Big Top Pee-Wee

Synopsis of Movie

“I call it... the hot dog tree, because... it's a hot dog tree.”

That’s very adult logic. And the Pee-Wee in this sequel to 1985’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is very much an adult. He has a great girlfriend – a school teacher named Winnie (Penelope Ann Miller) with a big penchant for egg salad. He has a great farm too – replete with the likes of a talking pig named Vance, brown cows who produce chocolate milk, giant produce plants and his pride and joy, the good old hot dog tree. Did you expect any less from a domicile designed by everyone’s favorite idea and gadget man?

But when the failing “Cabrini Circus” blows into town in the middle of a huge storm and lands on Pee-Wee’s property, his whole talking-animal, prodigious egg salad world is turned upside down. He falls in love with a pretty trapeze artist named Gina (Valeria Golino), and befriends the troupe patriarch Mace Montana (Kris Kristofferson) and Mace’s pocket-dwelling three-inch tall wife, Midge (Susan Tyrrell). He’s also got a scheme to save Mace’s circus – why not put Pee-Wee’s various farm wonders and agricultural marvels under the big top?

Even with the talking animals, the world that director Randal Kleiser (Grease, Blue Lagoon) puts Pee-Wee into is still a bit more literal, and a bit less whimsical, than the live action cartoon landscape found in Tim Burton’s Big Adventure. This was Pee Wee: the Dark. Unlike in Burton's film, Pee Wee is actually reviled by the townspeople and in a similarly uncharacterstic trait, Pee Wee actually has a libido (symbolized in his aggressive, nearly fetishistic desire to stroke women's hair). Pee Wee also encounters a very adult romantic dilemma on his hands – two great women, and only one gray-suited, red bow-tied inventor/farmer to go around! There's even a hot n' heavy make-out session with Gina. It was the Caligula of Pee Wee movies.

Movie Release History

1985 - Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
1988 - Big Top Pee-Wee

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
comedy

Movie Studio

Paramount

Cast

Pee-wee Herman  Paul Reubens
Winnie   Penelope Ann Miller
Mace Montana  Kris Kristofferson
Gina Piccolapupula   Valeria Golino
Vance the Pig (voice) Wayne White
Midge Montana  Susan Tyrrell
Mr. Ryan   Albert Henderson
Otis  Jack Murdock
Deke   David Byrd
Mrs. Dill   Mary Jackson
Mrs. Haynes  Frances Bay
Joe the Blacksmith   Leo Gordon
Pearl  Anne Seymour
Sheriff  Kenneth Tobey
Cock  Jay Robinson
Bunny   Eve Smith
Paolo Piccolapupula  Andrew Shalit
Orin the Strongman   Franco Columbu
Snowball the Clown  Terrence Mann
Clownie   Vance Colvig Jr.
Oscar the Liontamer  Matthias Hues
Duke the Dog-Faced Boy   Benicio Del Toro
Big John   Kevin Peter Hall
Zelda the Bearded Lady   Lynne Marie Stewart
Del the Human Cannonball   John Sherrod
Shim the Half Man/Half Woman  Joseph Arias
Ruth Helen Infield Siff
Dot  Carol Infield Sender
Costume Woman   Bunny Summers
Child - Mr. Ryan   Kevin B. Kaplowitz
Child - Otis   Jeffrey R. Shaw
Child - Deke   Dustin Diamond
Child - Mrs. Dill  Lisa M. Ball
Child - Pearl   Marie Hawkins
School Child  Molly Ann Carter
School Child  Dustin Berkovitz
School Child   Kit MacKenzie
School Child   Jered Aspenson
Teenager  Shelly Rudolph
Teenager   Cheryl Treibitz
Honey   Judy Rubenfeld
Herman  Milton Rubenfeld
Web Girl  Diane C. Valentine
Web Girl  Alison Logsden
Web Girl   Patricia M. Peters
Web Girl   Lynn Marie Polke
Web Girl  . Lita Villacana
Popcorn Vendor   Randal Kleiser
Andy  Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros
Teenager   Jennifer Miller

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