Is it a Cecile De Mille Hollywood legendary classic? No, of course not, but it's a fun movie I remember from childhood.
As you'll find out on Monday (in a new series of articles coming this Monday/Wednesday/Friday), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is turning forty years old tomorrow, August 9th, 2025.
I can remember the first time we rented this video from our beloved One Dollar Video.
My brother and I loved Pee-Wee's Playhouse on Saturday mornings, and my parents rented us the feature film because they knew how much we enjoyed the series. The film may have been released in 1985, but we probably got this video in 1987 or 1988. I was very young, perhaps 4 or 5 years old at most. That would put my brother at 7 or 8.
My lone memory of this first-time rental is from a Sunday morning. We must have watched the movie the day before, because Mom liked to stop by Dollar Video on Saturday mornings after our outings or following my brother's piano lesson.
I'm not sure if he was playing piano then, but his lessons were on Saturday mornings, and I always had to tag along.
I don't remember doing so, but we must have seen the movie on Saturday, and we loved the film so much that, before Church on Sunday, we begged Mom and Dad to let us watch it again.
The reason I know we must have seen it the day before was because I remember knowing when to "get up to look in the kitchen at something" during the scary Large Marge scene. I did that to avoid covering my eyes and looking like a coward in front of my brother (which would have resulted in a good punch to the shoulder, I'm sure.)
Oddly enough, I remember being cold because I was wearing my puffy "leather" aviator winter coat and pajamas while bouncing around the living room sofa, laughing at Pee-Wee.
We showed my daughter the film earlier this year, and although I may have fast-forwarded past some parts (like Large Marge or the nightmare sequences) to avoid her own nightmares, she thought it was a lot of fun and wanted to see it again. She even sat through an episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, which she didn't enjoy as much, but the fact that I was able to show my little buddy some of my nostalgic favorites, and she didn't complain about it, I'll call it a win.
Also, I don't know when I'll ever mention this again, but I sometimes get the movie's name wrong. I know, I know, how could it be one of my favorite movies and I get it wrong? Well, I don't know. Occasionally, I'll call it Pee-Wee's Great Adventure, and if you see that from me now, in the past, or in the future... my apologies.
My best guess for why is that growing up in New York, I was close to Six Flags Great Adventure, which had some awesome advertising, promotions, and movie tie-ins when I was younger. Now, my brain just conflates the two. Big? Great? Either way, it was "Awesome, Dottie."
Over the years, I've written a few things about Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and to honor its 40th anniversary this week, I'd like to ask you to take a peek!
There was also a recent documentary on the life of Paul Reubens, in which Paul participated before his death, titled "Pee-Wee as Himself" on HBO Max.
We have seen the first episode and haven't finished the mini-series yet, but let's just say it was nothing that shocked me; however, it was certainly eye-opening and definitely not suitable for children.
As always, thanks for reading!
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Comments
Damnit, Jeff! I have NEVER gotten the name of the movie mixed up… but now that you planted that seed in my head of “Big” vs. “Great”, who knows what’s going to happen now.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record, I loved this movie as a kid growing up too. I don’t have specific memories like you did about watching it, but I do remember being super excited about it being scheduled to be on tv one night and I couldn’t wait to get home to watch it. It really was a great movie.
"It was a really GREAT movie."
ReplyDeleteSee, you're already doing it!
Great…
DeleteWait. DAMNIT, JEFF!!!
Delete