Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his feature-film directing debut. It stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol, along with E.G. Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, and Judd Omen. Described as a "parody" or "farce version" of the 1948 Italian classic Bicycle Thieves, it tells the story of Pee-wee's nationwide search for his stolen bicycle.
| Pee-wee's Big Adventure | |
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| Directed by | Tim Burton |
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| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Edited by | Billy Weber |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $40.9 million (domestic) |
After the success of The Pee-wee Herman Show, Reubens began writing the script for Pee-wee's Big Adventure when he was hired by the Warner Bros. film studio. Impressed with Burton's work on the short films Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984), the producers and Reubens hired him to direct. Filming took place in California and Texas.
The film was released on August 9, 1985, grossing over $40 million in North America. It became a cult film and continued to accumulate positive feedback. It was nominated for a Young Artist Award and was followed by two standalone sequels, Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016). Its financial success, followed by the equally successful Beetlejuice in 1988, prompted Warner Bros. to hire Burton to direct the 1989 film Batman.