History Film / NapoleonDynamite

* DumbassHasAPoint: Despite giving an, at best, mediocre martial arts demonstration, Rex demands that all students use the "buddy system" and travel in pairs, which leigitimately ''is'' good advice for self-defense.

* StylisticSuck: Anything Napoleon draws, but special mention goes to his portrait of Trisha:

* ChekhovsGag: When Deb tries to sell her hair salon services to Napoleon, she hands him a picture of a blond model to demonstrate what he could turn into. Napoleon later shows the picture to Pedro and lies that it's his [[GirlfriendInCanada ex-girlfriend from out of state]].

-->'''-- Opening lines of the movie; [[RandomEventsPlot he's not kidding]]'''

A 2004 independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by [[Creator/SearchlightPictures Fox Searchlight Pictures]], [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], and [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV Films.]] ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

The eponymous Napoleon is not just a HollywoodNerd -- he's a real genuine dork, not particularly skilled at anything, angry at the world, incapable of even the most basic friendly conversation, and a mouth breather to boot. He has [[DullSurprise exactly one]] facial expression. People don't like him and he doesn't like people.

-->'''-- Opening lines of the movie. [[RandomEventsPlot He's not kidding.]]'''

* PlayingGertrude: Sandy Martin plays the grandmother of Napoleon and Kip, despite being less than 30 years older than Jon Heder or Aaron Ruell. Jon Gries, who plays their uncle, is also just 7 years younger than her, though it's unknown whether or not he's her son.

A 2004 independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by Creator/FoxSearchlightPictures, [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], and [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV Films.]] ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

* {{Adorkable}}: The title character - '''especially''' during the big dance scene.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: When Pedro organizes an event featuring a piñata make to resemble his opponent in the Class President election, he is admonished by the administration, saying that what he did was not only wrong, but shocking. Pedro later tells Napoleon that in Mexico, political opponents do that all the time.

** Napoleon practicing his dance moves.

** DoubleSubverted overall. Deb spends the whole movie looking somewhat dorky, which can mainly be attributed to her silly hairstyle and bad fashion sense. When she shows up at the school dance in a [[GiantPoofySleeves self-made dress]] it only makes matters worse. She does however look genuinely pretty by the end of the movie when she sports a more conventional hairdo and, more importantly, smiles for the first time in the entire movie.
** Subverted with Kip, He probably looks his best at his wedding in a fashionable suit and marginally more stylish glasses, but is still so unbelievably nerdy that it doesn't make a difference.

* MormonCinema: Often considered an "honorary" Mormon film. Despite containing no explicitly Mormon themes, most of the production team was LDS and recently graduated from BYU, the film is [[GoshDangItToHeck squeaky-clean]] to the point of it being part of the humor, and many of the jokes make a lot more sense if one has a familiarity with Mormon culture.

* SassyBlackWoman: [=LaFawnduh=] [[AvertedTrope averts]] this. She has the look but is otherwise nice and non-sassy.

* AnachronismStew: The opening credits clearly shows Napoleon's school ID reading "2004-2005", but the plot lulls you into thinking it's the 80's (with the music and the characters' clothes). Then it jolts you out of it when Summer plays a Music/BackstreetBoys song -- though Kip having an internet relationship also seemed to contrast the 80's atmosphere... albeit with 90s-era dial-up. This was intentional, to make the setting/characters seem "backwards" when in fact the story takes place in the present. When Jared and Jerusha Hess were asked ''when'' their story was set, they responded "Idaho", which actually makes sense as the town they filmed in (Preston, Idaho) really ''was'' like that, since significant portions of Utah and Idaho (specifically, the more rural and Mormon-dominated areas) are notorious for being 10-15 years "behind the curve" in regards to popular culture of almost any sort.

A 2004 independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by [Creator/FoxSearchlightPictures], [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], and [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV Films.]] ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

A 2004 independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by [[Creator/FoxSearchlightPictures]], [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], and [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV Films.]] ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

A 2004 independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Fox Searchlight]], [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], and [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV Films.]] ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

The movie aims to be as deadpan awkward as possible, and the results have caused quite a bit of HypeBacklash for those who expected a regular teen comedy. It was the breakout role of Jon Heder, who plays the title character and has gone on to mainstream roles alongside stars like Will Ferrell and Billy Bob Thornton. The filmmakers themselves, [[WriteWhatYouKnow Idaho natives]], went on to make ''Film/NachoLibre'' with Jack Black.

** Napoleon hands these out like they're candy. Allegedly, he spent a summer in Alaska hunting wolverines with a 12-gauge shotgun, has wicked skills with a bo staff, keeps a pair of nunchuks in his locker, and kept getting pestered by one of his school's many gangs to join on the basis of his martial arts skills (of course we never see any evidence of such gangs whatsoever). He also claims to have tamed a "wild honeymoon stallion" and in the post credits scene, he shows up riding it. Whether or not he ''tamed'' it is still debatable, yet it makes you wonder whether ''all'' of his claims were as unfounded as they sounded. [[BlatantLies Crosses over into pathological liar territory, come to think of it...]]