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Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc Released: 2/3/2009

All Ratings out of
Movie: 1/2
Video:
Audio:
Extras:

Review by Mike Long, Posted on 2/9/2009

There are probably several ways to define a "movie fan", and one would be a person who sees a lot of movies. And as a "movie fan" sees more and more movies, they begin to notice the similarities between them and can often pick out a film's influences. Thus, one feels that they rarely see a truly "original" movie. Napoleon Dynamite breaks that mold and emerges as one of the most unique films that I've seen in years. This film defies genre pigeonholing and offers a challenging viewing experience.

Jon Heder stars as the title character in Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon is a high-school student in Preston, Idaho and would easily be classified as a geek or nerd. He always wears moon boots and likes to draw unicorns and other mythical creatures. He rides the bus to school and is a member of the "Happy Hands" (a sign-language group). His home-life is equally as strange. Napoleon lives with his Grandmother (Sandy Martin), who often leaves home to go on wild adventures, and his older brother, Kip (Aaron Ruell), who claims to be training to be a "cage fighter", but actually spends most of his time in chat rooms. Things get even weirder when Napoleon's Uncle Rico (John Gries), a self-involved man who lives in the past, comes to live with them. Meanwhile, Napoleon has befriended a new student named Pedro (Efren Ramirez), and the two of them scheme to get dates to the dance and win the school elections.

The above synopsis is only the tip of the iceberg in describing this truly bizarre film. Napoleon Dynamite may be one of the quirkiest characters ever committed to film. Beyond his unusual clothing, one can't help but notice that Napoleon's eyes are always half-closed (if not entirely closed) and he rarely looks directly at anyone. His mood is also odd, as he doesn't seem to exude any self-confidence, yet he's always annoyed with people and acts very impatient. (He often snaps at others with his trademark "Dang!" or "What do you think?!" or "Idiot!") While most movie nerds are portrayed as smart, but shy people, Napoleon comes across as a semi-retarded guy who seems to have PMS. Napoleon's odd speech patterns fit the film, as Napoleon Dynamite is very oddly paced and people speak very slowly, leaving large gaps between their sentences. (This reminded me of the speech patterns in Twin Peaks.) At times, Napoleon and Pedro seem to be heavily sedated.

If you're turned off by the description of Napoleon, then the film won't appeal to you, as it's narrative is just as strange. For the first act, the film doesn't have any real story -- we simply observe Napoleon in his everyday life. This gives us ample opportunity to get to know the characters, but it's also slightly confusing. However, once the story gets going, things begin to gel somewhat. But, unlike most movies, it's very hard to predict where Napoleon Dynamite is going. The movie is constantly full of surprises, as Napoleon's moods swing, so does the movie.

Napoleon Dynamite rules at tetherball on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 32 Mbps. Two things immediately jump out at you with this transfer. The first is that the colors look very good. The reds and blues look very good, as demonstrated by the lockers in the school. The second thing which you notice is that there is a lot of grain here. Given these two facts, I'd be willing to believe that the movie was shot on 16mm, not 35mm. On the plus side, the image shows no defects from the source material and the image is never dark. However, it doesn't show a lot of depth or detail either. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.1 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good, and they do a nice job of accenting sounds which move from side-to-side on-screen, such as when Napoleon's bus arrives. The surround sound effects are OK as well, as shown in the crowd scene at the presidential speeches. The subwoofer really kicks in during Napoleon's dance.

The Disc is loaded with extra features, which vary in quality. We start with an audio commentary with director/co-writer Jared Hess, star Jon Heder, and producer Jeremy Coon. This commentary is somewhat interesting, but it's also a disappointment, as the trio never talk about the origins of the Napoleon character or where his eccentric behavior came from. Hess does point out some scenes which were influenced by his life, but we never learn more about Napoleon. The Disc contains 4 deleted scenes which encompass 8 minutes. These scenes have a PLAY ALL feature and can be viewed with or without audio commentary from Hess, Heder, and Coon . There is some good stuff here, and some very funny moments, all of which should have been left in the movie. This side of the disc also has a still gallery. We next have 7 "MTV On-Air Promos", which total 4 minutes in all. Five of these simply contain footage from the movie, but the last two show Napoleon and Pedro in Los Angeles and are funny. "The Wedding of the Century" (4 minutes) is a brief behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of the final scene in the film, which comes after the credits and was shot a year after the movie's principal photography wrapped. The final extra is "Peluca", the original 9-minute short film which first introduced the world to Napoleon, who is called Seth in the short. The film is black & white and shows some grain and minor defects. The short is quite good and contains many scenes which found there way into Napoleon Dynamite. "Peluca" can be viewed with audio commentary from Hess, Heder, and Coon. As with the commentary on the feature film, we learn about the making of the short, but we still don't get the origin of Napoleon. Cast commentary with Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, and Tina Majorino. "World Premiere Jared Hess" (43 minutes) shows what the Director went through when showing the film for the first time at Sundance. "On Location: Napoleon Dynamite" (42 minutes) offers a detailed look at the making of the film. The vast majority of this piece is comprised of on-set footage and we get to see many of the key scenes being made. We get an interview with Jory Weitz in "Casting Napoleon Dynamite" (13 minutes), which is followed by "Audition Videos" (6 minutes) for Majorino, Ramirez, and Duff. "Napoleon Sightings" (16 minutes) offers six random moments from TV where Heder popped up as himself or as Napoleon. "Utah State Fair Ads" (2 minutes) offers three funny TV commercials with Napoleon and Pedro. We get six slick TV commercials for the movie (which were clearly made after the film had gained some notoriety) in "Napoleon Goes Hollywood Spots" (3 minutes). The final extra is a STILL GALLERY.

Review Copyright 2009 by Mike Long