NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

'''Napoleon Dynamite''' is an 2004 independent film co-written and directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess. The film was Jared Hess' first full-length feature and is partially adapted from his earlier short film, ''Peluca''.
''Napoleon Dynamite'' was filmed in and near Preston, Idaho in the summer of 2003. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004. In June later that year it was given a limited release. Its wide release followed in August. The film's total domestic gross was $44.5 million.^[1] Considering its budget of $400,000, ''Napoleon Dynamite'' was a huge success.
The film is rated PG by the MPAA and TV-14 by the television content rating system in the United States.

Contents

Plot

Characters

Background information

Cultural effects and criticism

References in other works

Awards

Trivia

Goofs

Soundtrack

See also

References

External links

Plot

The film centers on the "adventures" of Napoleon Dynamite, an outcast at his high school who seems to feel at odds with his entire existence. The minimalist plot of the movie involves his interactions with his family (grandmother, Uncle Rico, and brother Kip), his lone school friend (Pedro) and his romantic interest (Deb), and his family's pet (Tina the Llama).
When Napoleon's grandmother breaks her coccyx riding an ATV at the sand dunes, Uncle Rico arrives to look after them while she is in the hospital. Uncle Rico proceeds to have an indirect chaotic effect on Napoleon's life: he succeeds in getting Napoleon a date for the high school dance by eliciting sympathy from the mother of the girl Napoleon asked to the dance, Trisha; he makes Napoleon look foolish at school by asking two of Napoleon's schoolmates to hand out organic breast-enlargement fliers (which they later post on his locker as a prank); and he also nearly ruins Napoleon's relationship with his new friend Deb by giving her the same flyer, claiming that Napoleon suggested it. Uncle Rico also affects Kip's life by involving him in his business ventures, enabling Kip to raise enough money to pay for his internet girlfriend, LaFawnduh, to visit him. Napoleon angrily attempts to kick Uncle Rico out of the house. This is obviated when Napoleon's grandmother comes home, and Uncle Rico returns to his orange camper van in an empty field. Rex, who owns "Rex Kwon Do" (a parody of the McDojo phenomenon - seen earlier in the movie), beats up Rico for attempting to sell his wife Starla a breast enhancement supplement called "Bust Must +".
The final plot-point involves Napoleon and Pedro's attempts to get Pedro elected class president. Pedro opposes Summer, who is expected to win. Summer's campaign consists of handing out fliers and badges; Napoleon and Pedro counter by posting fliers drawn by Napoleon, holding a piñata competition (the piñata made in the image of Summer), handing out boondoggle key chains made by Deb, and offering protection from Pedro's two intimidating older cousins against school bullies. The final sequence involves the closing speeches made by each presidential candidate followed by their skits. Summer, after bribing the audience with promises of installing soda machines in the cafeteria and also installing Bonne Bell lip gloss dispensers in all the girls bathrooms, then performs a short dance with the "Happy Hands Club" (without Napoleon, who is also a member). Pedro makes a short monotone speech, promising more worthwhile but less exciting things, and uses Napoleon's advice when he concludes with the statement, "If you vote for me, all your wildest dreams will come true." Pedro walks slowly off of the stage, and does not return for a skit as he did not have one prepared, as he did not realize one was required until a school staff member informed him immediately before his speech.
A couple of days earlier, while browsing a second-hand store, Napoleon had found a D-Qwons Dance Grooves video and learned the moves. When LaFawnduh meets Napoleon, she gives him an unlabeled cassette tape (which contains Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat"). After Pedro's speech, Napoleon gives the tape to the sound technician for the skit, and walks on stage. Napoleon performs a dance routine, earning a standing ovation from the student body.
The film ends with a montage of each character that ties up all narrative threads. Uncle Rico ends up living in the field in his van as he was first seen, and a woman, his ex-girlfriend referred to earlier in the movie, approaches on a bicycle. Kip and LaFawnduh are seen getting on a bus heading out of the town. Pedro is elected president and is seen at a congratulatory party with his family. Napoleon's grandmother returns healthy. The final shot is of Napoleon and Deb playing tetherball together. In the post-credits scene, Kip and LaFawnduh are married, and Napoleon rides up on a "wild honeymoon stallion", which he claims to have just tamed. The couple gets onto the horse and ride away, and Napoleon exclaims "Lucky!"

Characters

★ 'Napoleon Dynamite' (Jon Heder), the film's protagonist, is a teenager who enjoys mundane diversions such as drawing, drinking milk, eating Tater Tots, and playing tetherball. As the film progresses, Napoleon develops an interest in hip-hop dancing, which proves valuable. He wears vintage t-shirts, tucked into jeans that are worn high and without a belt; black moon boots (though there is an obvious lack of snow) and steel-rimmed glasses that accentuate his nerdy appearance and gap-mouthed underbite. His awkward appearance and behavior are the source of much of the film's comedy. He is active in the FFA and his school's sign language club (the "Happy Hands Club"). His best (and only) friends are Pedro and Deb.

★ 'Pedro Sanchez' (Efren Ramirez) is a new student to Preston High, originally from Juarez, Mexico. He is occasionally the target of mild antagonism from the school principal. His campaign for Student Body President is one of the main plot-points in the film. His cousins (credited as Cholo #1 and Cholo #2) assist Pedro in earning the students' loyalty by protecting a boy from a bully. About halfway through the film, Pedro shaves his head, and henceforth wears a woman's wig. Pedro can be described at first as having no personality or emotions whatsoever (he wears a blank stare and speaks in monotone throughout the entire film), but is eventually cheerful when he wins the election.

★ 'Deborah "Deb"' (Tina Majorino) is a shy and awkward schoolmate and friend of Napoleon's. She goes door-to-door selling "Deb's Glamor Shots" and homemade keychains, "a must-have for this season's fashion". Deb seems to be the most articulate character in the film.

★ 'Kipland Ronald "Kip" Dynamite' (Aaron Ruell) is Napoleon's wimpy older brother (according to Napoleon, he is "like 32 years old") who enjoys chatting with women in chat rooms. He and Napoleon live with their grandmother. In one chat room he meets a woman named LaFawnduh Lucas, and in a post-credits scene, they wed. His full name is revealed at the wedding.

★ 'Uncle Rico' (Jon Gries) is the self-absorbed uncle of Napoleon and Kip. When first seen, Rico is living in a large orange van in the middle of a field. He played football in high school ("back in the 1982"), and is constantly living in the past. He is often seen filming himself passing footballs for no apparent reason. He longs to go back in time and change his fortune, certain he had the potential to join the National Football League, if only his coach had played him. He cares for Kip and Napoleon while their grandmother is in the hospital with a broken coccyx.

Background information

Preston, Idaho is a real town located near the Utah border. Since the release of ''Napoleon Dynamite'', it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with Preston High School being a main feature. In April 2005, the Idaho state legislature approved a resolution commending the filmmakers for producing ''Napoleon Dynamite'', specifically enumerating the benefits the movie has brought to Idaho, as well as for showcasing various aspects of Idaho's culture and economy.^[2] On June 24–25, 2005, Preston held a Napoleon Dynamite Festival celebrating the film. An estimated 6,000 people attended the two-day event. About one year later on July 8, 2006, Preston held another festival, but it was not as successful as the previous year.
The film displays some quirky references to Mormon popular culture, such as Napoleon wearing a yellow Ricks College T-shirt (now known as BYU Idaho), and Napoleon's use of euphemisms and Minced oaths in place of profanity (which is characteristic of, though not exclusive to, Latter-day Saint circles).
In the DVD extras, there is an interview with Jon Heder in which he jokes that perhaps Napoleon and Deb may be "sealed for time and all eternity" — a reference to the Latter-day Saint belief in "eternal marriage" or "sealing" performed in the Church’s temples. The principal's reference to "Juarez" (mispronouncing the word as "Warrez") — where he assumes Pedro is from — may be a reference to Ciudad Juárez, a city on the United States–Mexico border. Napoleon buys his suit at Deseret Industries, a thrift store operated by the LDS Church. At the same time, the director seems to have taken care to not project an overt presence of Mormon culture. Crosses (which are not used by Mormons) and imagery pertaining to other Christian churches are placed prominently in some scenes, particularly at Pedro's house, which is full of Roman Catholic iconography.
While the film is set in the present day, it contains many parachronisms. For example, the music playing at the school dance is from the 1980s, featuring "Forever Young" by Alphaville and Cyndi Lauper's "Time after Time". Other vestiges of earlier decades include fashion trends that reflect those of the 70s and 80s, such as Napoleon's moon boots and Deb's side ponytail. The top-loading VCR in the Dynamite residence resembles those from the early 1980s. Throwbacks to the 1990s include music by Backstreet Boys, the Summer's Happy Hands Club performing to Max Martin and Jay Orpin's "Larger than Life", and music by Jamiroquai used in the choreography of Pedro's skits (their song "Canned Heat" is used for the scene in which Napoleon dances). Also, the TV resembles a 1990s model, and some of the shows resemble 1999 pop culture, especially the exercise commercials. The type of imitation Tupperware Uncle Rico is seen selling door-to-door has not been available for purchase for many years. The grandmother's house phone, a slim-line wall-mounted telephone with 25 foot extension cord was first available in the early 1970s. Kip does use the Internet for dating and Rico uses it to purchase a "time machine". However, the style of computer is arguably from the mid- to late- 1990s, and he uses a dial up internet service that charges users by the minute, a practice uncommon in the U.S. since the late 1990s. Kip also goes out with LaFawnduh Lucas wearing baggy clothes, a chain and a du-rag, which didn't come into fashion until the 1990s. The music playing in the Pontiac is the 80's funk song "So Ruff, So Tuff" by Zapp & Roger. Finally, Napoleon's school ID card, as shown in the opening credits, clearly reads "2004/2005", unambiguously setting the movie in the present day, despite the film's abundance of elements suggesting otherwise. (When asked when it takes place, the director simply stated, "Idaho.")

Cultural effects and criticism

Critics were somewhat divided in their opinions of ''Napoleon Dynamite''. Some praised the movie for its unconventional humor, while others decried the film for much the same reason. It garnered a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, ^[3] but prominent film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a scathing 1 1/2 stars, whilst his site users gave the movie 3 stars.^[4]
Michael Atkinson of ''The Village Voice'' praised the film as "an epic, magisterially observed pastiche on all-American geekhood, flooring the competition with a petulant shove."^[5] Keith Phipps of ''The Onion'' A.V. Club criticized
Nevertheless, the cultural impact on American youth was extensive. T-shirts patterned after some of the odd clothing in the movie (such as the "Vote For Pedro" shirt) and other clothing with quotes and lines from the movie are numerous. The film has inspired a bevy of offbeat quotes and somewhat of a cult following.

References in other works

★ Jon Heder reprised his role as Napoleon Dynamite for a special spoof video made exclusively for Microsoft, featuring Bill Gates. The video, titled "Bill Gates Goes To College" was shown at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference in 2005. It was also shown when Bill Gates visited the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada on October 13, 2005.^[6] Heder also reprised his role on Late Show with David Letterman to read the Top Ten list of "Signs You're Not the Most Popular Guy in Your High School" the day of the DVD release. ^[7]

★ In 2005, ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's unveiled a new flavor entitled "Neapolitan Dynamite", a pun on the film's title.

★ The New York Mets used the phrase "Vote for Pedro" to encourage fans to fill out All-Star ballots in 2005 for Mets players such as pitcher Pedro Martinez. It should be noted that fans only vote for position players; pitchers are selected by the All-Star managers. The San Francisco Giants also staged a similar campaign for utility infielder-outfielder Pedro Feliz, who was not eligible for the ballot because he did not regularly play any one position.

★ Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez reprised their roles in a ''Robot Chicken'' sketch entitled Napoleon Bonamite, in which Napoleon acts in a similar manner to the dictator who shares his first name, Napoleon Bonaparte.

★ In '', the official expansion to ''World of Warcraft'', male Blood Elves do the same dance as Napoleon did in the movie when the player types "/dance".

★ In the MMO Guild Wars: Factions, male ritualists perform the Napoleon Dynamite dance as their dance emote.

★ In the ''South Park'' episode "Trapped in the Closet", Stan tells Tom Cruise that he isn't as good as that guy who played Napoleon Dynamite.

★ An episode of ''That's So Raven'', entitled "The Way They Were", features a ticket salesman who acts and behaves like Napoleon, yet his appearance resembles Kip Dynamite.

★ Sobe Green Tea quotes, "Do Lizards Have Large Talons?" under its screw-on cap. This is a reference to the scene at the chicken farm when Napoleon asks, "Do the chickens have large talons?"

★ Dominic Ranz Ebarle Errazo stated "do the chickens have large talons" to inspire him to spell the word "chinook" correctly during the National Spelling Bee Competition.^[8]

★ Brie Larson parodies Napoleon Dynamite in her video for the song "She Said". He is seen saying "God!" although Napoleon uses the word "Gosh!" many times in the movie.

★ Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez reprised their roles in a series of commercials for the 150th Utah State Fair in 2005.^[9]

★ Angry Alien Productions parody the film in their 30 second "bunnified" sketch.^[10]

★ Several musicians have songs named after the movie, including KJ-52, The Hussy's, and Mos Def.

Awards

★ It won Best Feature Film at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival the same year. The film's budget was only $400,000. When the film rights were sold to a major distributor, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox supplied additional funds for the post-credits scene.

★ In 2005, it won three MTV Movie Awards, for Breakthrough Male Performance, Best Musical Performance, and Best Movie. This film is number 14 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Trivia

★ The name "Napoleon Dynamite" is a pseudonym used by Elvis Costello on the back of the album ''Blood and Chocolate'' (released 1986). Jared Hess has denied that this was his source for the name, once claiming that rather, the name came from an old Italian man he met in Chicago,^[11] and that the Elvis Costello connection is a coincidence.

★ British film director Alex Cox has stated that Napoleon is a tribute to a scarily similar character, Kevin in his 1984 cult classic ''Repo Man''. The film also has a character by the name of Napoleon.

★ The character of Kip (played by Aaron Ruell) was based on impersonations and ideas of Ruell's younger brother. The scene involving the time machine was a real story that occurred with Ruell's brothers and himself. Ruell was the one that plugged in his little brother and shocked him.^[12]

★ According to members of the band Patrick Street, their recording of "Music for a Found Harmonium" was used in the movie without credit to or permission from them for the performance. As of 2006, the band says, lawyers are sorting out the ramifications. This song, originally written by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, does not appear on the soundtrack album. The version in the movie, which is a guitar arrangement, appears to be from the album ''The Celts Rise Again''^[13]

★ Jon Heder lied to the cast and crew and said he got his hair permed for ''Napoleon Dynamite'' at the same place he got it done for the short film ''Peluca''. When he arrived for the first day of shooting his hair "looked like Shirley Temple's hair", said director Jared Hess.

★ Jon Heder freestyled most of his dance routine with the help of Tina Majorino (Deb), who is a hip-hop instructor. Some of the moves included were inspired by The Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson. Heder mentioned in a post-production interview that he figured "almost half" of the dance moves came from watching John Travolta in ''Saturday Night Fever''.

★ Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez wore wigs for the role of Uncle Rico and Pedro. The wigs attracted flies throughout filming, as seen in the film. The sound designer put in many fly buzzing sounds throughout the film as the flies are shown.

★ The P.E. shirts seen in the movie were heavily influenced by the Manhattan High School P.E. shirts. Jared Hess attended Manhattan High for 2 years before moving to Idaho.

★ The "Happy Hands" Club was inspired by a real club at Preston High School called the "Good Hands" Club. They have started an actual "Happy Hands Club" since.

★ Jon Gries, who portrays Uncle Rico, is rumored to be a vegetarian. In the movie, he is seen eating steak quite frequently; for this he did not swallow the meat but spat it back out. He can be seen doing this in one scene. However in a radio interview on WRIF 101.1 in Detroit, Michigan, Gries explains that he spat the steak out because it tasted awful.

★ Every dish shown during the opening credits is eaten by a character later in the movie. The dishes presented in the opening credits were the work of the three people who present them.

★ Jon Heder was only offered $1000 for the role of Napoleon. The movie made over $44 million.^[14]

Goofs

★ "In the scene where Napoleon is talking to Kip from the school phone Kip is seen with a plate of nachos on the counter. The first two times Kip and the nachos are seen, the nachos have a small amount of cheese on top. Then, the third time they are seen, they have a significantly larger amount of cheese without Kip doing anything."

★ "In the scene where Napoleon is standing at the bus stop, you can see a reflection of the camera crew on the buses door as it drives by.

Soundtrack

Main articles: Napoleon Dynamite original soundtrack

An asterisk(
★ ) denotes a song that is not in the soundtrack album.

★ "We're Going to Be Friends" by The White Stripes
★

★ "A-Team Theme"

★ "Forever Young" by Alphaville

★ "Larger than Life" by Backstreet Boys

★ "Design" by Fiction Company

★ "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai

★ "So Ruff, So Tuff" by Zapp and Roger
★

★ "Time after Time" by Cyndi Lauper
★ (covered by Sparklemotion on soundtrack)

★ "The Rose" by Bette Midler
★

★ "Light In Your Eyes" by Sheryl Crow
★

★ "Music for a Found Harmonium" by Patrick Street
★

★ "The Promise" by When In Rome

See also

★ ''Peluca''

★ Napoleon Dynamite Festival

References

1. BoxOfficeMojo.com
2. Idaho's resolution commending Jared and Jerusha Hess
3. Napoleon Dynamite on Rotten Tomatoes
4. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040618/REVIEWS/406180306/1023
5. Village Voice review of Napoleon Dynamite
6. [1]
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfpha8wszjw
8. [2]
9. [3]
10. [4]
11. Jared Hess interview
12. Aaron Ruell interview
13. ''The Celts Rise Again'' at Amazon
14. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=napoleondynamite.htm

External links

★ Fox Searchlight: Napoleon Dynamite

★

★