The Film
Writer/Director Jared Hess' debut feature-length film, 2004's Napoleon Dynamite, is one that people either love or hate. A low budget cult classic from MTV Films, the film is an offbeat comedy about rural Idaho that often leaves many viewers perplexed. What exactly are they watching, a congregation of mentally challenged individuals with underdeveloped social skills? Or perhaps some alternative universe where everyone is creepy and geeky?
Napoleon Dynamite's eponymous character, played by Jon Heder, is a gawky teenager at Idaho's Preston High School. At school, he's an unpopular misfit and loner and at home he has to deal with his overbearing grandmother, his annoying and scheming Uncle Rico who oozes creepiness and is stuck trying to relive 1982, and his goofy 32-year-old brother Kip who spends his days looking for women and time machines online.
The slow pace of rural life in Napoleon Dynamite is echoed in the film's comedy, which is very subdued. In fact, Napoleon is truly the sort of film that may in fact take several viewings to catch many of the subtle comedic queues. I also suspect that much of Napoleon's success as a cult classic must be that it is the rare stoner film that never once makes any drug references; I'm sure frat houses all over must have this one as standard material in their video libraries.
But, oddities aside, what also makes Napoleon Dynamite so enduring is the original yet realistic way in which writer/director captures the high school experience for those teens who were not blessed with popularity during those difficult years with such aptitude. From the bully who puts Napoleon in a headlock whilst the other kids just walk by oblivious to the wise-ass who gets the pretty blonde girl Summer Wheatly (Hailey Duff) that Pedro runs against for president, it all rings true and it's "dang" funny, gosh!
The Picture
Napoleon Dynamite's 1.85:1 framing shows up on Blu-ray in an AVC/MPEG-4 encoding averaging 35Mbps. The film's low production budget hardly allows for imagery that jumps from the screen, but apart from some occasional vertical jitter, the encoding captures the drab look of Napoleon Dynamite's Idaho well. Contrast is set well, colors are stable and flesh tones are natural. Foreground detail is sharp, but softens slightly on long shots.
The Sound
Napoleon Dynamite's audio options include an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless mix and a host of dubbed lossy options. The dialogue-heavy nature of the film means that the 5.1 mix is overkill in most cases, but it is still nicely done. The actor's voices are clean and intelligible with great dynamics. The low frequencies are employed mostly during scenes where the film's musical soundtrack is utilized, such as Jon Heder's famous dance routine; otherwise there is not much low frequency extension to speak of.
The surround channels do not get much activity in the way of discrete sounds, but they are filled with many ambient effects especially the atmospheric sound of Preston High School. During the film's segments in the halls of Preston High the surround channels are most active; for the rest of the film the mix is rather dry and very front-heavy.
The Extras
The Blu-ray release of Napoleon Dynamite comes with an abundance of extras all ported over from the DVD release and therefore all in standard definition, which is disappointing. Still, fans of the film will find plenty to get into here, including Jon Hess' original short film Peluca, which served as the inspiration for the feature-length Napoleon Dynamite, so that is a welcome bonus.
The extras available on this release are:
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