Having worked in television during the '70s, Kleiser debuted as a film director in 1978 with the hit musical Grease. His '80s work was divided between the soggy romances The Blue Lagoon and Summer Lovers and more imaginative entertainment slanted toward young people, the science-fictioner Flight of the Navigator and the Pee-Wee Herman comedy Big Top Pee-Wee. In the '90s Kleiser has continued in the latter vein with the Jack London adaptation White Fang and the special-effects-laden Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.