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