Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) has a cherished bicycle. When it is stolen, a psychic (Erica Yohn) tells him the bike is in the basement of the Alamo and off he goes to Texas in search of it. Directed by Tim Burton (ED WOOD). I've never been a big fan of Reubens' child-man creation, Pee Wee Herman. But although uneven, the movie is imaginative, colorful, sometimes witty and more often silly fun. The film was a big hit as was Burton's follow up, BEETLEJUICE and Burton became an A list director. The film is surrealistic and inventive enough and with a slightly calculated innocence that it easily overrode my lack of enthusiasm for the Pee Wee character (a little goes a long way). Danny Elfman's score is very clever borrowing from Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota and John Barry. With James Brolin, Morgan Fairchild, Milton Berle, Diane Salinger, Cassandra Peterson, Elizabeth Daily and Mark Holton.