Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Director:

Jared Hess

Writers:

Jared Hess (written by) and
Jerusha Hess (written by)

Release Date:

27 August 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

He's out to prove he's got nothing to prove.

Plot:

A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.

Plot Keywords:

Interracial Kiss | Animal Abuse | Teen Movie | Footsie Under The Table | Nunchuck

Awards:

10 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Jon Heder	...	Napoleon Dynamite
Jon Gries	...	Uncle Rico
Efren Ramirez	...	Pedro Sanchez
Aaron Ruell	...	Kip Dynamite
Diedrich Bader	...	Rex
Tina Majorino	...	Deb
Sandy Martin	...	Grandma
Haylie Duff	...	Summer Wheatly
Trevor Snarr	...	Don
Emily Tyndall	...	Trisha Stevens (as Emily Kennard)
Shondrella Avery	...	LaFawnduh Lucas
Bracken Johnson	...	Randy
Carmen Brady	...	Starla
Ellen Dubin	...	Ilene
J.C. Cunningham	...	Jock #1

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements and language.

Runtime:

82 min | Canada:86 min | USA:86 min (Sundance Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:G | Ireland:PG | Iceland:L | Netherlands:6 | USA:PG (certificate no. 40773) | Germany:o.Al. | Australia:PG | Finland:K-7 | Singapore:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Franklin, Idaho, USA

Company:

Access Films

Trivia:

Behind-the-scenes at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Fox Searchlight engaged in a bidding war with Warner Independent Pictures over the distribution rights to this movie, until Fox Searchlight put in a last-minute bid of over $3 million, and won. They would later join forces with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films to distribute the film, a mere 17 days before its release.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Napoleon is watching Pedro ride his bike off the ramp, there's a distracting long string stuck in Napoleon's hair waving around in the wind.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Kid on Bus: What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?
Napoleon Dynamite: Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Best! Movies! Ever!: Dance Sequences (#1.9)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Larger than Life

Funny and unique!

Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is the typical sad-sack, luckless loser that has permeated high schools for seemingly centuries. He has no friends, he's picked on by bullies, he has a somewhat-odd home life ... but through it all, he's sure things will be just plain okay in the end.

Napoleon and his older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) live with their grandmother, but at the beginning of the film she tells them she needs to take off for a couple days. Enter their Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a self-starter who's living in 1982 (when the coach of his high school football team declined to put him in as quarterback, thus altering Rico's life forever). Some of the funniest scenes in the film involve Napoleon's often-combative relationship with Uncle Rico; Rico is also bound and determined to return to those halcyon days of his youth via a time machine he's seen advertised on the Internet, and he enlists Kip to help him raise the funds.

Napoleon befriends the new kid in school, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), who has a sweet bike, can talk to girls, and has an actual mustache. But like Napoleon, Pedro is a misfit. Both sometimes hang out with yet another taciturn student, Deb (Tina Majorino, all grown up from Waterworld), who secretly (it seems) likes Napoleon. But there isn't a lot of focus on their relationship, because Napoleon himself is fairly oblivious to how people perceive him. This isn't a story about young love or lust, it's a story about a misfit refusing to fit - while fitting in with others like him.

Jon Heder is perfectly cast as the gawky, dorky Napoleon; he resembles Butt-Head in countenance, although certainly not in temperament or intelligence. Mouth agape and with an awkward gait, Napoleon is about as odd a duck as you'd find in high school, and yet he still manages to survive with his dignity intact. He's a good egg, although he seems to overreact at times: "What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? Napoleon: Whatever I feel like I wanna do.....GOSH!" Still, his delivery is perfect. You can readily picture a Napoleon in any high school.

I think where the film ultimately succeeds, aside from the casting of Heder, is that it doesn't fall into the traps of predictability and stereotyping. Sure, it's a high school movie, and there are snobby pretty girls and arrogant jocks, but not much time is devoted to them. Sure, there's a big dance, but it doesn't necessarily turn out the way you'd expect it to. What you're left with, then, isn't a typical coming-of-age story, but rather a unique take on a rather mundane - albeit life-altering - time in a boy's life.