LYT at LAFF: Pee-wee's in the (play)House!

PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE is now 25 years old. Wow. For some real perspective on this, let me just say that I am dating somebody younger than the movie, and that’s a head-trip if I think about it too long.

I first saw the movie probably a year or so after it came out, on Betamax of all things. The title didn’t sound like something I’d like, but once the movie kicked in, and I heard that love-it-or-hate-it laugh and scream, combined with the various Rube Goldberg breakfast devices, I was quickly doubled over in pain laughing. Nothing in the rest of the film hit me quite that hard, but there were strong funny moments throughout, and it’s amazing how many scenes have become modern classics.

It didn’t come to Ireland, land where I spent most of my childhood, for a long time, and was rather unceremoniously dumped into one theater, but not having seen it on the big screen, I begged my mom to take me. This is the same mother who always used to complain that too much humor nowadays was nasty and violence-based, so I really hoped she’d like and appreciate Pee-wee, whose humor was clean and family-friendly without being bland. She didn’t, and made the excuse that she had been feeling sick anyway, which didn’t exactly help – it made me feel like she had gone in in such a mood that she could never appreciate it, thus stacking the deck against something I liked once more.

As a teen, I had birthday cakes with Pee-wee on them. I thought he was hilarious. And it’s kind of a belated reward to the 13 year-old me that today I got to see Paul Reubens in person, presenting his greatest achievement on the big screen at the elaborate Orpheum theater downtown.

The movie brings tears to my eyes, both of laughter and childhood lost. The opening sequence no longer busts my gut, but more subtle stuff cracks me up now – the scenes with Pee-wee cameo-ing in the movie-within-the-movie at the end, where he mouths other actors’ lines and constantly looks for off-camera directions, are hilarious meta in-jokes. I also noticed for the first time that when Pee-wee weighs himself, he is literally the 98-pound weakling of Charles Atlas stereotypes.

The parts that always felt slow still do – the character of Simone barely serves much purpose beyond introducing Andy as a cartoonish foil, and the dream sequences are pure Tim Burton indulgence. The line-up of cameos, however, is hilariously cracked: Milton Berle, Twisted Sister, SNL’s Jan Hooks, former WWF tag-team champion Professor Toru Tanaka, and even Godzilla, not to mention James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild.

What’s truly weird in hindsight, other than the sad loss of Phil Hartman (who co-scripted and makes a cameo), is the final sequence, in which Warner Bros. buys Pee-wee’s life story, and re-imagine it as a ridiculous series of clichés, with James Brolin in the lead role of “P.W.” Director Burton had a sharp sense of satire back then, but it’s depressing to realize that if you substituted Johnny Depp for Brolin, that final movie-within-the-movie is EXACTLY the kind of product Burton himself makes today. Does anybody doubt that if Paul Reubens had died, Burton would be circling a movie version of PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE with Johnny Depp in the lead, and Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Yvonne?

Back in 1985, though, the director was at his best, and his love of stop-motion and old monster movies meshed perfectly with Reubens’ affection for old kids’ shows and cartoons. In their hands, age-old schoolyard taunts become comedic genius (“I know you are, but what am I?” “I meant to do that!”) and campfire songs yelled out by hobos become awful hilarity. Sure, the screenplay structure lacks a proper antagonist – villainous Francis mostly disappears after act one – but the vignettes that make up the story make up for any such diversion from the norm.

Even with some minor off-color humor (think the gay glances convicted felon Mickey gives Pee-wee in the car), the movie retains its innocence without being bland, which is a tough balance to pull off. When, late in the movie, fireman say of Pee-wee “This boy is a hero!” while cops argue that “this boy is under arrest!”, one inherently joins the debate as framed, never stopping to question the fact that Paul Reubens is not actually a boy at all, but an adult.

On this day, Paul Reubens came out to introduce the film, out of character, as himself. This was a trip, as I’ve never seen him not being in costume.

Looking around at the splendor of the Orpheum, Reubens noted: "I tried to find a venue a little more gold than this." He then warned the crowd that he recently got in trouble with a mom because her daughter was scared by one particular moment in the movie. Of course everyone in the audience guesses what it is, and laughs. Reubens affirms that he is serious about this, "I don't want anybody to be scarred like I was scarred watching all the Disney movies as a kid." So he tells everyone in the audience who's under ten that when he starts talking to a lady truck driver, and she says, "it looked like this," they should cover their eyes or step outside, "but only for a second."

The movie begins. We laugh and cheer. Then Reubens returns to chat with festival programmer Doug Jones (not the HELLBOY actor).

Doug asks what is his favorite part of the movie is, and is it the same now as it was then? Reubens doesn't really have a favorite; is surprised watching it how much of it still works. He does love the biker bar scene, and is going to the Sturgis bike rally this year where he plans on recreating that scene, and pulling off the world's largest "Tequila" dance, which he hopes will make the Guinness book.

Watching today, however, his favorite part was the bathtub fight with Frances -- it was inspired by old Tarzan movies, in which Johnny Weismuller would nearly always wrestle an alligator underwater.

A lot of the movie was inspired by old cartoons, and not, as one might suspect, by silent comedies - at that time, he hadn't seen much Chaplin or Keaton, though he loves them now. Was afraid he'd never have any other ideas after the movie, because "I put everything funny I could ever think of in this movie."

Fred Topel asks if he has an idea for another Pee-wee movie. Reubens feigns surprise at the question: "I do, as a matter of fact!" He did the stage show as a way of "getting some heat" for the character again. The show will open on Broadway November 11, with previews starting Oct 26.

He has already written two possible Pee-wee movies. One is "the one I've been asked not to call 'the dark Pee-wee movie.'" Would have Pee-wee as a singer, going to Hollywood and making Elvis-type movies, then being corrupted by fame. He wanted to write it just so he could play Pee-wee behaving badly. Second movie script is a Playhouse movie. "I feel like I'm the last thing from the '80s that hasn't been remade already."

But then when he did the stage show, a major Hollywood player he won't name approached him with a new idea for a Pee-wee movie, and that's one he's going to start writing next week.

He says he is often approached by all kinds of people who had small roles in PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE. One of the BMX biker kids is in the audience today. When he visited the set of BATMAN AND ROBIN, he says a guy tapped him on his shoulder and said "excuse me, Mr. Reubens, I handed you the big shoes in PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE." At a friend's engagement party, it turned out the mother-in-law to-be had played "Miss France" in the opening dream sequence.

Audience questions:

Where did the idea for Pee-wee come from? "The character really just came out of nowhere, and was born fully fleshed." He created him for a Groundlings skit, with the idea that this character was an aspiring comedian who would never be successful.

The stuff in his house in the movie, was any of it his? "Some of the stuff was mine, some of the stuff was Tim's, some of it belonged to neither of us, but now we own them." There were two bikes made for the movie and one is in the Hollywood museum on Highland. He has the other, but is probably donating it to the Smithsonisan this fall, for an upcoming 20-year exhibit on pop culture. He considers this a victory, since he offered them Chairry from the Playhouse some years back and they turned him down.

Phil Hartman, John Paragon (a.ka. Jambi the Genie) and he were the major stars of the Groundlings while he was there. He brought Phil to New York when he hosted SNL, and that's how Lorne Michaels first met him. Phil was upset for many years that Paul didn't let him play Mickey the convict in BIG ADVENTURE. Reubens admits that he was probably unfair to Phil, seeing him more as a friend than an actor. The part of Mickey was originally written for a name actor (he won't say who), and while they were writing, Phil would impersonate that actor doing the part. When that actor finally came in to read, he wasn't as good as Phil's impersonation. Judd Omen was cast based on Reubens loving his stage work; Omen's real name is Fernando Casanova, and Reubens says no way he'd change his name if he had been called that.

There's a Playboy interview coming out with Reubens this fall...he's been doing it over the last five days.

When he first got the deal to make the movie, before there was even a script, Reubens knew Danny Elfman had to do the music. He was and is a huge fan of FORBIDDEN ZONE. Before Tim Burton got the directorial job, another director was assigned whose prior two movies, Reubens felt, were wrong for his sensibility. Given a week to find someone else, he had a friend at a Groundlings party recommend the short "Frankenweenie." Once he saw that, he wanted Tim immediately, but WB said Tim probably wouldn’t read the script -- they'd been interested in him for other stuff, and he'd always turned them down. "I proved them wrong."

The Tequila dance was his own choreography, based on a half-remembered dirty joke his dad used to tell about putting your thumb in your mouth, and then "in your B-E-H-I-N-D." He doesn't remember the punchline.

One of the hobos in the movie was his landlord at the time; another was head of Warner Bros.

Does he have any advice for aspiring actors? "What worked for me probably won't work for you, because you don't look like me." Doesn't have much to offer beyond perseverence -- keep sticking around and someone will use you eventually. He also thinks, as the sony in GYPSY goes, you gotta have a gimmick.

Elfman's score is based on Nino Rota's score for 8-1/2.

What was his favorite part of his house in the movie? The fireman's pole. Says the gag with pancakes on the ceiling was a reverse upside-down shot, with the pancakes starting off on the ceiling and pulled down

Will he take the stage show to Vegas? It's been talked about after New York. He'd like to.

What are the chances of Tim Burton directing a Pee-wee movie again? " I would love for Tim Burton to direct one of my new movies, but I might have to wait till I was a very old man." Says Tim is booked for at least the next three years, and he'd like to get a movie started sooner than that, but maybe Burton can executive-produce.

Luke Y. Thompson is an actor, writer, and film critic living in Hollywood.