As a Stream Team member, I usually blog about the best of Netflix’s streaming best…but THIS month I get to give an insider’s look at the Netflix Original movie Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday. They also gave me a map! I’m drunk on power. Follow along! (But hands off my root beer barrels and my Joe Manganiello.)
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If you grew up thinking Pee-Wee’s playhouse, contraptions, and speech patterns were the height of comedy…
..then you probably didn’t grow up at all. Which is totally great. (FYI, I’m absolutely in this club.)
So when my fam was invited to play with an exclusive watch kit for a Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday screening adventure, it was an easy yes. Even more exciting? A superbly cool, numbered series of boxes to open (that correspond to specific scenes on Pee-Wee’s map) along the way!
That sorta unfolding drama with tiny prizes action is completely my jam.
Also my children’s.
Also my husband’s.
In the first box: PEE-WEE SHIRTS A LA HIS SUIT! Oh, I am involved.
Onward! The movie opens with Pee-Wee himself in his beloved town of Fairville; pleasant, calm…boring. Just the way Pee-Wee likes it. (Second in the box? Pennants- just like the ones in Pee-Wee’s bedroom– featuring two of our favorites: Fairville and Netflix.)
What could shake up an existence like this? Oh, how about the arrival of Joe Manganiello (my personal favorite addition to any movie?) He’s cooler than cool, orders a chocolate shake from Pee-Wee, and does this supra-rad spoon flying-trick. (GAWD, that man is cool.) The boxes for these scenes: stickers proclaiming my kids to be “cool,” “double cool,” and “triple cool,” (I let the children choose for themselves, thankyouverymuch), and Netflix ice cream sundae glasses with stripey straws, plus a Dan’s Diner recipe for the classic chocolate milkshake! (Oh, now P.J. is involved.)
I call this collage: Suzy is SO, so happy to be part of this scenario.
Before he leaves, Joe Manganiello (the scene where Pee-Wee attempts his last name is worth a third or fourth viewing alone), decides that he and Pee-Wee have some sort of special best-friend-y bond, and Joe invites him to his NYC birthday bash (obvie). Pee-Wee isn’t sure he should leave Fairville. Joe’s all like- live your dreams and see the world. (Ask me how many times Joe Manganiello would have to request that I follow him. Ask me.)
Pee-Wee decides to hit the road. Is it a straightforward path? Naw. But is it chock-full of amazing cameos and ridiculously wonderful side plots? Yep. Whether he’s avoiding a farmer’s plot to marry him off to one of his 9 daughters, hitchhiking his way to (and from) the snake farm tourist trap, taking a ride on the mobile salon bus, or avoiding getting caught up (and re-caught up) in a 1950s girl gang (with Arrested Development’s Alia Shawcat playing the rebel with the heart of gold), it’s pretty much the exact humor you expect and love (and laugh like a weirdo at).
Oh wait, we’re at the Amish Village now? Let’s open the box with…soooooo many balloons. (FYI, the scene where Pee-Wee makes a balloon “talk” for over a minute deserves a flipping Oscar. AN OSCAR I TELL YOU.) Also FYI, this is the point where my children stopped the movie to reenact the scene for a goodly half hour. Thanks, Netflix.
Is Pee-Wee ever going to make his way to the party? Will Joe Manganiello sulk his way through Pee-Wee’s absence (with the help of Ruffles potato chips- next box!) and ever get to don matching friendship bracelets with Pee-Wee (neeeeexxxxxt boxxxx)?
I’m not telling.
But spoiler: it’s hilariously great.
And any party that ends with root beer barrel candies (or, as Suzy refers to them: roobears) is a-ok in my book.
As is a family night movie where Mom and Dad get to enjoy the laughs (even the ones that go over the heads of the littles) while the kids feel like they’re joining some super-secret awesome inside-joke club. Which, lets be honest- they pretty much are.
The fact that my 6 year-old is now asking “then why don’t you marry it” for seemingly random scenarios?
That’s just a really, really unexpected perk.
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