YMMV / Pee-wee's Big Adventure

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Yes, Mr. T Cereal actually existed.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Is Mickey actually on the run for ripping off a mattress tag, or is he simply lying to protect Pee-wee's innocence? This being the kind of movie it is, it could go either way.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment
  • The clown statue Pee-wee's bike was chained to turns around with a scary face and cackles as soon as Pee-wee returned to find his bike gone. This is never explained though it could have been a figment of Pee-wee's imagination given that the statue looks vaguely similar to Francis and his worst nightmare just came true.
  • The whole Large Marge scene. It's one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, but it also has no bearing on the plot, and the reveal of her being a ghost is forgotten by everybody as soon as it happens.
  • Amazing Larry, notable for his brief, yet bizarre appearance, and then he's never seen again. He was explained a bit more in a deleted scene, however.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The ending has a scene involving Pee-wee getting arrested. Then in 1991 a scandal broke out when his creator and actor Paul Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult movie theater.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Pee-wee driving by the set that's making a Godzilla film is even more amusing now that Warner Bros. has released a Godzilla film.
  • The very first set Pee-wee drives through is some teen beach comedy. Just two years later, Paul Reubens would make an in-character appearance as Pee-wee in the film Back to the Beach, an Affectionate Parody of such films.
  • Also, when Pee-wee enters the Warner Bros. studio lot for the first time, the Batmobile from Batman (1966) is seen overhead. Tim Burton would later go on to direct Batman (1989) and Batman Returns, as well as co-produce Batman Forever. Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger also had a cameo in the opening scene of Batman Returns as the Penguin's parents. Danny Elfman also did the music for those films.
  • On the DVD Commentary, Tim Burton snarks at the cameo from Twisted Sister, saying that he "hasn't directed many music videos since." He would go on to direct two ("Bones" and "Here With Me") for The Killers.
  • At one point, Pee-wee is roaming the streets of his hometown when he's attacked by a gang. He scares them off by hissing like a vampire. Care to guess what Paul Reubens played in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
  • The Simpsons has an episode titled "Large Marge".
• Ho Yay: Mickey eyes Pee-wee admiringly while he's Disguised in Drag and later gives him the same "I'm a loner..." speech that Pee-wee gives to Dottie earlier in the movie when they part ways.
• Memetic Mutation: "ANDY!?!"
• Nightmare Fuel: Large Marge, as well as Pee-wee's nightmares.
  "On this very night.. ten years ago.. along this same stretch of road.. in a dense fog just like this.. I saw the worst accident I ever seen. There was this sound.. like a garbage truck.. dropped off the Empire State Building... And when they finally pulled the driver's body.. from the twisted.. burning.. wreck, it looked like.. this!◊"
  • Cue her face turning into a bug-eyed ghoul with a tongue sticking out, frightening both Pee-wee and the audience, before it goes back to normal like nothing happened.
  • Also, notice how whenever Marge is on camera, she never blinks while telling her story. This adds to her creepiness.
  • Out of Pee-wee's nightmares, there's the one in which he sees his beloved bike getting devoured by a gigantic-sized, red Tyrannosaurus rex with Glowing Eyes of Doom. It's also simultaneously saddening to see Pee-wee's trademark vehicle getting mercilessly destroyed.
  • The demonic surgeon clowns in the Hell nightmare scene takes the cake as one of Tim Burton’s most child-traumatizing scenes of all time. The twisted, almost industrial circus music soundtrack from Danny Elfman does not help much. Combined with the eerily off-kilter corridor they wheel his bike through, it has all the hallmarks to remind you that, for as different as most of it is from his later output, this is, indeed, still a Tim Burton movie.
  • Also the part where Pee-wee loses his bike. He turns around to the clown statue he chained his bike to, only to find his bike gone, the chains loose and scattered, and on top of it all, the statue turns into a full-on evil, cackling Monster Clown...
• Nightmare Retardant: Pee-wee's face (or rather Paul's) in the above Large Marge moment looks almost like he's trying not to laugh.
• One-Scene Wonder: Large Marge is only on screen for a couple of minutes, but she makes them count.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Francis' butler is played by "Professor" Toru Tanaka (aka Sub Zero).
  • The lone female biker in the Satan's Helpers club is Elvira.
  • Francis Buxton is Chubby from Teen Wolf
  • Dottie is Tommy Pickles and Buttercup.
  • Simone is Queen Bansheera!
• Signature Scene:
  • Pee-wee doing his famous "big shoe dance" at the bar to "Tequila."
  • The Breakfast Machine, complete with the big-band circus-like music by Danny Elfman.
  • Large Marge.
  • The Warner Bros. backlot chase.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In the full-frame version of the film, you can clearly see Pee-wee's chain feeding up through the bottom of his bike's saddlebag. This is a common problem with full-frame versions of movies, which display more space along the top and bottom of the frame than is visible through a projector.
  • The increasingly insane road signs are obviously being rolled past the camera on a track.
  • There's a very obvious jump-cut in between Andy hopping the fence at the rodeo and the bull then leaping over it to give chase.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Ah, look, it's a simple premise of a nice young man going on an adventure to retrieve his bike, looks like nothing scary will happen, right? Wrong, given that it's Tim Burton's first feature film as director, it wouldn't be surprising to feature some scenes, such as the infamous Large Marge jumpscare, the cackling Clown Statue, and Pee-wee nearly falling to death off a cliff (thankfully, the car he was in has a parachute).

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