Paul Reubens for a full-length Pee-wee Herman film. Reubens' original idea was to do a remake of "Pollyanna", which Reubens claims is his favorite film. Halfway through writing the script, Reubens noticed everyone at Warner Bros. had a bike with them, which inspired Reubens to start on a new script with Phil Hartman. When Reubens and the producers of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" saw Tim Burton's work on "Vincent" and "Frankenweenie", they chose Burton to be the film's director. The film tells the story of Pee-wee Herman embarking on nationwide adventure in search of his stolen bicycle. The movie went on to gross
Paul Reubens in the role of Pee-Wee, the end credits of the movie billed him as "Hamburger Dude". Reubens' act had mainly positive reactions and quickly acquired a group of fans, despite being described as "bizarre", and Reubens being described as "the weirdest comedian around". Pee-wee was both "corny" and "hip", "retrograde" and "avant-garde". When Pee-wee's fame started growing, Reubens started to move away from the spotlight, keeping his name under wraps and making all his public appearance and interviews in character while billing Pee-wee as playing himself; Reubens was trying to "get the public to think that that was a real