10 Fun Facts about PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE

The 1985 classic film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was Tim Burton's feature directorial debut, and it was such a fun and entertaining ride. Every time I see it, it brings back a lot of great nostalgic memories having grown up watching it as many times as I could. I thought it'd be fun to put together a list of ten fun facts about the movie that you may or may not already know.

  • There were ten to twelve custom made red and white bicycles built for the movie by Pedal Pusher Bike Shop in Newport Beach CA. As payment they were given the choice to choose $10,000 and no screen credit or just screen credit and no money. They took the money.
  • During the whole scene where Large Marge is telling her terrifying story to Pee-wee, she never blinks.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure Directed by Tim Burton 1985

  • Paul Reubens was incredibly sick with the flu during the scene where he returns to the bike shop after his bike is stolen and Pee-wee falls on the bikes. 
  • This movie features the first and only time Pee-wee swears when he says "I don't want some other crappy bike". Yep, crappy is considered a swear word by some people.
  • There's a picture of Elvira, who is played by Cassandra Peterson, at the front entrance of the magic shop. Later on during the biker bar scene, the biker momma is played by Cassandra Peterson.
  • When Pee-wee weighs himself at the beginning of the movie, we can see that he is in fact a 98 pound weakling.
  • Burton made a cameo in the film as the the thug who accosts Pee-wee just before he enters the fortune teller's studio.
  • After noticing that most people rode bikes around the studio lot, Reubens asked for his own bike. He he got a 1940s Schwinn, and he loved it so much that he ditched the initial draft of the script he was writing for Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and wrote a new one about the bike.
  • Burton asked Danny Elfman to compose the film after he attended some concerts by Oingo Boingo, of which Elfman was lead singer and songwriter. Elfman was reluctant at first because he had no formal music training, but he eventually took the job. Elfman later said that hearing his music performed by an orchestra for the first time was one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.
  • This is more of a darker tidbit of info, but Reubens revealed that during the scene in the film where Pee-Wee is wheeled out of the bike shop on a gurney, actress Elizabeth Daily's face went ghostly white. After the scene was shot Reubens asked her what was wrong. Apparently, she said it gave her flashbacks of seeing her boyfriend Jon-Erik Hexum being wheeled off of a set on a gurney after he accidentally shot himself while filming Cover Up in 1984.

Here's a photo of Burton and Reubens on the set.

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