Breakfast Machine is a segment from the 1985 feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. It was composed by Danny Elfman.
Background[]
Breakfast Machine does far more than just mimic the persona of Pee-wee Herman. It perfectly scores the scene in which Burton both introduces and tries to, for the lack of a better word, explain Pee-wee to us. As we watch Pee-wee partake in his morning routine — sliding down a fire pool to get dressed, comically brushing his teeth, playing games in the bathroom mirror with a roll of tape, and, of course, making breakfast — Elfman’s bizarro score assures us that what we’re seeing is just as strange as we think. Of course, a character as oddly complex as Pee-wee would make breakfast using a Rube Goldberg machine, and few moments in ’80s cinema are as inextricably linked to a piece of music as that pterodactyl dropping those remarkably fake-looking pieces of sliced bread into the toaster, the T. rex squeezing orange juice from what looks like a Nerf ball, or Abraham Lincoln flipping pancakes with one hand while feeding the dog kibble using his classic stovepipe hat — all while Elfman’s music clashes above the fray. All of this mayhem just to nibble at a few pieces of Mr. T cereal tells us so much about the character, and Elfman’s score, once again, offers us both entry and insight into this world.[1]