Napoleon dynamite what is the point

We'll never know. Pedro is a character who quite obviously stands out in the landscape of Napoleon's high school. This is part of what draws Napoleon to him, in that they're both misfits, but it also creates a strange and often cringe-worthy relationship between Pedro and other adults and students at the school. This begins when he's asked by an administrator if he even speaks English, and he's never really given a chance to answer.

It reaches its apex late in the film, when Summer Haylie Duff is giving her student body president speech and jokes, "So, who wants to eat chimichangas next year? Be nicer to Pedro, people! All he ever did was bring a pinata that looks like Summer to school and let people hit it with a bat.

It's established early on in the film that both Kip and Uncle Rico are in need of cash, and they both adopt the scheme of selling plastic food storage sets and, in Uncle Rico's case, a breast enhancement aid. It becomes clear, particularly for Kip, that neither of them is all that great at selling these things, and yet when LaFawnduh arrives in town, Kip takes her out for prime rib, and then manages to get on a bus back to Detroit with her.

Two months later, the two of them are married. Oh, and along the way, Kip seems to have been outfitted with an entirely new wardrobe. Where is all that money coming from? Is LaFawnduh simply footing the bill for all of it?

Is Kip appealing to his grandmother yet again? Did he really train to become a cage fighter and get good enough to earn money? We're never told, but there's a lot of mystery surrounding Kip's financial life. The film's most famous scene occurs during the student body president assembly. Pedro, in need of a skit to support his candidacy, is ready to give up, but then Napoleon shows off his sweet dance moves to the tune of Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat.

The last ingredient of the scene is provided by LaFawnduh, who, upon learning Napoleon is interested in dance, tosses him an unmarked cassette and says "my cousin made it. Now, that could just be a mix tape that her cousin made, but we're given no label to tell us that.

So, keeping in mind that this is a stretch Insults and substitutes for obscenities only: multiple uses of "idiot," "frickin'," "retarded," "crap," "sicko," and "flippin'. Parents need to know that Napoleon Dynamite is a quirky indie coming-of-age comedy. While it ultimately celebrates nerds and misfits, some may feel it fuels mockery and ridicule; others will simply find it funny.

While the film is comical and satirical in its presentation, the authority figures of the high school, as well as one of the popular girls, reveal ignorance and prejudice toward a Mexican teen who is new to the school.

The comic action includes slapstick pratfalls bike injuries to the groin, for instance and exaggerated bullying by school tough guys. The language is never obscene; characters rely instead on insults "idiot," "sicko," "retarded" and disguised swearing "frickin'," "flippin'," "crap". And there is mild sexual innuendo, along with some kissing and embracing. Napoleon's uncle tries to sell breast enhancement supplements door-to-door, so there's talk of breasts, breast size.

There's a scene in which a school bus full of kids stops in front of a field where a farmer is on the verge of shooting a cow in the head with a rifle at point-blank range; the violence is not shown, but strongly implied by the reactions of the kids.

Napoleon Dynamite became a box office bonanza and a cultural phenomenon, and spawned an animated series. Add your rating See all 38 parent reviews. Add your rating See all kid reviews. Life seems so unfair. Women only like men who've got skills, and to Napoleon that means nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, or maybe some really sweet dance moves.

But those endless arms and legs don't seem to want to cooperate well. Then there's Napoleon's uncle and his schemes to make a lot of money and go back in time to that crucial turning point in a high school football game, and Napoleon's best friend Pedro's Efren Ramirez campaign for class president against alpha girl Summer Haylie Duff , and what happens when his older brother's online girlfriend shows up.

What's great about this satisfyingly humorous movie is that it keeps us laughing with Napoleon, not at him. And that's thanks to Napoleon Dynamite 's deliriously specific detail, superb use of the Idaho setting, affection for its characters, unexpected developments, and most of all its genuine sweetness.

He may be clueless, but he has a great heart, and we know he will be fine, not just for a satisfyingly happy ending for the movie but beyond. Families can talk about adolescence in different times and places. How is life for the teens in Napoleon Dynamite like or unlike your own experiences of adolescence? While being quirky and exaggerated in its depictions, how does the movie convey the deeper realities of growing up "different" in a small town?

How do the characters in Napoleon Dynamite demonstrate compassion and empathy? Why are these important character strengths? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners. See how we rate. Streaming options powered by JustWatch.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes when you use our links to make a purchase. Thank you for your support. Our ratings are based on child development best practices. As a film, Napoleon Dynamite seems to believe that having the eponymous rude, nerdy teenager Jon Heder as a protagonist will automatically put an audience on his side. The rest of the cast is just as bad.

After all, all Latino teens have mustaches, gangbanger cousins and a thick accent despite that his own sister does not , right? And ah, yes. Napoleon has spent the entire movie being bullied and ignored. Why would these same people suddenly switch gears and find his behavior charming. In fact, the ending of Napoleon Dynamite is just a series of awesome things happening out of nowhere to make everyone happy through no real effort of their own.

Napoleon practices dancing for an afternoon and then is so fantastic at it that he can sway people that have held him in contempt for years. Footloose at least used a montage for that. Pedro wins the election and has a huge party. Kip is now a pimp, apparently. But up until that ending, the film is nothing but a parade of ugliness. For some reason, the Hesses made a film that ostensibly treats the outsider as the protagonist, but then makes him the worst tempered, most dimwitted character out of a cast of unlikable jerks.

Nathan, you just tore that movie a much needed new butthole, and you are a much greater man for doing so. On behalf of myself and the American people who have half a decent mind, I would like to say thank you. Despite the fact that I basically agree with you point for point, I still like the movie.

Finally, i felt alone on this, seriously, when the movie first came out, i thought wtf, why is everyone so attracted to this piece of vomited film making…as a kid who was bullied of hispanic background this movie made me face palm…i was called pedro for so long and i couldnt even get an awesome stache to boast about….

Your comments have been noted, none the less its popularity begs to differ on your opinion. Once I almost got my ass kicked by a chav in the UK because his drunk-ass girlfriend compared me to Napoleon I am tall, socially braindead, and have red hair and glasses.

I was so mad I leaned over and told her I would destroy her. ANYWAY the point is I definitely agree that most people took the film as an opportunity not to identify with but laugh at the protagonist. But I think that was the point, and in your zeal to defend yourself and the rest of us in geekdom from this trojan horse of an insult to our people, you end up losing your own sense of humor. The movie, right off the bat, is absurd and almost hallucinatory. It is drab and deadpan, yeah, but it never presents itself as realistic—for goddsakes, what kind of a name is Napoleon Dynamite anyway?

It functions more like a dream than real life. What did you want exactly to happen in this movie? Napoleon finally gets diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and goes on a public awareness campaign? Am I getting too academic about this? Everyone is neurotic and pathetic and weak, and the happy ending only makes the whole thing sillier. But it is too amused with itself to fully carry this point home, which does make it a bad movie.

So I guess basically I do have the same opinion as you, but I want to put forward the idea that we ought to reflect a little more on what it tells us, in spite of itself, about the world and people it depicts, before we throw the thing into the trash.

But we should, at the end of the day. Napolean Dynamite is one of my favorite movies. All the things the author has mentioned never once crossed my mind during any of the viewings.

Lyle the farmer was Lyle the farmer, who really shot a cow in front of a bunch of kids on a school bus. Hess said the film so closely mirrored his life that his mother came up to him after seeing the completed movie for the first time at Sundance and said, "Well, that was a lot of embarrassing family material. He noted that many scenes and most of those quotable lines are essentially transcripts of discussions he and his brothers had growing.

In fact, the only thing he identifies as specifically not being pulled from his childhood is the aggressive karate instructor who teaches Rex Kwon Do. Though less specific than it was for the filmmaker, Heder -- and much of the cast and crew -- was intimate with that lifestyle and character.

The year-old actor clarified that this was not so much a trait of Mormons as much of the cast, crew and BYU student body is , but the idea of a simple lifestyle. Heder equated it most closely with "living life as a scout," and explained that he spent much of his youth with a local troupe.

Though most of the film is most precisely Hess' story, ultimately, "everybody knew a guy like Napoleon growing up. Hess originally played around with very cartoonish versions of the characters, and relied on his cast to tone things down.

Rather than workshopping through Napoleon's development, Heder and Hess mostly just hung out together. Heder recalled how they would play around with the character, when they'd shop for Napoleon's various outfits at local thrift stores. Of those outfits: Hess had the moon boots in mind because he would frequently wear them, even in the spring time, while growing up , but much of the other mythical t-shirts and tight jeans were found from scrounging.

During the retail excursions, the two would work on voices and, of course, mouth breathing. While these traits certainly help characterize Napoleon as an outsider, it's notable how "Napoleon Dynamite" differs from what we've come to know as the typical nerd film. There's a certain power to the character that goes beyond the archetype of the weird dude who gets left out.

He doesn't know how much of an outcast he is, and that's what gives him that confidence. He's trying to be cool sometimes, but mostly he just goes for it and does it. He thinks, 'Why wouldn't you want to play tether ball? Tether ball is the sweetest thing in the world.