Amph Tim Burton: The Wizard of Odd: Now Disc. New "Dark Shadows" Photos

One of my favorite directors and a true American original,
Tim Burton's unique visions have been weird, wonderful,
at times highly commercial and always interesting.

It's well worth your time to check out Tim's bio on IMDB as
well as googling his name for lots of great sites and
information on his early days as a budding filmmaker,
his filmography and his quirky sensibilities which are
distinctive and oh so visual. Great with actors too,
even though he's not necessarily known as an actor's
director, they all seem to love him. Look how often
people come back to work with him more than once.

Born (August 25th, 1958) and raised in Burbank, California, his first success
in life came in his teens when he designed an award-winning anti-litter poster
that was placed on every garbage truck and bulletin board in Burbank.
He made short films as a teen, studied animation at Cal Tech, ended up
at Disney as an animator where he did not quite fit in but nevertheless
found support for his short films VINCENT and FRANKENWEENIE.
Both are worth checking out as evidence of his future direction.

FRANKENWEENIE is about a young boy who's dog is killed in a car accident,
and the boy then resurrects him in the great tradition of Frankenstein
films, complete with lightning and effects, all done in glorious black and white.

A screening of FRANKENWEENIE, led to Paul "Pee Wee Hermann" Reubens
hiring him to make his feature film debut, PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.
And the rest is history, he had incredible luck early on directing
FOUR hit films in a row, PEE WEE, BEETLEJUICE, BATMAN and EDWARD
SCISSORHANDS. All but one of his films has featured a score by Danny Elfman.

What were your impressions of his debut film, PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE?

Is it actually worth watching? It sounds stupid, but it is Burton.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is one of my favorites from my childhood. Every now and again I still bring it out and watch it. It's great fun for young and old!

I like you Dottie, LIKE!

..i grew up watching "PeeWee's Playhouse" on saturday mornings, and i remember watching 'Big Top PeeWee" in the theatre, but I had somehow managed to miss the original BIG ADVENTURE whilst I was growing up.

Once i had developed a solid enjoyment of Burton projects like "Beetlejuice" and "Batman", i started going out of my way to track down anything the man had done. Suffice to say I was stunned to see PEEWEE on his resume.

Put off watching it for years. Then one day, on 2-for-1 wednesday at my videostore, I finally caved and picked up PeeWee.

And was stunned at just how ridiculously hilarious the movie was. You get twinges of Burton's trademark darkness (most notably in that bizarre nightmare that PeeWee has, and in the LARGE MARGE segment), but with Phil Hartman as one of the writers the thing that really stands out is just how laugh outloud hilarious alot of segments are.

All of the jokes concerning Texas and the Alamo are gold. You can blurt out "There's no basement in the ALAMO!" in a group of people and get a couple of people who will just crack up laughing.

It ranks up there on the top 10 list of funniest films that I've ever seen. Truly an underrated comedy.

I was obsessed with thie film as a kid and I still love it today. Do give it a watch!

And was stunned at just how ridiculously hilarious the movie was. You get twinges of Burton's trademark darkness (most notably in that bizarre nightmare that PeeWee has, and in the LARGE MARGE segment)

The Large Marge segment is one of my favorite parts of the film.
It's a classic scene. The setup is great, and so is the payoff.
It looks like they had a lot of fun making that film.

The breakfast-making machinery at the start of the PeeWee reminds
me of the factory in Scissorhands. Burton seems to like contraptions,
Rube Goldberg-type stuff.

I haven't seen it, either, and obviously should.

It`s been years since I`ve seen it,I remember it was funny though

Same as Drac39, haven't seen it in years. Don't remember much from it, but I remember loving it as a kid.

"It was ten years ago, on a night just like tonite."

"I pity the fool who doesn't eat my breakfast cereal!"


Yes, full agreement on all points

"C'mon, Simone, tell me about your big but."

"What's your name?"

"...i don't remember."

"Where are you from?"

"...i don't remember."

"Do you remember anything?"

"I remember...THE ALAMO."

YEEHAH!

Here's the IMDB summary for the uninitiated:

The love of Pee-wee Herman's life is his bicycle. When it is stolen, he is sent on a wild cross country adventure after a fortune teller tells him his bicycle is in the basement of the Alamo. Along the way, Pee-wee encounters an escaped convict, a waitress with wanderlust and a jealous boyfriend, and a mysterious female truck driver.

There are some who say the film is loosely based on the 1948 film by
Vittoria De Sica, The Bicycle Thief. If so, it's a VERY loose interpretation.

The scene in the Mexican bar with Pee Wee dancing to "Tequila"
with the motorcyle gang stands out in my memory as one of the
most bizarre things I had ever seen at the time.

I like the way Hollywood "portrayed" PeeWee's Big Adventure
at the end of the film. Brilliant and priceless, great Hollywood parody.
If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean.

Not Burton's best, but hey, it got him on the map,
and led to lots of great stuff.

I had a friend that had a VHS copy of the title and would watch this thing religiously. Often go hang out at his house and there would PeeWee's Big Adventure running on the VCR. Suffice to say I haven't seen it in years since.

Can't say whether I would enjoy it as much I as did then. For some reason, I am so reluctant to give it another try today.

Maybe some buried memories or something... heh.

"Paging Mr. Herman."

I rented this movie over the weekend and I was surprised
at how well it holds up after 19 years. The comedy, while
extremely juvenile, is still solid and the overall film,
for what it is, is well-executed.

It has some trademark Burton touches, a big clown and a jack o'lantern.
But overall, it's a PeeWee Hermann movie, and it was a great opportunity
for Burton to show he could direct a full-length feature.

Made for $ 6 million dollars, it made more than 40 million in the U.S.
alone, so it was a very profitable film for Warner Brothers and Burton's
career was launched.

Does anyone else have anything to say about the film before we move on
to Beetlejuice?

I'm still chasing around trying to rent it...

The cameos by James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild are priceless.

What's sweet is that the title of the movie doesn't refer to the movie itself,
but a movie within the movie. I thought that was a nice touch.

There's a lot more that could be said about Pee Wee's Big Adventure,
but it's time to move on to....Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

Here's a summary from imdb:

This is the story of Adam and Barbara who live in a beautiful house in New England. One day while driving home they are involved in a terrible auto accident. They manage to walk home only to discover later that they have died and now haunt their house. When their house is purchased by an out of state family, they feel their home is threatened by the over-the-top artists wife and real-estate idea-man husband. Their only relief is the Gothic daughter of the family. Their attempts at scaring the family out of the house are ignored or laughed at. Finally they fall to the temptation to use the people-exorcizer Beetle Juice. When they find his tactics too dangerous, they attempt to contain him and save the family they were trying to boot.

Great cast, and they all come to the party bearing gifts.

Beetlejuice was the first movie where Burton had a big enough budget
to have a really great opening title sequence. I like this one, and
the surprise of the Spider. Elfman's music sets the tone for the movie
during the credits, perfectly.

Since this one, just about every Burton film has featured a cool,
well-designed credit sequence to open things up. It's one of the
things I look forward to about his movies.

Here's an interesting tidbit:

Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice only appears in the film for 17 minutes,
and he finished all his work on the project in just two weeks of shooting.

...it holds up today as an incredibly entertaining film.

Hard to believe it's nearly 20 years old!

Lotsa great lines.

"Hey...Coach? I don't think we survived that crash.."

I remeber when Paul Reuben went on Late night last year to talk about the Peewee's Playhouse DVDs. People went wild! He was really awesome. When he wealked out on stage, the band played 'Tequila' and he started dancing like he did in the bar before he sat down.

And Beetlejuice is an awesome movie with an awesome score.