One can never really know the impact something can have until well after a moment in time has passed. Considering the stories shared by the creative team behind Tim Burton’s feature film debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, in the featurette “I Meant to Do That: A Conversation with the Creators” led by critic Mark Olsen, no one knew what they had in this little whackado comedic adventure until the film premiered. Production designer David L. Snyder (Super Mario Bros.; Demolition Man) was intent on taking a vacation until he was told that, despite all the recommendations against him, they still wanted him should he decide to take the job. Meanwhile, editor Billy Weber (Beverly Hills Cop; Top Gun) was considered foolish for wrapping Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and going to Big Adventure — and then his colleagues saw the film and understood why Weber took the project on. Burton himself, in an interview with actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade (The Double), describes his lack of fear in making Big Adventure as tied to his lack of awareness of what he was doing. Now, 40 years later, this team continues to look backward in pride at their work and we, the audience, continue to find ourselves mesmerized by this pop art, horror, comedy, road-trip, adventure-turned-cult classic that’s joining The Criterion Collection with a brand-new director-approved 4K UHD edition and nearly 90 minutes of bonus materials.
Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
On a regular day for Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens/Himself) while out running errands, his prized bike is stolen. When filing a police report does nothing to move the case along, he takes matters into his own hands, beginning with his first suspect: birthday boy Francis Buxton (Mark Holton). When that frustratingly does pan out and leads run dry, in desperation, he turns to a psychic who tells him that his bike is being held in the basement of the Alamo. Thus does Pee-wee set out to retrieve his bike, unaware of the dangers that await him and the big adventure that will changes a great deal of lives, especially his own.
The following 4K UHD Blu-ray review is based on a retail copy provided by The Criterion Collection.
L-R: Mark Holton as Francis Buxton and Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Starting from the outside and moving inward, Big Adventure is packaged in the usual clear plastic case, allowing for the new art from graphic designer Luigi Olivadoti to shine in the front (a collection of moments from the film stylized in Pop Art), the back cover a mix of black and yellow text on a sky blue background. Inside, the same art design is carried over on the reverse liner as the right side (under the discs) features white text of the titular character’s name in the center of a star whose points extend into the left side, accompanied by pastel chalk beams of blue, purple, pink, and shades in between. The two discs included in the 4K UHD Blu-ray combo edition are individually marked for easy identification with the title of the film and format labelling (4K UHD or Blu-ray) accompanied by Art Pop versions of Pee-wee in differing states of dance (TEQUILA!): the 4K UHD has him extended backward with harms tossed behind versus the Blu-ray with a crunched depiction. The included essay booklet forgoes the usual traditional booklet design, opting for a foldout design that includes the mastering, release information, cast and crew credits, and a map on one side (this same map is used as the disc menu) and the essay from podcast host and culture critic Jesse Thorn titled “Who Don’t You Take a Picture?” on the other. Though there’s a bit of historical overlap in Thorn’s essay to what we learn in the on-disc supplemental materials, Thorn’s approach to such historical moments and the perspective he provides make the read engaging and exciting to explore. It also helps create a context that some viewers (re)visiting Big Adventure might be curious to understand, such as why Reubens picked Burton as director and how this film resides within the filmmaker’s work.
PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE packshot. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The additional supplemental materials are where fans of the film will surely want to dig in and their excitement will be rewarded. In addition to archived materials in the form of two audio commentary tracks from 2005, one featuring Burton and Reubens and a second from composer Danny Elfman (Beetlejuice; Batman: The Animated Series), and a 2005 interview with Reubens from Hollywood’s Master Storytellers, there are also three brand-new featurettes and four deleted scenes. The aforementioned interview between Burton and Ayoade is a nearly 30-minute newly-recorded conversation between the two in which they discuss the making of the film, its legacy, and Burton’s own influences (among other things) in a sometimes meta discussion. The aforementioned “I Meant to Do That: A Conversation with the Creators” is a nearly 40-minute newly-recorded conversation between Olsen and producer Richard Abramson (Theodore Rex), cowriter Michael Varhol (The Big Picture), Snyder, and Weber. This conversation forgoes the sit-down setup that the Burton/Ayoade interview utilizes, opting instead for a purely audio experience with stills from Big Adventure and other projects this team worked on being presented on the screen alongside behind the scenes stills of the making of this project. Presented as a chronological conversation, Olsen guides these four through sharing stories of concept development, the connections that helped get the film made, the many individuals who had to be convinced (and how) to join the production, stories of shooting, and the response to the film since. The third and final new piece is listed as “Reunion” in the menu screen and it’s a 24-minute excerpt from the comedian Dana Gould-hosted 40th anniversary screening by Nostalgic Nebula that featured actors E. G. Daily (Dottie), Diane Salinger (Simone), and Holton, as well as members of the production. It’s a chopped-up conversation with several stories being shared that we, the home viewer, learn through the “I Meant to Do That” featurette, but there are still pieces we don’t know which make the watch fun and compelling, such as learning that due to financial difficulties with a shopping area in Pasadena, the film crew had free reign within the property to create Pee-wee’s world (the magic shop, the bike store, and the rest of the sequence before/after the bike theft) and to shoot within the stores — things that might not’ve been possible otherwise.
Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re likely as interested in the packaging and supplemental materials as you are the restoration itself. So, let’s not guild the lily any further and address this director-approved restoration.
According to the liner notes, the 4K restoration was created using a 35 mm original camera negative and the original 2.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm magnetic print-master with disc mastering handled by NexSpec. The video is presented with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc and in high-definition SDR on the Blu-ray. Be advised that the notes mention a setting recommendation that will be put in bold/italics for emphasis: Please be sure to enable Dolby Pro Logic decoding on your receiver to properly play the 2.0 surround soundtrack. That noted, the soundtrack is clean and clear with no noticeable wear or issues, Elfman’s score appropriately filling the sound space as it both exists to support the film as well as integrate with Pee-wee’s actions. The video elements are equally impressive as the 4K UHD disc boasts a bitrate that holds fairly firmly in the 80 Mbps range, with occasional dips into the upper 70s and raises into the 90s. The visual elements impress as the details we may have missed 40 years ago (or even on previous home releases) are now front-and-center, such as the noticeability of Pee-wee’s makeup to give him a slightly pale facial expression. Perhaps a bit of childhood memory obfuscating reality, but one recalls bold colors and energetic cinematography to convey an amplified reality for Pee-wee to exist within, yet, with the 4K UHD edition Victor J. Kemper’s (Clue; The Jerk; National Lampoon’s Vacation) work is far more understated, giving the whole of Big Adventure a more grounded essence that enables Pee-wee to fill the screen as the boisterous enigma that he is. That is to say that the world in which Pee-wee lives is real and that it’s the character which makes things either feel extraordinary (the bull riding sequence) or ordinary (his home would include a Rube Goldberg machine and we don’t bat an eye). Even the moments in which we expect things to be heightened are kept grounded, such as the two animated sequences or the clown nightmare scene (which is an obvious precursor to Burton’s next film Beetlejuice (1988)) which would feel extraordinarily out of place in any other work, idiosyncratic even, yet the focus on naturalism in the visual elements makes the extraordinary come off as the audience getting a peek into Pee-wee’s view of the world.
Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
For those of us old enough to have seen this when it released, to have watched Pee-wee’s Playhouse when it was on the air, Big Adventure holds a special place in our hearts. Watching Pee-wee gave kids permission to acknowledge the weird parts of ourselves, to shine love on them, as well as look at the world as an opportunity for discovery. Of course, there was no way for us to know that Reubens didn’t intend for the character to be associated with children as a creation from his work with the L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings, aiming instead for an older audience that might better understand the subversive nature of the character. Perhaps that’s why watching the film as an adult invites one to observe the film differently, and not just because we can see all the disparate tones and genres crammed into Big Adventure that still somehow fit; rather, we are able to acknowledge that Pee-wee subverts expectations by being simultaneously an elusive enigma and a forthright earnest individual, his big laughs and invitations to just accept people as they are being all that seems to matter, unless you betray his trust or his friends, in which case, be prepared to throwdown physically. Maybe that’s why all it takes is a silly dance to impress the biker gang — they can sense his anti-establishment attitude, for what sense does dancing to “Tequila” make in that moment? It’s also interesting to note, as an adult, how much frustration and distrust Pee-wee holds for law enforcement, going so far as to openly express frustration at their inability to take his plight seriously and, later, to actively help a convict evade a traffic stop. At the time, it just seemed like regular situational comedy, but, looking back on the ways in which Pee-wee combatted gender tropes and embraced counter-culture, a distrust of law enforcement makes a great deal of sense.
Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
If there’s a downside to the Criterion edition of Big Adventure, it’s that there’s not more about co-writer/actor Phil Hartman’s (Saturday Night Live; Small Soldiers) involvement in the writing process beyond mentioning that Hartman worked alongside Reubens on Playhouse. Additionally, knowing the tragedy of Hartman’s passing, as well as the recent passing of Reubens, one may feel a bit of sadness at watching this influential work; however, the fact that this film lives on past them is also a tribute to who they were as creatives, which is something to be acknowledged and appreciated — even if one learns that Reubens himself had a complicated relationship with Pee-wee, especially in light of crediting the performance as “himself” instead of separating the character out. There’s something to be said for how that choice may have been a bigger influence in the way audiences responded to Reubens’s brush with law enforcement years later, turning many against the comedian for a few years, but this release and its supplemental materials don’t examine it. This is, however, the only identifiable downside as what this edition provides, effectively celebrating the title’s 40th anniversary, far exceeds what it doesn’t. It’s an ultimate edition that honors the work and the creative team behind it, put together with style. In that vein, if picking this up is on your docket, you won’t feel like Francis pulled a trick on you whether you get it new or on sale.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure Special Features:
- *NEW* 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Tim Burton, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary by Burton and actor-cowriter Paul Reubens
- Audio commentary by composer Danny Elfman (over a music-only soundtrack to the film)
- *NEW* interview with Burton and actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade (28:09)
- *NEW* “I Meant to Do That: A Conversation with the Creators” – interviews with producer Richard Abramson, production designer David L. Snyder, cowriter Michael Varhol, and editor Billy Weber, conducted by critic Mark Olsen (37:38)
- Hollywood’s Master Storytellers interview with Reubens from 2005
- *NEW* Excerpts from the fortieth-anniversary screening of the film presented by Nostalgic Nebula and hosted by comedian Dana Gould (24:25)
- Deleted scenes (11:05)
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by podcast host and culture critic Jesse Thorn
- *NEW* cover by Luigi Olivadoti
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray December 16th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official The Criterion Collection Pee-wee’s Big Adventure webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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