 |
Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas SpecialDirector: Steven Johnson & Guy J. Louthan Rating G 48 mins Warner Paul Reubens, the actor who played Pee Wee Herman, did something that upset a lot of people in 1991. Had he not decided to watch an X-rated movie in a cinema that was unfortunately targeted for a police sting operation, the Saturday Morning 'Pee Wee's Playhouse' series may have continued to this day and may even have aired in Australia, allowing Australian audiences to be more familiar with this much maligned man-child. In broad strokes, Pee Wee Herman is a fifties child star in an eighties man's body, he lives in a playhouse inhabited by animated furniture and decorated like a kitsch riot. At first glance, this Christmas Special doesn't make a lot of sense. There isn't any real story, it just jumps from moment to moment and special guest to special guest as Pee Wee prepares for Christmas. But once you get past this and embrace the ridiculous attention deficit disorder dreamscape, it is almost incongruous enough to be entertaining. The set is beautifully tasteless and the puppets and animated friends are befuddlingly charming. However, it's the guests that really make the show and the impossible way that they are thrown into the script; Pee Wee is cavorting around in the snow when he comes across Little Richard trying to figure skate, then a package comes to the door and it turns out to be Grace Jones who obliges no-one with her rendition of Little Drummer Boy. 'Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special' isn't the kind of DVD you'd sit around to watch with your family, basking in the warmth of the yuletide spirit. It's more the kind that you put on when you're up late with friends and watch a bit until someone says "turn it off, it's freaking me out."  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine