Product Details

• Actors: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, Judd Omen
• Directors: Tim Burton
• Writers: Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol, Phil Hartman
• Producers: Richard Gilbert Abramson, Robert Shapiro, William E. McEuen
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 7, 1995
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (230 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304340648
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #143,160 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Former animator Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Batman, Mars Attacks!) made his feature directorial debut with this delightful comedy, coscripted by the late Phil Hartman (who also appears briefly as a reporter). Wisely, they keep the story simple so as to concentrate on the characters: Pee-wee's most prized possession, his shiny new bicycle, is stolen, and he sets off on an obsessive cross-country journey, determined to recover it. Pee-wee's awkward and childish attempts to be cool and mature ("I meant to do that!!") are hysterical, as when he tells his girlfriend (Elizabeth Daly): "There's things about me you don't know, Dottie. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand.... I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." Look for Saturday Night Live vet Jan Hooks in a hilarious bit as a tour guide at the Alamo. And beware of Large Marge! --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pity the poor fool who don't buy this DVD, May 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Widescreen) (DVD)

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is undoubtedly one of the funniest movies ever made. From the Rube Goldberg-esque breakfast machine to the Hollywood re-make of PW's life story, the laughs do not stop from start to finish. For months, I counted the days till the release of this DVD, and (with the exception of the cheesy cardboard "snap case") Warner Bros. has certainly done it right this time! The anamorphic widescreen picture is perfect; Danny Elfman's excellent score sounds incredible in Dolby digital stereo; and the extras exceeded my highest expectations. There's a commentary track with Paul Reubens (Pee-wee himself) and director Tim Burton; a music-only track with commentary by composer, Danny Elfman (timed so as not to interfere with the music); and a compilation of story boards and sketches with yet a third commentary by the production designer! In the deleted scenes, you'll learn the origin of "Amazing Larry", meet Boone the Bear, and see Pee-wee fling that (red) boomerang bowtie he bought at the magic shop. This is a disc you'll watch over and over again. Order it now...and be sure and tell `em Large Marge sent ya!

69 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT Film, But A Bit of a Disappointing DVD..., May 8, 2000

By 

Brian Jay Jones (Damascus, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Widescreen) (DVD)

Tim Burton's directoral debut is so chock full of interesting bits and vision that a running commentary by Burton and creator/star Paul Reubens should have resulted in one of the best alternate tracks available on DVD. Unfortunately, their commentary becomes instead The Mutual Admiration Society, with long stories about how they came across each other, how great each thinks the other is, and who else was in the room when they met. Reubens and Burton spend too much time telling stories that ramble and don't go anywhere, and too little time commenting on the film itself.

When they DO manage to discuss the film, they are as interesting as you would expect, but these instances are few and far between. Burton for the most part sounds like he just woke up, and Reubens spends a lot of the film saying, "Uh-huh, yeah."

It's also rather appalling that Reubens can hardly bring himself to say the name of fellow screenwriter Phil Hartman (Reubens early on says "me and the other two guys who wrote the film...") -- in fact, you won't hear him mention Hartman by name until the very end of the film when Hartman makes his cameo.

Some gentle prodding during the taping of this sequence would have produced something that I think more fans were looking for and expecting.

Like some other reviewers, I too couldn't find some of the knick-knacks promised in the pre-release. However, the one real prize on this disc is the alternate track isolating the music, with commentary by Danny Elfman. Elfman's insights into the film and its music are first-rate, and while I'm pleased Elfman does NOT talk over his music, it might have made it even more interesting had he discussed some of the nuances of his work while the tracks were playing.

The film quality on the DVD is top-notch, and the menu screens are clever (when you make a selection, Pee-wee goes speeding over to the new menu on his bike). The film itself is brilliant -- no need on my part to give you a summary -- and the widescreen format and new sound for this film alone would make the DVD worth owning. But with the exception of the Elfman alternative track, many of the first-rate extras viewers are coming to expect in these packages are, sadly, missing here.

Five stars for the film itself, but a low two for the extras, bringing this one to a soft three. Darn it.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A one-of-a-kind, organically conceived masterpiece, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Leonard Maltin's just saying what he's supposed to say about a movie like this -- it's a skit stretched thin -- because that's what we've come to expect from the sorry run of the SNL mill turning hot characters into all-but-unwatchable films to make a quick buck. This is different. Just how different becomes clear upon repeat viewings. *Pee-Wee* is packed with liberatingly amusing incident. The film has its share of gags, but it's no *Airplane*-esque joke-a-thon -- the humor is character-driven, and the characters themselves (there's a lot more to this tale than Pee-Wee) are so marvelously strange yet at home in the odd America Burton et. al. have fashioned for them that the whole gloriously artificial enterprise takes on the air of an alternate pop-culture universe into which we are allowed to peer. It's as though everyone connected with the project were running on their own loopy fumes; see it once, and you'll want to breathe that rarified atmosphere again and again.