May 25, 2021

Elaine Bogan on "Pee-wee's Playhouse," the cartoon that changed me

This week on The Animation That Changed Me, Elaine Bogan takes a nostalgia trip.

As a director and storyboard artist, Bogan has played a key role at DreamWorks Animation over the past 15 years, directing episodes of the June 4 feature "Spirit Untamed" and the Netflix series "Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Dragons: Race to the Edge, and Cartoon Network's Dragons: Riders of Berk. Her work has been nominated for an Annie Award and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Bogan chose the CBS series Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-90), in which Paul Reubens played his whimsical alter ego Pee-wee Herman. Although mostly live action, the show and its predecessor, Tim Burton's feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), produced by Craig Bartlett, the Chiodo brothers, the Aardman Animations team, and others, had stop-motion segments incorporated.

Below, Bogan talks about how the animated segments and the mix of animation and live action itself captured her imagination as a child...

Elaine Bogan: I vividly remember being about six or seven years old, hearing the school lunch bell at school and running home as fast as my little legs could carry me. I sat in front of my little TV set, my sweet, supportive mother handing me a sandwich, laughing and yelling along to that week's "Word of the Day" on "Pee-wee's Playhouse". As soon as the show and the sandwich were over, it was my cue to go back to school for the afternoon.

From that time on, I was a rabid Pee-wee fan. The most memorable part of the show was the stop-motion animation portion of the show, where I felt as if I existed in the same space that Pee-wee lived in. It was mind-blowing. Suddenly, I was like, "Wow. I knew it. The little dinosaurs really exist, and my toys come to life at night and make a mess of the room. As I grew older, I began to think, "Oh, too bad ......" I began to think, "Oh, that's a shame. Haha.

I loved the stop-motion scene of Pee-wee going into the refrigerator. To me, that was the magical part and made me look at things differently at a very young age. I loved to close the freezer downstairs and imagine that ice cream and chicken fingers were having a wild party together.

I think this was Paul Rubens' way of trying to get us all to share his imagination and love of the surreal. It was accessible and accessible to everyone.

The limited stop motion worked perfectly with the puppetry and colors used in the rest of the show, adding to the feeling that this place and these characters actually existed. It was the perfect mix of real and surreal, exactly what always happens in a child's imagination. That's how it was in my mind anyway.

As an adult, I remained fascinated by it. Not because I thought I could meet little dinosaurs in real life, but because the simplicity of the models and movements made me feel like I could create a world like this one day.

"Pee-wee's Playhouse," along with parts of "Sesame Street" and shows like this one, was definitely my introduction to stop-motion as a four- or five-year-old. Years later, when I was old enough to watch "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," the film has some pretty amazing and scary moments. - Pee-wee's Big Adventure has some startlingly scary moments, and I melted down several VHS tapes to watch it over and over again.

I loved this film because it was still Pee-wee as usual, and it felt new and big, even though it had glimpses of stop-motion magic. Of course, the partnership of Paul Rubens and Tim Burton brought something wonderfully unique to this world. Even the storytelling has always stood out to me as an example of solid, great entertainment. I then began actively seeking out films and stumbled upon worlds like Ray Harryhausen's.

"Pee-wee's Playhouse" sparked my imagination. Fortunately, I retained my excitement for the surreal and was able to build a career from it. The word of the day is, "Thank you, Pee-wee. Thank you, Pee Wee.

Now, with the evolution of CG effects and hybrid films, there seems to be a little of this mixed in with almost every film we see. The mix of reality and unreality tickles everyone, as the impossible becomes possible. Fantasy becomes reality.

There are many in the Pee-wee fan club, all with endearing stories of having seen the show as a child. I have had strangers run up to me because of the bumper sticker on my car and say, "Is that Large Marge." To evoke that kind of excitement in people is something special.

On Saturday mornings, I sometimes play a couple of episodes of Pee Wee. It still makes me happy when the little dinosaurs show up or the ice cubes dance to "Tequila." Along with the nostalgia, it reminds me of the impact that animation has on young minds. We are doing very sensitive and important work in this industry. I am always honored to be a part of it, and I hope to give back a little of that wonder and imagination.

"Pee-wee's Playhouse" and "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" are available on Amazon Prime Video.