Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite
File:Napoleondynamite.jpg
Directed by	Jared Hess
Written by	Jared Hess Jerusha Hess
Produced by	Jeremy Coon Sean Covel Chris Wyatt
Starring	Jon Heder Efren Ramirez Tina Majorino Aaron Ruell Jon Gries
Music by	John Swihart
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures (USA, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Brazil) Paramount Pictures (all other areas, through United International Pictures)
Release dates	June 11, 2004
Running time	92 min.
Language	English
Budget	$400,000

Napoleon Dynamite is the feature film debut of director Jared Hess, based on his earlier short film, Peluca. Napoleon was filmed in the summer of 2003 in and around Preston, Idaho.

It made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004 and was released to theaters in June 2004. It won Best Feature Film at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival the same year. The film's budget was only $100,000. When they were sold to a professional company with advertising they gave them another $100,000 to shoot a wedding scene at the end of the movie. The DVD was released on December 21, 2004.

In 2005, it won 3 MTV Movie Awards, for Breakthrough Male Performance, Best Musical Performance, and Best Movie. This film is number 14 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."

On May 16, 2006, Fox released a special collector's edition of the film in collectible packaging in Region 1 (Paramount holds the rights in most countries outside of the US and Canada).

Plot

The film has a loose chronological order but time is not signified at any point throughout the film. The main plot involves the protagonist, Napoleon Dynamite, a socially clumsy, boring and shy high school student with a passion for drawing and telling implausible fantasy-like stories, and several goings on in his dull life, with his best friend Pedro Sanchez in the town of Preston, Idaho. Napoleon lives at home with his grandmother and socially nerdy older brother Kipland "Kip" Ronald Dynamite.

One plot is the leading up to, and the occurrence of, the high school dance. Napoleon and Pedro Sanchez go through the stereotypical problems of asking and succeeding in taking a girl to the dance. It is hinted that Napoleon wants to ask Deborah, but after Pedro fails in asking the 'it' girl Summer Wheatley to go with him (by leaving a cake on her doorstep with 'Pedro loves Summer' written on it), he instead asks Deborah, who accepts. Napoleon then asks Trisha Stevens, one of Summer's friends, by drawing her a portrait of her picture in the High School yearbook. Trisha does not want to go with Napoleon, but her mother forces her to accept because of what Napoleon's uncle, Rico, has told her (see below). At the school dance, Trisha ditches Napoleon immediately, and he ends up dancing with Deborah after Pedro tells Napoleon that he can. Deborah then informs Napoleon that she and Pedro are "just friends".

Another plot, or situation, is where Napoleon's Uncle Rico comes to looks after him and his brother, as their grandmother is in hospital after breaking a bone. Uncle Rico proceeds to have an indirect chaotic effect on Napoleon's life - succeeding in getting Napoleon a date for the dance by causing the mother of the girl that Napoleon asked to the dance to have sympathy for him and therefore forcing her daughter to accept Napoleon's invitation; by making Napoleon look like a fool at school by asking two of Napoleon's schoolmates to hand out organic breast enlargement fliers; and he also nearly ruins Napoleon's relationship with Deborah by giving her the same flier, stating that Napoleon suggested it. Uncle Rico also affects Kip's life by involving him in his business ventures, thereby enabling Kip to get enough money to get his cyber-girlfriend to come and visit him with huge, but good, consequences (see below). Napoleon is driven to anger by this final act on Uncle Rico's behalf and then attempts to kick him out of the house, to an unknown degree of success. This doesn't matter, as Napoleon's grandmother returns and Uncle Rico is forced to return to live in a field in his orange camper van.

The life of Kip, Napoleon's older brother, is one where he seems timid. He spends his day on chatrooms "chatting with babes" whom he has known for a long period of time, but never met. The audience is led to believe that the "babe" whom Kip is engaged in a cyber-relationship with will be just as socially awkward and uncomfortable-looking as Kip himself. However, when the cyber-girfriend arrives, she turns out to be a tall, glamorous, black woman called Lafawnduh Lucas, and completely the opposite to Kip. Of course, they fall in love, and in a post-credits sequence, they marry.

The final plot involves Napoleon and Pedro attempting to get Pedro elected as School President, and Deborah also helps out. Pedro goes in direct competition with Summer, who expects to win. Summer attempts to win by using stereotypical ways of promising exactly what the majority of students want, for example promising to get two fizzy drink vending machines in the cafeteria, and hands out fliers and badges to everyone. Napoleon, Pedro, and Deborah counter this by posting counter-fliers drawn by Napoleon, holding a "pinyata" competition with the piñata made in the image of Summer herself, handing out boondoggle bands, and offering protection from the school bully by Pedro's two older, intimidating, cousins. The final set piece in the film involves the final speeches made by each candidate, and each speech is followed by a skit by each candidate and their group respectively. Summer goes first and bribes the audience with fizzy drinks machines, and other such vapid things, and she and the "Happy Hands Club" then perform a short dance for their skit. Napoleon and Pedro are disheartened, firstly by the fact that they haven't prepared a skit, and secondly by the cheers that Summer receives. Pedro makes a short monotone speech, promising more worthwhile but less exciting things, and states that "If you vote for me, all your wildest dreams will come true" as a final attempt. Pedro walks slowly off of the stage. However, Napoleon has other ideas. A couple of days earlier, whilst browsing a second-hand store, he finds a hip-hop dancing video and consequently learns all the moves. When Lafawnduh meets Napoleon for the first time, she gives him an unlabelled tape that Napoleon listens to on his personal tape player on the day of the speeches. After Pedro's speech, Napoleon gives the tape to the sound technician for the skit, and walks on stage, alone. The tape is played, and "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai comes on. Napoleon then performs a technically perfect and interesting dance using the moves he learned off of the video, earning the student body's respect. Pedro is seen with a hopeful look upon his face.

The films ends with a montage of each character which ties up all narrative threads. Uncle Rico ends up living in the field in his van in which he was first seen, and his ex-girlfriend approaches on a bicycle. Kip and Lafawnduh are seen getting on a coach heading out of the town, and in a post-credits scene, get married. Pedro is elected School President and is seen at a congratulatory party with his family. Napoleon's grandmother returns healthy. The final shot is of Napoleon and Deborah playing tether ball together, alone, and it is hinted that they are together as a couple.

Characters

Main

File:Napoleon tetherball.jpg

Napoleon plays tetherball with Deb

• Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), the film's protagonist, is a stereotypical teenaged geek who enjoys mundane diversions such as drawing creatures such as ligers (which he describes "as pretty much his favorite animal, a cross between a lion and a tiger, bred for its skills in magic"), drinking milk, eating Tater Tots, and playing tetherball. As the film progresses, Napoleon develops an interest in hip-hop dancing, which proves valuable in securing his friend Pedro's eventual election as student body president. Napoleon has a flat, listless personality and poor social skills. 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"), and has worked at least once at a local poultry farm. His best (and only) friends, are Pedro and Deb.
• Pedro Sanchez (Efren Ramirez), a new student to Preston High, is originally from Mexico. He is occasionally the target of mild antagonism from the school principal. His campaign for student body president becomes the main story halfway through 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. Halfway through the film, Pedro shaves his head and wears a wig henceforth. Pedro can be described at first as having no personality at all (he wears a blank stare throughout the entire film) but is eventually shown as being cheerful as he wins the election.
• Deb (Tina Majorino) is a shy and awkward schoolmate, a friend of Napoleon and possible love interest. She is interested in photography, and spends her time trying to earn money for college by operating a Glamour Shots franchise and selling boondoggle keychains, "a must have for this season's fashion." She often wears her hair in a single ponytail off to one side. Deb seems to be the most articulate character in the film.
• Kip Dynamite (Aaron Ruell) is Napoleon's wimpy older brother (said by Napoleon to be "like 32 years old") who enjoys chatting with women in chat rooms and claims to be training to become a cage fighter. He and Napoleon live with their grandmother. In one chat room he meets a woman, LaFawnduh Lucas, and in a post-credits scene, they wed.
• 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 '82"), and is constantly living in the past. He longs to go back in time and change his fortune, certain he had the potential to join the NFL, if only his coach had played him in the games. Uncle Rico enjoys eating microwaved steak. He cares for Kip and Napoleon while their grandmother is in the hospital with a broken coccyx. During this time, he and Kip attempt a couple of business ventures: selling imitation Tupperware and herbal breast augmentation supplements. These ventures are largely unsuccessful, and Rico uses what money they do earn to buy a time machine on the Internet. To the chagrin of all, the machine fails to work, although the hoax was a very thorough one: the time machine was fully labeled, and came with an owner's manual and a set of "crystals" to fuel it. Rico very nearly ruins Napoleon and Deb's fledgling relationship when he tries to sell her one of his breast enlargement supplements, telling her Napoleon recommended her for them. This leads to Napoleon's attempt to kick Rico out of the house. Later, Uncle Rico is severely beaten by Rex after he tries to sell the supplements to his wife, Starla. The last shot of Rico hints at his finding romance again.

Secondary

• Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff) is a stereotypical blonde bimbo against whom Pedro runs for student body president. She is pretty, popular, preppy, and elitist.
• Don (Trevor Snarr) is Summer's cocky boyfriend. He helps Summer campaign for student body president and shows disdain for Napoleon.
• Trisha Stevens (Emily Kennard) is one of Summer's good friends whose mother forces her to go with Napoleon to the school dance. She is a member of the "Happy Hands Club" along with Napoleon. Her mother is one of Uncle Rico's sales prospects.
• LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery) is a woman Kip met over the Internet, with the screen name "LaFawnDuh". She is tall, stylish, and African American, in contrast with Kip's short stature, awkward demeanor, and pale complexion. After spending time with her, Kip changes his clothes and demeanor to mimic African-American or white rapper stereotypes. She gives Napoleon a tape made by her cousin, with music that later becomes valuable in his dance skit that ultimately led to Pedro winning the election. In the post-credit sequence, she and Kip wed.
• Rex (Diedrich Bader) is sensei of the "Rex Kwon Do" martial arts Mcdojo. He is an ex-'ultimate fighter' and charges a large fee for his services ($300 for an 8-week program). He is a very confident man, has a distinctive outfit - his trademark 'stars and stripes' pants - and is married to Starla (Carmen Brady), a female bodybuilder.
• Grandma (Sandy Martin) is Napoleon and Kip's single grandmother. She breaks her coccyx on a jump while driving a Quad (ATV) at the sand dunes while on a date. According to Rico, there is a lot Napoleon and Kip do not know about her.
• Randy (Bracken Johnson) is the school bully. He frequently hurts and steals from Napoleon and other students.
• Tina ("Dolly") is the stubborn alpaca that belongs to Napoleon's grandmother.
• Lyle (Dale Critchlow) is a neighborhood farmer who regularly supplies Napoleon's family with steak. In one memorable scene, he kills a cow with a shotgun in front of a busload of local school children, who respond with high pitched shrieking, and appalled looks. He is also the marriage celebrant at Kip and LaFawnDuh's wedding.
• Pedro's Cousins are two men, apparently twin brothers, who drive around in a Pontiac Grand Ville lowrider. They appeared in three scenes, one to drive Napoleon to the dance, and appear when a nerdy kid under "Pedro's protection" is being robbed of his bicycle and at the party after Pedro is elected president.

Background information

Preston, Idaho is a real town located near the Utah border, and is predominantly Mormon. Since the release of Napoleon Dynamite, it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with the school, 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. 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. Napoleon uses euphemisms, like flip, gosh, and heck, that are characteristic of (though hardly exclusive to) Latter-day Saint circles; examples would include the lines, "What the flip was Grandma doing at the sand dunes?" and "Heck yes; I'd vote for you."

Napoleon is seen wearing a t-shirt that reads "Ricks College," the former junior college located in Rexburg, Idaho now known as BYU Idaho. 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" — where he assumes Pedro is from—may be a reference to Ciudad Juarez, a city on the Texas-Mexico border. Characters, even those intended to be the popular girls, do not wear shorts any shorter than knee-length. Fashions in LDS culture tend to be more modest than those of popular culture. Napoleon goes to Deseret Industries, a thrift store operated by the LDS Church, to buy his famous suit. At the same time, the director seems to have taken care to not project an overt presence of Latter-day Saint/Mormon culture. Crosses and statue images 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, and the top-loading VCR in the Dynamite residence that resembles those from the early 1980s. Throwbacks to the 1990s come from music by the Backstreet Boys when the two girls were dancing to Max Martin and Jay Orpin's "Larger than Life" and Jamiroquai used in the choreography of Summer and Pedro's skits (their song "Canned Heat" is used for the scene in which Napoleon dances). Also, the TV resembles a model of the early 1990s 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. 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 is using a dial up internet service that charges users by the minute, a practice uncommon in the US since the late 1990s. The music playing in the Pontiac is roughly contemporary to the film's 2004 release. 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.

Cultural effect 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. Some also criticize it as being a mean-spirited copy of Rushmore.

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." Highlighting the opposing opinion, Keith Phipps of The Onion A.V. Club criticized

"a seemingly ill-considered run for class president that provides Napoleon Dynamite's only semblance of a plot. It also allows the film to score some unearned points by taking a stand against the inevitable, dull tyranny of the popular kids. If this didn't seem so much like a film made to make those same kids bust a gut laughing at nerds, the plot might even have worked."

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.

References in other works

File:Movie date movie napoleon.jpg

Napoleon "parodied" in Date Movie

• Napoleon is "parodied" in the February 2006 comedy Date Movie, only the T-shirt said Don't Vote for Pedro. He was played by comedian Josh Meyers.

• 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 only shown once at the 2005 Professional Developer's Conference. The video can be found here on youtube: [[1]]

• In Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 a character resembling Napoleon Dynamite is seen in the background (pg. 10, second-to-last panel). The character has a "Vote for Pedro" T-Shirt and Napoleon's same tired demeanor but a different hair style.
• In 2005, ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's unveiled a new flavor entitled "Neapolitan Dynamite", a pun on the film's title.
• Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez reprised their roles in the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken, which involved Napoleon playing Napoleon Bonaparte.
• The introduction to the MTV Movie Awards featured a skit with Jimmy Fallon being cut into scenes from Batman Begins; the skit ends with Batman revealing himself as Napoleon Dynamite. "Who the heck did you think was Batman? Superman?" The skit is available on the DVD of Batman Begins and the Napoleon Dynamite special edition DVD.
• In the music video for the Gorillaz song "Dirty Harry", 2D performs a portion of the Happy Hands routine.
• In the episode called "Chew on This" of My Gym Partner's a Monkey, the animals wanting Adam's tater tots seemingly spoofs this movie.
• In an ad for the 3 Mobile Network, a man dressed as Napoleon Dynamite appears briefly as a member of an "ancient distant family".
• Napoleon Dynamite made a cameo in the final episode of Teen Titans, "Things Change", in addition to a "Vote for Pedro" poster.
• IBM used a quotation from Napoleon Dynamite as a cipher to encrypt the XML feed from Wimbledon 2006. The passphrase was "Knock it off, Napoleon! Just make yourself a dang quesadilla!"
• 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.
• The dance Napoleon performs is the basis for the "Dance" command in the MMORPG Guild Wars Factions (for male ritualists).
• The dance is also the basis for the "Dance" command for male Blood Elves in the MMORPG "World of Warcraft" expansion pack, called "The Burning Crusade", which is now available.
• In the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet", Stan assesses Tom Cruise's acting skills by saying "I mean, you're not Gene Hackman or that guy who played Napoleon Dynamite, but you're okay."
• In September 2005, the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer featured a web cartoon entitled "Chuck Dynamite" that was based on the film, focusing on then-N.C. State head football coach Chuck Amato.[2]
• Efren Ramirez made a cameo appearance in an episode of ABC's "The George Lopez Show" wearing a t-shirt similar to the shirt Jon Heder wears in Napoleon Dynamite that reads, "Vote For Pedro".

Trivia

• In the film, Jon Heder's hair is brown, not red.

• The name "Napoleon Dynamite" is a pseudonym used by Elvis Costello on the back of the album Blood and Chocolate. 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, and that the Elvis Costello connection is some sort of odd coincidence.

• Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez also reprised their roles in a series of television and radio commercials advertising the 2005 Utah State Fair.

• Heder had appeared as Napoleon on CBS's The Late Show With David Letterman to do the Top Ten List (which was "Top Ten Signs You're Not The Most Popular Kid in High School") at the time of the first DVD release of the film.

• 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.

• 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"

• Jon Heder lied to the cast and crew and said he got his hair permed for Napoleon 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 *NSYNC 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 Heder danced to three different songs for the ending dance sequence which was later synced to Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat".

• 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 lady on the bicycle who approaches Rico near the end of the film is his ex-girlfriend, who is mentioned earlier in the movie. She was played by Aaron Ruell's (Kip's) wife, Julia Ruell.

• 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.

• The Christian rapper KJ-52 wrote a song entitled "Napoleon Dynamite" The song uses quotes from the movie while KJ talks.

• Jon Gries, who portrays Uncle Rico, is a vegetarian. In the movie, he is seen chewing steaks quite frequently; for this he did not swallow the meat but spit it back out. He can be seen doing this in one scene.

Soundtrack

Main article: 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

Many songs and short quotes from the movie can be found in the iTunes store.

See also

• Peluca
• Napoleon Dynamite Festival

External links

• Fox Searchlight: Napoleon Dynamite
• Napoleon Dynamite at IMDb
• Napoleon Dynamite at Rotten Tomatoes
• Filming Locations
• Napoleon's Town
• Learn to dance with Napoleon (devilducky)
• Learn to dance with Napoleon (albinoblacksheep)