artist Awards |access-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-date=November 14, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114094139/http://www.youngartistawards.org/pastnoms7.htm |url-status=dead}}

The film was followed by two sequels: Big Top Pee-wee and Pee-wee's Big Holiday.{{cite web |url=https://movieweb.com/pee-wees-big-adventure-tour-35th-anniversary/ |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour Is Happening with Paul Reubens |last=Dick |first=Jeremy |website=Movieweb |date=December 9, 2019 |access-date=May 7, 2025}} Burton was offered the opportunity to direct the former{{sfn|Burton|2006|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/page/52/mode/2up p. 52]}} but was not interested and was already working on his own pet project, Beetlejuice (1988). Positive reviews for Beetlejuice and the financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure prompted Warner Bros. to hire Burton to direct Batman (1989).{{cite AV media |last=Burton |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Burton |type=DVD audio commentary |year=2005 |title=Batman |publisher=Warner Bros. |id=0 12569 71371 0 |isbn=1-4198-1324-2}}

Reviewing the film for its 2000 DVD release, Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com explained, "Everything about Pee-wee's Big Adventure, from its toy-box colors to its superb, hyper-animated Danny Elfman score to the butch-waxed hairdo and wooden-puppet walk of its star and mastermind is pure pleasure."{{cite web |last=Zacharek |first=Stephanie |author-link=Stephanie Zacharek |url=http://www.salon.com/2000/10/10/peewees_big_adventure/ |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |date=October 10, 2000 |website=Salon.com |access-date=November 28, 2013 |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203201205/http://www.salon.com/2000/10/10/peewees_big_adventure/ |url-status=live}} In a retrospective review in 2005, Christopher Null gave positive feedback, calling it "Burton's strangest film".{{cite news |first=Christopher |last=Null |url=http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Pee-wees-Big-Adventure |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |website=filmcritic.com |date=June 13, 2005 |access-date=April 6, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330032130/http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Pee-wees-Big-Adventure |archive-date=March 30, 2008 |author-link=Christopher Null}} In 2008, William Thomas of Empire called the film "a one-off comic masterpiece" and "a dazzling debut" for Burton.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/pee-wee-big-adventure-review/ |title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure |last=Thomas |first=William |magazine=Empire |access-date=April 6, 2008}}

Warner Home Video released Pee-wee's Big Adventure on DVD in May 2000, with audio commentary by Burton, Reubens and Elfman (the latter on a separate track, alongside an isolated score) and some deleted scenes. The film was released on Blu-ray disc in October 2011.{{cite news |url=https://www.rrstar.com/story/entertainment/movies/2011/10/14/movie-man-blu-ray-perfect/44542908007/ |title=Movie Man: Blu-ray perfect for 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' |last=Pfeifer |first=Will |newspaper=Rockford Register Star |date=October 14, 2011 |access-date=May 7, 2025}}

• List of films about bicycles and cycling

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Tim |author-link=Tim Burton |editor1-last=Salisbury |editor1-first=Mark |title=Burton on Burton |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2006 |isbn=978-0571229260 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900571229269/mode/2up}}

{{wikiquote}}

• {{Official website | https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/pee-wees-big-adventure }}
• {{IMDb title|id=0089791|title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure}}
• {{TCMDb title|86431|Pee-wee's Big Adventure}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|id=peewees_big_adventure|title=Pee-wee's Big Adventure}}
• {{Mojo title|peeweesbigadventure}}

{{Pee-wee Herman}}

{{Tim Burton}}

Category:1980s adventure comedy films

Category:1980s comedy road movies

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1985 films

Category:1985 comedy films

Category:1985 directorial debut films

Category:1985 children's films

Category:American films with live action and animation

Category:American adventure comedy films

Category:American ghost films

Category:American self-reflexive films

Category:American comedy road movies

Category:Films directed by Tim Burton

Category:Films scored by Danny Elfman

Category:Films set in California

Category:Films set in Los Angeles

Category:Films set in San Antonio

Category:Films set in Texas

Category:Films with screenplays by Paul Reubens

Category:Films with screenplays by Michael Varhol

Category:Films using stop-motion animation

Category:Pee-wee Herman

Category:Warner Bros. films

Category:1980s American films

Category:Pee-wee's Playhouse

Category:Fortune-telling in popular culture

Category:Films with screenplays by Phil Hartman

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Category:English-language adventure comedy films