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.