Paul Reubens is Back in the ‘Pee-wee’s Big Holiday’ Trailer

It may be hard for contemporary audiences, especially young audiences, to appreciate just how important Pee-wee Herman was to kids in the 1980s. Comedian Paul Reubens created the iconic character, who lived in a world of strange gadgets and quirky associates, as a stage show that was then aired by HBO, jump-starting a decade of zeitgeist which led to a hit kids show, a beloved Christmas special, and a hit feature film called Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which was also the feature film debut of director Tim Burton.

Then… look, some stuff happened. Paul Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in 1991 after masturbating in an “adult” movie theater (which was basically the reason anyone went to an adult movie theater in the first place), and then everyone went all “won’t somebody please think of the children” and his career got squashed for many years. Toys were taken off of the shelves, the TV show (which has already ceased production) was removed from rerun circulation, and Reubens retired the whole Pee-wee Herman character for many years.

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It wasn’t an entirely fallow period for Paul Reubens – who started working under his real name and made memorable appearances in films like Buffy the Vampire SlayerMystery Men and Blow – but for many years fans who didn’t care about his arrest anxiously awaited for the return of his most popular creation. The stage show was revived in 2010 which led to rumors of an all-new movie, several versions of which were teased over the years until producer Judd Apatow (Trainwreck) attached himself to the project, jumpstarting production on Pee-wee’s Big Holiday which, as we can see now from the newly released trailer, looks pretty much exactly like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

Pee-wee Herman (Reubens) lives in a small town and engages in kooky gadgetry, and then something happens that makes him decide to go on a road trip. Originally the call to action was his stolen bicycle, but now it’s simply meeting Joe Manganiello from True Blood, which would admittedly get just about anyone’s motor running. So Pee-wee heads out on the highway, looking for adventure and whatever comes his way.

It’s the same approach that nostalgia-driven films like The Muppets and Jurassic World have taken, pretty much repeating the success of the original classic and hoping to get by on a few new twists and a lot of old charm. Netflix will premiere Pee-wee’s Big Holiday on March 18, and yeah, we’ll probably be watching it to see if it’s half as good as the original… which would still make it quite a bit better than Big Top Pee-wee.

What do you think?

Photo: Netflix

William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

 

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