The movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is an adventure comedy film and relies on humor a lot, while still following the pattern of a hero’s journey. Some of the way the movie is formatted compares it to The Odyssey in particular. In the beginning, Pee-wee receives the call to adventure after his bike is stolen. He holds out on a physical journey to find it until he receives supernatural aid from a psychic. While the audience can tell that she is a fake, Pee-wee believes her, which is what starts him on his journey. His journey is extremely similar to Odysseus’ in format: they are both in an episodic format and they face obstacle after obstacle while on their journey. While Odysseus faces various monsters and gods that try to kill him, Pee-wee faces getting a fugitive past the police, a jealous boyfriend named Andy, and a biker gang. Like Odysseus, Pee-wee uses his wits to escape from these situations: he pretends to be a woman, rides a bull, and dances his way into the bikers’ good graces. Another similarity between the two is the fact that they were helped through their journeys by various allies. Odysseus had Circe, Athena and Telemachus while Pee-wee had Simone, Dottie, and the bikers. Even though Odysseus’ supreme ordeal was killing a bunch of people and Pee-wee’s was running from security guards through movie sets, both have the final reward of returning home with friends and family (in Pee-wee’s case his friend is his bike). While Odysseus may have had brute strength and fighting abilities, Pee-wee had comedy, which was just as good.
Totally great, love all the similarities you drew. I'm interested in the psychic being a phony as some sort of connection to the many disguises of Athena. Obviously we know that Athena is not a "phony" but she does pretend to be something she is not quite often in order to help Odysseus along on his journey. As well I can't help but point out that at one point PeeWee even fights Ghidorah when he's going through the Godzilla scene in the movie studio. While obviously Ghidorah has three heads and Scylla had six they feel very reminiscent of each other to me.
ReplyDeleteNice post. Another similarity that strikes me is that both characters are somehow likable despite the fact that they're sort of jerks. Pee-wee is constantly garnering the admiration of women, but he is objectively a jerk - he talks down to Dottie and disrespects the townspeople, in addition to playing mean tricks on others (like the fake gum for Francis and co.). However, he's still charming somehow. One thing that I love about Pee-wee is his positivity and eccentricity. He loves stuff really hard. He loves his Mr. T cereal and his bicycle even more. At least he's learned to be nicer to people when he returns home.
ReplyDeletePee-Wee's "Supreme Ordeal" is (mercifully) much less bloody than Odysseus's, but its role in the story is quite similar--where Odysseus gains power by being reunited with his son and "lavished with splendor" by Athena, Pee-Wee gains power (all the "James Bond kind of stuff" Dottie/Athena has tricked out his bike with) when he is reunited with his bike. No one is killed during his chaotic ordeal (and a bunch of cute animals are saved!), but there is a LOT of destruction, and there is a scene of reckoning where Pee-Wee has to face the music (like Odysseus facing the angry fathers of Ithaca), and he's saved by "divine intervention" in the form of a Hollywood producer who wants to make a movie of his life story (like Homer passing on Odysseus's legend).
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