Pee Wee's Big Adventure - Caution: Moving Road Signs
About half-way through the movie, Pee Wee is picked up by an escaped convict named Mickey. After they drive for a while, Pee Wee takes over driving so Mickey can get some sleep. Pee Wee starts seeing some crazy road signs along the side of the road. If you look to the bottom of the screen, you can see that the road signs are on a track and are being pulled toward the car (which is stationery).
Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee) deliberately made the signs move that way. I believe the other "slip-ups" you posted, reversed sign, and endless chain were also filmed that way so the audience would feel they're in on the gag.
Never heard that before. Tim Burton went along with this idea of putting lots of fake mistakes in the film? Could you please tell me where you heard this? I'd like to check up on it.
Ever since Paul's early days in standup, I remember him being not a traditional humorist, but rather a camp artist. He tries to act as fiendishly jolly as possible, in an effort to give the audience no choice but to laugh at the sheer audacity of the things he does. Many times his routines are not innately funny, it's the delivery and timing that does the trick. And in the case of the Big Adventure "Slip-Ups" it's also the medium.
It is not innately funny to see how a visual is executed in a film, it makes the film look low-budget. Seeing wires on the pie-pans and such. But the fact that Reubens' film WAS low-budget and campy, and that he knew those things would be included in the final version, is IMHO the essence of his type of comedy. It's not really irony, just blatant...stupidity? :)
I don't think your story about the mistakes being intentional is accurate. I believe this mistake and the "chain" mistake are both products of poor "pan-and-scan" transfer. I caught both errors before as well, but someone must have redone the pan-and-scan version of the film, because if you see it on cable now (I don't know if they have re-released the video or not), the picture has been adjusted to crop out both mistakes...this makes them obviously unintentional...why would they fix it if they meant to do it in the first place?
Hey, Exley. I saw it on cable just a month or two ago (It's October 2000 now) and I saw the chain coming into the bottom of that thing. Maybe they changed it in the one you saw, but it's not always cut out.
Actually, everyone, the chain on the bike, as well as the road sign were due to the people in charge of the video transfer 'opening' the matt on the film. Instead of 'pan and scan' like so many films do, they merely let you see basically what was the whole frame of the film (4:3). so, what you see on dvd is the original 'matted' format with the top and bottom cut off.
Just so you know. (to be honest, i always liked seeing the chains :)).
I have watched many of Tim Burton's movies, one to pay attention to is Ed Wood. Ed Wood is Tim Burton's tribute to B movies, such as Plan 9 From Outer Space. Ed Wood was know for leaving mistakes in the final cuts of his movies, and Wood being such a big influence on Burton, it is only natural for Tim Burton to use the same elements that make a B movie a "B movie." The scene with the chains is done in a way that people who pay attention to detail will catch it, while others wont. The same goes for the road signs, and it is Tim Burton and Paul Reubens allowing you to see the "Fake-ness," the mistakes are so obvious and clear, there is no way that these were missed during editing. Tim Burton loves the retro feel, from vintage appliances and decor, right down to the vintage style itself of obvious mistakes (i.e. UFOs with their strings showing). There are many more instances in the movie where things are not what they seem, for those who understand Ed Wood's influence on Tim Burton, the message is clear. The movie "Ed Wood" is Tim Burton's homage to a director who made an impact in no other way any other director has done, he was a failure in the worst way, but had a true vision for what he wanted, and that is the dream for any director, to make his dreams come true. Tim Burton and Paul Reubens used true imagination and ingenuity for this film, making an enjoyable feast of sight and sound, a lasting classic.
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