It’s was a bit of both. It was sort of a jump scare, but I recall I was more weirded out “what the fuck was that?” than scared.
When I got to see it on VHS i was able to rewind and appreciate the claymation more.
I also didn’t see it right when it came out, so I was a little bit older and a few years can buffer how scary something is.
The 80s movie scene that freaked me out as a kid was the torture/execution scene at the beginning of The Last Starfighter. That guys screams were a little too real and too long.
There’s so many movies between 80s-90s that were crafted to just traumatize kids. Me and my gf occasionally joke about it when specific movies come up during conversation. For me it was Secret of Nihm (multiple scenes were just too creepy, scary and violent), Neverending Story (rip Artax), All Dogs Go To Heaven (the hell/devil scene is terrifying)
Reubens was pretty open about how he needed a lot of makeup and digital de-aging in 2016’s Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday to make himself look like he did in the 1980s movies because he didn’t think the character should ever be allowed to age.
Unfortunately Reubens himself was not so fortunate (even though 70 is still a young age to die).
along with Sinéad, who i’m still processing, this one really hurts. i can’t count how many Pee Wee sayings i use on a regular basis. my favorite scenes in the movie start with the first one and run the entire film until the credits. i can quote it endlessly. His stage show, too (someone mentioned “is that a big enough piece of cake or WHAT??”, and i’ll add to the part with Pee Wee asking Cap’n Karl if he washed his hands after going to the restroom, and Phil Hartman putting his hands all over Pee Wee’s face and shouting “NO!!” haha). he was such a joyous, creative light. ALL of his appearances on Letterman, his Thanksgiving special on SNL with Cher… omg, on and on. i adored him. RIP, Mr. Reubens, thank you for everything, and FUCK CANCER.
Also, i saw this mentioned elsewhere: “For his final wish, in those aforementioned social media posts, Reubens asked that fans wishing to express sympathy for him do so in the name of his late parents Judy and Milton Rubenfeld, and ideally to organizations such as Stand Up to Cancer or anything involved in dementia and Alzheimer’s research.”
My daughter was robbed of the joy of The Princess Bride by seeing it too young - maybe. She was deeply psychically weirded out by the lifeforce sucking machine in the Wesley torture scene and refused to ever go near the movie again.
RIP. I loved Pee Wee as a kid. He was one of the greats, and 70 is far too young.
Farewell good sir!
I’ll also add that I wish I could tell him that he doesn’t need to apologize to anyone for not going public with his illness. Just because you are famous doesn’t mean you should have to give up your privacy for something like that.
Was just watching Pee Wee’s Big Holiday with the kids a couple months ago and we laughed so hard. He was an absolute pro. It really hit me in when I watched this scene. True genius.
Meanwhile people like Traitor Tot, despite a lifelong diet of KFC and hamburders, and Darth Cheney, who survived seven heart attacks and had a heart transplant, still roam the Earth. Eff this timeline! (OTOH, Rush Limbaugh is still dead).
More importantly, just days before the world shutdown in March 2020, my partner & I got to see Reubens’ 35th anniversary tour of “Peewee’s Big Adventure”. I had never seen it & she shares a name with one of the characters. Yes, she’s a rebel.
I loved watching peewee when I was a kid. He popped up on cameo so I got a video for my mom for Mother’s Day 2021. They said it would be a 90 second video- it came a day late but it was almost 8 minutes. Painfully awkward at times but it was all on purpose. What a legend. Watch it here while you can [admin email me]
