La grande avventura di Pee-Wee

What a fantastic story. Pee Wee Herman goes on a cross country adventure to find his missing bicycle. Why on earth didn't this movie get a proper follow-up with the same filmmakers? It's weird and silly with a twisted sense of humor. This movie holds up over repeated viewings.

Man-child Pee-wee Herman lives a magical life but has one possession that he treasures over all the others – his bicycle. The envy of the neighbourhood, his bike is his life and he is horrified when he finds it stolen. With the police unwilling to start a statewide search, Pee-wee sets out on an adventure to try and find his bike.

Pee-Wee Herman is a fairly acquired taste and won't please all audiences. I quite liked him here but couldn't have watched his show on a weekly basis. In this film though his `man-child' style and outlandish sense of humour really work out well. The plot is fairly pointless and just sparks off a road trip, which has a series of bizarre characters and adventures along the way.

Tim Burton's darkly comic imagination certainly helps and he gives the whole film an other-worldly feel to the whole thing, whether it be in the delivery of Herman's dreams or just the look of the film as a whole. Not all of it works of course, some of it misfires and isn't as funny as it would like to think that it is, however much of it is weirdly amusing and will be entertaining if you like Herman's style.

Herman can be annoying but here he stays on the right side of irritating and he is amusing in his delivery. He certainly suits the material and his OTT/hyper style helps the audience get into the very silly plot! Support is good and has lots of small roles that are weird and funny.

Overall this film is very much a matter of taste. If you like Herman then you should enjoy this film as it is very well done and is blessed with a real other-worldly touch by a great director in the making.

This is one of the cutest movies ever! It's funny in that child-like way.. But also has a ton of sarcastic humor that flew over my head when I was little... I love it! Paul Reubens is genius.. tis all I gotta say. Never once do you look at Pee-Wee and think he's an actor.. and even if you try, its so hard to believe. Anyone who could be that convincing deserves like 50 awards ;-) Anyway.. This movie is hilarious.. I urge you to all go see it now if you havent yet!!

Hilarious movie and always will be. Has not aged one minute since I first saw it over sixteen years ago. You cannot say that about every movie, hell you can't say about about ANY movie!

Now that its one of the cornerstones of Comedy Central, its on quite often and I watch it from time to time. So do my nephews, who love to quote this movie more than any other one.

Paul Reubens really gave us a gift with Pee Wee. I guess the character was never meant to live forever and we will always have this comedy to enjoy. It was light years better than 'Big Top Pee Wee' which I also saw.

To the child in all of us, I say...'I know you are but what am I?'

PS For trivia fans, Simeone and Pee Wee were reunited by Tim Burton in 'Batman Returns', as the Penguins' parents.

Okay, so it loses a bit of steam in the final third, but that's true of most movies. It still rates a ten. The first film by Paul Ruebens, Tim Burton and the incomparable film composer Danny Elfman, it bubbles with the pure joy and exuberance of three talented people playing with a brand new toy. No film has ever been more fun to watch.

Reubens' media crucifixion in the early 90's was a crime against pop culture. America's snickering sanctimony stifled and virtually silenced one of the few original voices in the entertainment industry. I'm only thankful that Pee-wee lives on in video-land, so that my children and I can continue to enjoy his film and television work (the new DVD of "Big Adventure", by the way, is a treasure).

Pee-wee Herman, it's time to come back! Your loyal fans await your triumphant return. And to all those sicko name-callers out there, we have only one thing to say:

"I know you are, but what am I?"