14 Things You Probably Never Knew About “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

1. In 1984, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman) saw Frankenweenie, a live-action short by a recently fired Disney animator. He was an instant fan.

Reubens was all, “Your loss, Disney,” and gave the Disney reject the opportunity to direct his very first feature film. That Disney reject was Tim Burton.

2. After noticing that most people rode bikes around the studio lot, Paul Reubens asked for his own.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

He loved his new 1940s Schwinn so much that he abandoned the script he had been working on and wrote a new one about the bike.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

3. E.G. Daily, who played Dottie, was the voice of Tommy Pickles on Rugrats.

She also just auditioned for The Voice. Go learn about that.

4. Large Marge didn’t blink the whole time she was telling her story in the truck.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

5. Tim Burton asked Danny Elfman, the lead singer of Oingo Boingo, to score the movie. He was reluctant, but agreed.

Elfman realized he loved scoring films while working on Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and went on to score pretty much everything ever, including the theme song for The Simpsons.

Via bmi.com

He was also the singing voice of Jack Skellington, of course.

6. The song “Clown Dream,” which Danny Elfman wrote for Pee-wee’s clown dream…

…makes an appearance in Grand Theft Auto V.

7. This drive-in…

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

…was also this drive-in.

Jen Lewis / Paramount

8. The guy who harassed Pee-wee near the fortune teller’s studio was Tim Burton.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

9. Mark Holton, who played Francis…

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

…was B.M. Fahrtz, promoter of the Poop Tube, on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Jen Lewis / Adult Swim

Watch him here.

10. Pee-wee looked particularly ill after his bike went missing because Paul Reubens had the flu.

Jen Lewis / BuzzFeed

11. The shop that built bikes for the movie, Pedal Pusher Bike Shop, was offered either $10,000 and no screen credit or screen credit only. They chose the money.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

12. When Pee-wee was hitchhiking to the Alamo, the star on his Texas-shaped sign was actually over Bracketville, the location of the Alamo facade used in most Western movies.

Jen Lewis / BuzzFeed

13. Mario showed Pee-wee two heads in the magic shop. The largest one was magician and occultist Aleister Crowley.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

14. After the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, people started sending Tim Burton scripts. One of those scripts was Beetlejuice.

And Warner Bros. asked Tim Burton to direct Batman only because both Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice were so financially successful.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

So, without Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, we probably wouldn’t have Batman…or Batman Returns

Or Ed Wood…or Sleepy Hollow…or Edward Scissorhands…or Johnny Depp*…

*exaggeration

…or the song that plays in your head when you see this GIF.

Jen Lewis / Fox

The end.

Jen Lewis / Warner Bros.

All facts from IMDb and Wikipedia.

Read more: http://buzzfeed.com/jenlewis/14-things-you-probably-never-knew-about-pee-wees-big-adventu

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