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Napoleon not-so-Dynamite

So, I have now seen the pilot episode of the animated TV series based on the 2004 independent-film-turned-teenage-craze, Napoleon Dynamite. And I have mixed feelings about it. And the mix is more sour than sweet.

I’m not super-disappointed or anything, because I went into it expecting it not to be as good as the original film. Anyone who knew me in high school remembers that I was a DIE HARD fan of this film. Like, MAJORLY obsessed. I’d quote it all the time in everyday conversation, had an arsenal of Napoleon merchandise (including, but not limited to, pens, t-shirts, a sweatshirt, Post-Its, a lunchbox, buttons, a notebook, and posters), and my high school friends and I even had Napoleon Dynamite-themed SLEEPOVERS, where we’d put our hair in side ponytails and dance to “Canned Heat” like dorks. No joke. All of that actually happened. There is video evidence.

As much as I adored the film, even then I didn’t want any sort of sequel to be made, for fear (no, near certainty) that it wouldn’t live up to the unique, whimsical, Hipster charm of the original. But now it’s been 8 years (holy crap, 8 YEARS?!), and when I heard that it was being rebooted as an animated TV series, I confess I was pretty excited. I felt that it had been long enough for my mental Napoleon Dynamite pedestal to lower itself a bit, and I thought the world might be ready for more, even if it didn’t live up to the original.

So today I watched the first episode, “Thundercone.” I’ll give you a basic outline of the plot of the episode, because many of my critiques have to do with it. Napoleon gets a breakout of acne on his forehead, and he buys an acne cream that basically turns him into Rambo. After beating up his entire gym class, the gym teacher sends him to this fight club in the middle of a corn field run by Rex, formerly of Rex Kwon Do. Napoleon works his way up to the elite Thundercone fighting ring, and winds up fighting Kip, who is also pumped up on this acne cream. Kip is mad because once his girlfriend Misty saw how much of a badass Napoleon was, she dumped him for Napoleon. Just as it looks like the 2 are about to murder each other, the acne cream wears off, and the 2 break into a sissy fight, reminiscent of the “cage fighter” scene in the film.

Okay. So, anyone who is a fan of the film, or has even SEEN the film, even once, can tell that what I have just described is absolutely NOTHING LIKE THE FILM. And that’s it’s major problem. The very reasons that the film was so loveable aren’t even present in the cartoon! The film was great for the following reasons: it was made on next to no budget (certainly no room for special effects), was filled with deadpan humor, and CONSISTED ENTIRELY OF REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS. You know, things that could ACTUALLY HAPPEN to any teenage kid, which was why it resonated so well with the teen population. Anyone who had ever been picked on saw a bit of themselves in Napoleon and his friends, and when they triumphed at the end of the film it made us feel empowered ourselves.

This was also great because it demonstrated how great a film can be without the elements of action, suspense, sex, and adventure, which are the main draws of the majority of major Hollywood films these days. The film showed us that humor could be found in the most boring of situations, such as feeding your pet, selling Tupperware, and eating Tater Tots. The film was a flawlessly strung together series of spectacularly unspectacular moments, and this is what was so wonderful about it. In a way, it was so un-funny, it was funny.

But the plot of the episode that I just described sounds like it could just as easily be an episode of “The Simpsons” or “Family Guy.” The unique style of humor that made the film so iconic, is more or less completely lost in the cartoon. Having the characters actually doing exciting things doesn’t work for the spirit of what Napoleon Dynamite is supposed to be. The episode had very few moments and lines that actually felt like they could have been part of the film, and these are the lines that you see in the TV previews. One such line is when Napoleon says “Uncle Rico, tell Kip to stop eating all the gas station chicken!” That line works. That line works because it’s so mundane. It’s a blue-collar family eating chicken from a gas station on a park bench, and the 2 brothers fighting over it. It’s boring, yet hilarious, which is what the original thrived on. This is a scene that would have fit in nicely with the film (and the film’s budget). But sadly, such moments are few and far between in the cartoon.

Obviously, you can do a lot more with animation that you can’t do (or is too expensive to do) with real actors. Anything that has ever gone from being live-action to being animated or drawn illustrates this point (no pun intended). Sometimes, this can mean greater freedom to take the story in new directions. For “Napoleon Dynamite,” however, it just means a further break away from what made the film so great. Seeing Napoleon and Kip fight to the death in a big dome, with Rex MC-ing, and Uncle Rico and Grandma in the audience, is in such dissonance with what we know the characters and the setting to be like from the movie, that it just does not work.

Another point this brings up is this: how does this new animated series fit in with the canon established by the film? Obviously, it isn’t supposed to be happening before the film, because Napoleon, Deb, and Pedro are already best friends. But if it takes place after, then what happened to Lafawnduh, who was Kip’s newlywed wife as of the coda of the film? She is nowhere to be seen, and Kip is doing online dating as if she had never existed. So what’s up with that? Are they just going to retcon Kip’s entire relationship with Lafawnduh, which was such a delightful and sweet subplot of the film, just so Kip can have a girl-of-the-week on the series? A third option is that it takes place during the film, in between the scenes from the film. This also makes no sense. The idea that Napoleon and company were getting superpowers from acne cream and fighting in secret fight clubs in between feeding Tina the llama, going to a semi-formal dance, and trying on wigs is just stupid.

One thing I will say in favor of the series is that I’m happy it has retained much of the film’s innocence. As I said before, the film never felt the need to rely on sex or violence. Now there seems to be some comedic violence, but nary a dirty joke was cracked in the episode, like you would expect from “Family Guy” or “The Simpsons. Even when lust is listed as a side effect of the acne cream, the only result is Napoleon saying to Deb out of the blue “I want to marry you and have a honeymoon.” So that was nice to see.

So, all in all, I’m not impressed. Does this mean I’ll stop watching it? Of course not. I have a series recording set up in the hopes that it will get better. But if it doesn’t, I’ll probably lose interest eventually and, with a heavy heart, bit it adieu, and then watch the film to feel better. And call up my high school friends, put my hair in a ponytail, and dance around like a dork to “Canned Heat.”

I just want to share one last thing: in the process of writing this, I have come up with possible a way for the series to work as an extension of the film. Instead of the TV series’ scenarios being considered to be real in Napoleon’s universe, they would work much, MUCH better as daydreams and fantasies of his as he doses off during math class or something. I mean, judging by what we know of him from the film, getting superpowers and having an epic battle with Kip is EXACTLY the type of thing this character would fantasize about in his free time. If the series were to be approached from this angle, the implausibility of the story lines, as well as the canon conundrum, would be rendered moot. I think I’ll go into the next episode with this frame of mind, and see if I like it any better. We’ll see how that turns out.