“Napoleon Dynamite,” the 2004 movie, hit a sweet spot of comedy that no previous movie had even aimed for, let alone achieved. Not everyone understood why it was funny, but for those who did, it gained an extra layer of insider humor because we had that great feeling of knowing where writers Jared and Jerusha Hess were coming from.
And just as the movie came out of nowhere, the animated series (7:30 p.m. Central Sundays on Fox) kinda does too. Despite my love for the movie, I never really clamored for a sequel or TV show, partly because the story seemed to be resolved: Napoleon and Deb were on a path to happiness, and heck, even Kip found his true love. Still, I was excited when the husband-and-wife Hesses made “Nacho Libre” in 2006, and just as disappointed as everybody else when I saw it.
On the plus side, “Nacho Libre” was such a misfire — despite copying the “Napoleon” pacing, speaking style and off-the-wall humor — that it illustrated how special “Napoleon” was. There’s something about the small-town Idaho setting. Its citizens are plugged into American pop culture just enough to be shallow and superficial, yet just isolated enough to be endearingly out-of-touch with what’s cool — and therefore, in an odd way, refreshingly genuine.
Napoleon wears moon boots, pulls his jeans up too high and thinks he’s fooling people when he brags about nonexistent wolverine conquests. As for the supporting cast, Napoleon’s pipsqueak older brother, Kip, thinks he’s better than Napoleon due to his online dating prowess. Both Dynamites are the product of a grandma who is simultaneously overprotective and gruff (her coccyx seems to have healed now). Meanwhile, Uncle Rico dreams of his high school football glories from 1982. Deb loves arts and crafts. Pedro goes with the motions. Don and Summer are shallow and mean in uncreative ways.
It should all be rather sad, but I find the world of “Napoleon” to be sweet (not flippin’ sweet, just sweet); the layer of melancholy just adds poignancy to things like the school dance or Deb and Napoleon playing tetherball. The movie is so visually colorful yet these people’s lives are so mundane, and it’s a striking combination.
(I think, deep down, all of “Napoleon’s” characters know they are frauds, but I suspect this will remain subtextual even as the cartoon moves forward. And actually, their determined obliviousness can be a positive trait at times. Someone who worried too much about what other people think wouldn’t have been able to pull off such a genuinely cool dance routine like Napoleon does. Deb’s side-ponytail is so uncool that it’s cool; I mean, we all find Deb adorable, but no one could argue that she’s competent when it comes to fashion or style. And so forth.)
“Napoleon” the TV series, which aired its first two episodes on Sunday, recaptures the spirit of the movie in every way. The fact that the whole cast returns to do the voices is, of course, huge.
The characters are mostly at the same place as in the movie, except Kip isn’t married to Lafawnduh anymore (that plot point goes unaddressed). And their schemes are variations on those from the movie; in the second episode, Uncle Rico creates a low-budget, low-skill video to promote Kip’s endeavor to be a magician (Of course, they both think the video is brilliant. Or — getting back to my analysis of “Napoleon” characters’ psyches — do they really?). Deb being lovestruck for Napoleon (and Napoleon being oblivious to how he is perfect for Deb) is emphasized more in the series than it was in the movie, but I don’t mind that emphasis.
The situations and settings aren’t all retreads from the film, though. I love the introduction of the pizza place, with its mechanical animals playing 1980s music with the lyrics changed to be about pizza. The location isn’t in the movie, but it feels like it could’ve been; ideas like this will allow the show to have longevity.
Naturally, the TV show also adds absurd cartoon elements — things that couldn’t be done with live actors. In that way, its in the same vein as all Fox animated comedies; it simultaneously operates in the real world and the cartoon world.
This additional element isn’t jarring at all because even the movie was a bit of a cartoon, from the bright colors to the rigid staging. The show’s cartoon elements aren’t always brilliantly funny; sometimes things get cartoony just for the sake of plot convenience. In episode two, Napoleon, Pedro and Summer walk into a lake and pop up from below to take the place of three water-skiers in a pyramid formation. And the pilot episode has a fight where Kip is confidently walking on stilts after using a skin balm that causes unbridled rage, but the epicness and shaky science soon gets whittled down to the “Napoleon” core: The brothers engage in a hair-pulling, slap-fight with Napoleon complaining, “Stop breathing on me!”
Sometimes, the medium allows for a quick, guffaw-inducing sight gag, like in the commercial for an upcoming episode when Napoleon uses the Heimlich to dislodge a bone from Pedro’s throat, only to have it bounce into his own throat.
There’s no way the TV show will be a commercial success. The movie was only a cult hit, and TV shows require a lot more viewers than movies do in order to be financial successes. Plus, the movie was just popular enough that a lot of people whose senses of humor don’t match up with the movie saw the movie and hated it. So there’s a lot of over-the-top vitriol for this show on the web.
But am I on board for “Napoleon Dynamite” while it lasts? Heck yes I am.