Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his feature-film directing debut. The film stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, along with Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger and Judd Omen. The screenplay, written by Reubens with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol, tells the story of Pee-wee's search for his stolen bicycle and has been compared to the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves.

Following the success of The Pee-wee Herman Show in 1981, Reubens was hired by the Warner Bros. film studio and began writing the script for Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Impressed with Burton's work on the short film Frankenweenie (1984), the producers and Reubens hired him to direct. Filming took place in California and Texas. The film was scored by Danny Elfman, marking his first among many collaborations with Burton.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure was theatrically released on August 9, 1985, by Warner Bros., grossing over $40 million in North America. It became a cult film and continued to accumulate positive feedback. It was nominated for a Young Artist Award and was followed by two standalone sequels, Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016). Its financial success, followed by Burton's equally successful Beetlejuice in 1988, prompted Warner Bros. to hire Burton to direct the 1989 film Batman.