Pee-wee still knows what you are.
By Eric Goldman
Pee-wee Herman has obviously continued to make appearances in the past few years, most notably a very successful stage revival in 2010. Still, the new Netflix original movie Pee-wee’s Big Holiday — debuting March 18th — marks the biggest new project for the beloved character in quite some time, harkening back to the 1980s, when Pee-wee was starring in movies, his own Emmy-winning TV show and popping up pretty much everywhere you could think of in the pop culture landscape.
The set-up to the new film is simple, as Pee-wee (Paul Reubens, of course) lives a happy, quaint life in the town of Fairville, certain that he never needs to go anywhere or see anything else. That all changes though when an oh-so cool stranger (Joe Manganiello) shows up at the diner Pee-wee works at one day. The two quickly hit it off and Pee-wee is convinced to go on his first-ever holiday – outside the confines of Fairville.
From the start, it’s clear Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is meant to evoke Pee-wee’s Big Adventure in a, ahem, big way. There may not be a stolen bike motivating him, but ultimately, the point is to get Pee-wee on the road, interacting with different types of people across America. It’s a bit disappointing to have the scenario be so similar to that classic film, as it seems like plenty of other storylines could have been developed that weren’t so closely aligned (even putting Pee-wee in a different country would have shook things up a bit more). However, regardless, the very good news is that Pee-wee’s big Holiday is a satisfying, funny movie for Pee-wee fans that once more captures what makes this inspired character work.
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens, Alia Shawkat, Stephanie Beatriz, Jessica Pohly in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Advertisement
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Joe Manganiello, Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Pee-wee’s Big Holiday Poster
Advertisement
Paul Reubens, Alia Shawkat, Stephanie Beatriz, Jessica Pohly in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Reubens, who co-wrote Big Holiday with Paul Rust, and produced with Judd Apatow, is right back at home playing Pee-wee, giving an enthusiastic, continually enjoyable performance. It’s a bit uncanny how they’ve used makeup to keep Pee-wee looking as young as ever – a cameo from an actor from a previous Pee-wee project, looking their appropriate age, makes it seem as though Pee-wee Herman has become a vampire or achieved immortality – but it does its job, allowing this man child to continue to act as outlandish as ever.
Pee-wee’s encounters include a trio of female criminals (Jessica Pohly, Stephanie Beatriz and Alia Shawkat), a farmer (and his many, many daughters), an Amish community and more. Most of these set pieces work very well as far as giving Pee-wee one distinct group after another to bounce off of, though a few go on too long – the sequence with the farmer has some good laughs but also could have been truncated a bit.
It’s difficult to not compare Big Holiday’s direction to what Tim Burton accomplished in Big Adventure, given the Pee-wee/road trip parallels. Director John Lee (Wonder Showzen) keeps the energy strong and evokes a properly Pee-wee Herman-friendly vibe, complete with bright colors and plenty of 1950s aesthetics, though his work isn’t as visually distinctive or innately unusual as Burton’s. Still, Lee gets the character and tone right throughout, including some hysterical cutaways to dream sequences involving Pee-wee and Manganiello, while keeping things vibrant and quirky in a manner one expects for this character (though there are a couple of notable and slightly distracting continuity errors that stuck out).
Besides Reubens, Big Holiday benefits from a very game, fun cast, with Manganiello deserving a lot of credit for completely going for it as Pee-wee’s new pal, and others – in roles both large and small – fitting right in amongst Pee-wee’s skewed world.
Pee-wee Herman stories have always been admirable in that they appeal to both kids and adults in different ways and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, while still quite family friendly, has some subtle and appreciated humor that’s more for the older fans – including some amusing moments that gets a bit more winking and having fun with the audience when it comes to the character’s homoerotic overtones.
Of course, it doesn’t matter what age you are when it comes to being able to appreciate the humor of a weird guy making funny noises with a balloon when it’s done with the level of commitment that Reubens gives Pee-wee during one of the standout scenes in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.
While no Pee-wee Herman story has maintained any true continuity with another, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday still feels like a reboot of sorts – a high profile revival of the character that puts him in a sort of new, yet very familiar, storyline and sees if he still feels relevant. Luckily, the answer to that question is yes. The things about Pee-wee Herman that made him funny and endearing (even when he’s throwing a tantrum or two) 30 years ago still work today and Paul Reubens and his collaborators have managed to create a clever and creative batch of characters and set pieces for him. Next time, I’d love to see Pee-wee in an entirely new scenario, but what’s perhaps more important is Pee-wee’s Big Holiday makes a “next time” sound very appealing.
