Oh Man, Pee-Wee

Losing Pee-Wee really hurt. Rest in peace, Paul Reubens. I remember when I saw "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" - it was August 1985, at the theater in the mid-80s on Broadway on the Upper West Side. Heading into senior year, SATs, college angst, the whole messy shebang. I (think) I went with my friend Julia, and as we watched, I truly couldn't believe the amazingness unfolding before my eyes. And I really wasn't even the same - the pure joy in the character - yet he was no pushover. I loved it (don't think Julia was as swept away as I was).

Here's a link to the original New York Times review - which panned it in a very short review including: "I reveal this information as a consumer service, for ''Pee-Wee's Big Adventure'' is otherwise the most barren comedy I've seen in years, maybe ever . . . . It introduces motion picture audiences to a popular California comic named Pee-wee Herman, who seems to have put together his public personality by ransacking the wardrobes of his betters. Like Marcel Marceau, he appears to be physically slight and he often wears lipstick, but, unfortunately, he won't stop talking and - worse -laughing at his own gags. Like Jacques Tati, he wears pants that are too short, and like Jerry Lewis, he behaves as if he were a child trapped inside the body of a man. Like them all, he desperately wants to be funny but, unlike them, he isn't. For the record, ''Pee-Wee's Big Adventure'' is the story of what happens when Pee-wee's bicycle is stolen and he sets out to find it, a journey that takes him to San Antonio and, finally, to the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank, Calif. You have been warned."

You knew that retort was coming.

I'm grateful that I showed "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" to my daughter this spring and expected a whole heck of a lot of eye rolls.  But wait - she loved it too! She said it was her favorite movie ever! Now THAT made my mama heart proud.

Below is an image from the NYT that week long ago in 1985. Look at the movie competition - St. Elmo's Fire, Mad Max (a good one for sure -with Tina Turner!!) and Fright Night (whatever that was).