The soundtrack to authenticity in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

Tim Burton’s first feature film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) is about… well, Pee-Wee Herman. A bubbly, silly, child-like man of whom the viewer knows nothing about in terms of residence, occupation, family- all we know is his whimsical personality and that he really really likes his bike. And then his bike gets stolen, and then he tries to find it across the country, and that’s Pee-Wee in a nutshell. But somehow, it barely scratches the surface. Although one may not consider this film to be particularly emotionally “heavy,” every expression and emotion experienced in Pee-Wee’s adventure is huge and amplified by the acting and Daniel Elfman’s characteristic soundtrack.

At about 12 minutes into the film, we get Pee-Wee’s first biking sequence (besides the Tour de France dream in the beginning). Right away, the music is giving the viewer a window into Pee-Wee’s unpredictable mind as he sings the first few notes of this theme, synced up with the score. This confuses the audience and makes the viewer wonder if the sound is diagetic or not, and will keep them listening for any more details like that. This theme is very march-like but is different from the main theme. When Pee-Wee lifts his wheels up to try and do a wheelie, the upper strings time the action perfectly and we hear little lifts on both attempts. What makes this funny is that Pee-Wee doesn’t really succeed at doing a wheelie, at least not like the kids he’s trying to imitate, but the music amplifies it with flair anyway. This is just one of the many examples in which Pee-Wee acts silly, strange, or childlike but the music plays as though it’s on his side, rooting him on. The music could have portrayed his character as stupid or pathetic when he fails at something or says something that might get him in trouble. But instead, the music is always on his side, has the same “larger-than-life” attitude, and is always feeling what he’s feeling.

At about 20 minutes into the movie, the first major plot point occurs: Pee-Wee Herman’s bike is gone. At this moment, there are repeated down-beat chords high in the upper strings that, to me, echoed the iconic horror scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). Referenceing the music of a well-known murder scene in cinema, Tim Burton and Daniel Elfman create irony because Pee-Wee just lost his bike. At the same time, however, the audience knows that his bike meant absolutely everything to him and the music reflects that. This is another instance in which the music is used to reflect exactly what Pee-Wee is feeling even if it may seem exaggerated or silly to the audience.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is a fun, playful film but Tim Burton demonstrates right away with his legendary career that he takes playfulness seriously. Because underneath the guise of a “children’s movie”, Pee-Wee is actually a very original and bold film that finds the magic in pointlessness.