Happy 20th Birthday, Big Top Pee-wee!
Yet another reason I believe in the awesomeness of 2008: this year marks the 20-year release anniversary of Big Top Pee-wee, one of my favorite movies.
Big Top Pee-wee doesn’t get a lot of love. It was poorly reviewed by critics and overlooked by fans of its beloved precursor, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
Granted, the premise is ridiculous (When a windstorm causes a traveling circus to crash on Pee-wee’s farm, he volunteers to help put on a 3-ring show for the town’s disgruntled, elderly residents). I think it’s obvious to anyone who’s seen both movies that Big Adventure is the technically better of the two.
But who cares? Outside of any comparisons, I think Big Top Pee-wee is a super fun movie to watch, and wholly underrated. Consider the following five points of awesomeness:
- Big Top Pee-wee was Benicio del Toro’s first feature film. Swear to god. He plays Duke the Dog-Faced Boy. Also, Saved by the Bell’s own Dustin Diamond plays one of the transformed children at the end.
- Once you get past the initial discomfort of watching him suck face with actual living women, the premise of Pee-wee as two-timing player is pretty hilarious. In fact, Pee-wee’s three-minute screen kiss with Gina the trapeze artist was the longest kiss ever filmed until 2005 when Kids in America beat that record with a six-minute screen kiss, according to Wikipedia.
- Who cares about Chairy — Pee-wee’s sidekick is Vance, the talking pig!
- According to this article actress Valeria Golino — who plays Gina Piccolapupula the trapeze artist and Pee-wee’s love interest — came to America from Italy specifically to play this part. Thus, Rain Man would be nothing if not for Big Top Pee-wee.
- Three words: Hot Dog Tree. If you combine Pee-wee’s greenhouse with the candy room from the original Willy Wonka movie, the result would be my ultimate fantasy playground.
In more recent news… Could 2008 bring a new Pee-wee movie?? In this December 11, 2007, article Paul Reubens said he has two Pee-wee movie scripts written and ready to go — one an extension of TV show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and the other a story about Pee-wee blowing up as a famous singer. Though Reubens feels confident in his ability to play the character in his 50’s, the article notes that Johnny Depp said he’d “think about it” when asked if he’d be interested in playing the part of Pee-wee. Crazy!
