Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 4K (1985/Warner/Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)

Picture: A/B Sound: A Extras: B+ Film: A

Pee-Wee Herman was always a saint in my house. Some devout believers hang icons of the pope or some long-ago miracle worker. For us, growing up, we had photos of PW, cut out of magazines, hanging on our fridge and in our living room, creating spaces for domestic novenas - our TV the altar, running a steady feed of Pee-Wee's Playhouse (both during its regularly scheduled Saturday morning slot and from homemade VHSes whenever we wanted), Pee-Wee's Christmas Special, Big Top Pee-Wee, and, of course, the sacred Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. We had the toys and trading cards and movie books and tapes. My family traded greeting cards adorned with Pee-Wee's visage. My mom would give our name as ''Herman'' when waiting for a table at a restaurant.

When Paul Reubens was arrested at a Florida porn theater in the summer of 1991, it was crushing. Not only because his skeezy mugshot was all over the news, but because even as a 9-year-old I knew that meant no more Playhouse, no more Christmas specials, no more Pee-Wee. Not in our house, course; Reubens and his trademark character would and still remain iconic and indelible. Rather, in culture. There was no coming back from that.

Nothing could have prepared me for the reclamation and canonization that Pee-Wee and Paul Reubens experienced among that same broader culture over the last 20 years: a Broadway revival of The Pee-Wee Herman Show, a new movie, an epic two-part HBO documentary, and, finally, a Criterion Collection release of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. In its way, it all feels miraculous.

The Criterion release, especially. The film more than lives up to the label's standard of curating a ''continuing series of important classic and contemporary films.'' And if Armageddon or Chasing Amy or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could find a spot in the collection, surely one of the great American movies of the 1980s could, too. Yet this is a Pee-Wee movie, from Warner Bros., the first film scored by Danny Elfman, the first directed by Tim Burton - it never crossed my mind that it could one day get a Criterion spine number.

But it has. And on 4K, no less. And it's spectacular.

PWBA, a cult hit upon its release in 1985, is by now etched in pop culture: boy loses bike, boy goes on a road trip to find his bike, boy has a monumental experience. There are hijinks, touching encounters with waitresses and bikers, Large Marge; the Russians might be involved. If you need more plot than that, after more than four decades of the film termiting its way into the pop firmament, I make no apologies for not offering it.

When the film was made, Reubens had been performing as Pee-Wee for nearly a decade, first at the Groundlings, then in his seminal Los Angeles theatrical show. That he would arrive as perfectly as he does in Adventure is no surprise. What is, though, especially seen from today, is how finely tuned Burton and Elfman are as filmmakers. Their styles - visual and sonic, respectively - became a dominant mode of American movies for the rest of the century. It helped that they collaborated so closely, and so often, together.' But from the opening seconds of the opening credits, you can tell, immediately, who made the film and who did the soundtrack. And that runs through the whole picture. The candy-colored, '50s-flecked suburbia-meets-the offbeat and askew that became Burton's trademark is here; the Gothic carnivalesque scoring that became Elfman's is all over Adventure.

Criterion's release gives all of it the care and attention the film deserves. I've been watching Pee-Wee's Big Adventure nearly my entire life. I've seen it on VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, and 35mm during midnight screenings. I have never seen it look as good as it does here.''Everything is calibrated and fine-tuned to allow the delicate interplay between colors and textures and environments exist as they were intended. Daytime scenes are balanced; nighttime scenes are dark without being inky sludge.' (When Large Marge flips out or when Pee-Wee dreams of dinosaurs and sadistic clowns destroying his bike, we see what we're supposed to see with clarity and depth and nothing more.) It's not smoothed out; it feels tactile in the way a good print should. Short of seeing some kind of master 35, I believe this is as good as I, or any of us, will ever see it. Watching this presentation was like seeing the film for the first time. Another blessing.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image is remarkable, spectacular and so film-like, even our editor was shocked, which is rare. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is not bad either, but absolutely no match for the 4K disc.

Similarly, the sonic presentation is rich and alive. Elfman's score is well treated, but so are all the little effects and sounds that breathe so much life into the film. The film was originally issued in Dolby System, the companies old, early analog (A-type) ''Dolby Stereo'' format, but the upgrades here on both disc versions in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo (with original Pro Logic surrounds) lossless sound are both better than the film has ever sounded and will surprise even the toughest audiophiles and home theater owners with some remarkable remastering.

I have memories of watching this on a beat-up VHS - maybe taped off HBO - and being completely lost when Pee-Wee turns on his headlight glasses, after being abandoned on a dark road, to reveal a menagerie of weird animals. The movie cues that reveal up with animal noises, some loud and others subtle, that often get lost in the mix. Not here. Finally. And that experience is replicated throughout the film.

Extras-wise, Criterion ports over legacy material from previous Warners releases: two commentaries, one by Burton and Reubens, the other from Elfman over a music-only soundtrack; deleted scenes; trailer. It adds an audio interview program (set to images from the production) with producer Richard Abramson, production designer David L. Snyder, co-writer Michael Varhol, and editor Billy Weber, conducted by critic Mark Olsen; a video interview from 2005 with Reubens; and excerpts from the 40th anniversary screening of the film, featuring actors and crew. The requisite essay is by podcast host and culture critic Jesse Thorn.

All of that is good, but the best of the bunch is a new conversation with Burton and actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade. Burton, to put it mildly, is not usually a good interview. He's typically reticent and keeps himself at arm's length. But here, with Ayoade, he's open and unguarded, enthusiastic even. Maybe it helps that Ayoade is also a filmmaker, or that the first thing he says is "I've never interviewed anyone." Whatever the case, they should talk more because Burton when he's awake and engaged is an engaging interview.

When Criterion announced it was releasing Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, it felt like I slipped into another dimension. Surely this was a joke. But that's how I've felt throughout this cycle of redemption for Pee-Wee and Reubens. But Criterion delivered. Praise be.

- Dante A. Ciampaglia