7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
When eccentric man-child Pee-wee Herman's beloved bike is stolen in broad daylight, he sets out across the U.S. on a quest to reclaim it.
Starring: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, Judd OmenComedy | 100% |
Family | 52% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (Spain)
Music: Dolby Digital 5.1
Also Spanish (Castilian) / Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono and 2.0 Stereo mixes @192 kbps / Music: Dolby Digital 5.1 @640 kbps
English SDH, French, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Tim Burton is famous for his long partnership with leading man Johnny Depp, and occasionally someone remembers that Burton's career got a considerable boost from the three early films in which he cast Michael Keeton as an unlikely star (Beetlejuice, Batman and Batman Returns). But I think people often overlook the centrality of Burton's collaboration with Paul Reubens, a/k/a Pee-wee Herman, to the director's unique style and vision. The collaboration was certainly good for Reubens. Starting with the Groundlings, he had enjoyed success as an actor and standup in the Seventies and early Eighties, and his Pee-wee character had become familiar from guest appearances and an adult-themed 1981 special on HBO. But it was 1985's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure that brought him a mass audience, redefining the character in the process and paving the way for the beloved Pee-Wee's Playhouse TV show that ran on CBS for five seasons from 1986 through 1990. Reubens couldn't have done it without Burton, and Burton, who was making his feature film debut, couldn't have found a better star through which to express his eccentrically skewed vision of the world, which, in film after film, has firmly established a style that any regular moviegoer will quickly recognize as, simply, "Burtonesque". Who knows what other work Reubens and Burton might have done if Reubens hadn't badly damaged his career with the infamous 1991 arrest in a Florida adult theater? He took a small roll in Batman Returns and did voice work in The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the Burton/Reubens collaboration essentially ended after one film. But what a film! You can't watch it without noticing the seeds of everything Burton would do in the next ten years. Beetlejuice, the two Batmans, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood -- it's all there. And so are elements of Mars Attacks!, Big Fish and even, at moments, that ultimate seeker of revenge, Sweeney Todd (even if Pee-wee ultimately settles for an ejector seat instead of a razor).
The video on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is a mixed bag, and while it's impossible to be sure without access to the source material, I suspect that at least part of the problem lies with the source. Much of what Burton was trying to achieve visually was not possible at high quality in a pre-CG world on the kind of budget (about $6 million) that Warner was willing to give a first-time director and an unproven star. (An obvious example occurs in the E.T. parody shot during the big chase scene on the Warner lot; as Pee-wee and his bike go flying across the sky, the matte lines around them are readily visible, even more so in high definition.) Black levels, contrast, color intensity and details are generally good and consistent from scene to scene. What varies is the amount of video noise. Generally, but not always, scenes in bright light, whether indoors or outdoor, have little or no noise. Noise is more likely to intrude as light levels dim. Then again, there can be an occasional scene that's noisy while brightly lit; so there are certainly other factors at issue (in some cases, undoubtedly optical effects). I always consider such situations a bad news/good news scenario. The bad news is that there's noise. The good news is that it hasn't been stripped off by DNR, along with essential detail. As long as the noise isn't intrusive or distracting (and I never found it to be so), the good news outweighs the bad. The bulk of the film is clear and detailed, and numerous scenes reveal layers of imagery that I don't recall seeing before: the faces of the garden gnomes on Pee-wee's front lawn, the cheesy textures of the monster models on the Godzilla-like film being shot at Warner Brothers, the scruffy decor at the truck stop and biker bar -- these are just a few of the things that caught my eye on this viewing. There's plenty more.
The film's soundtrack was remixed for 5.1 for the 2000 DVD, and that mix is presented here in DTS lossless. Like most such remixes, it's front-oriented and provides little in the way of surround activity. The chief beneficiary is Danny Elfman's animated score, which is the perfect complement to both Pee-wee's personality and Burton's temperament (it's no accident that Elfman has remained his composer of choice). The Blu-ray's track gives the score presence and breathing room, and also does well by The Champs' rendition of "Tequila", which blasts through at a critical moment in the story. I can't really say that Twisted Sister's "Burn in Hell" is equally well represented, because there's so much else happening at the time. The dialogue is, of course, perfectly clear, but that isn't saying much. Pee-wee Herman could make himself heard over a foghorn.
The extras have been ported over from the 2000 DVD. The only omission is a short text presentation providing background on the screenwriters.
Confession time: I could never sit through Pee-Wee's Playhouse and the Randall Kleiser-directed sequel, Bigtop Pee-Wee, left me cold. But there was something magical in the chemistry between Reubens and Burton that pulls me into Pee-Wee's Big Adventure every time. The Blu-ray of the film may not become your latest demo disc, but it's the best presentation I've ever seen outside of a theater (and most theaters in 1985 weren't all that great anyway). Both the film and, with appropriate caveats, the Blu-ray are highly recommended.
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