Plot and Setting Napoleon Dynamite
Plot
Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is a high school student from Preston, Idaho who lives with his grandmother, his elder brother Kip and their pet llama, Tina. Kip (Aaron Ruell), 32, is unemployed and boasts of spending hours in Internet chat rooms with ‘babes’ and training to be a cage fighter. Napoleon daydreams his way through school, doodling ligers and other fantastic rare creatures and being bullied. Napoleon is constantly bullied, even with his “kick-butt ninja skills.”
Napoleon’s grandma breaks her coccyx in a quad bike accident and, believing her grandsons cannot be trusted to look after themselves, she asks Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) to stay with them while she recovers. Uncle Rico is a middle-aged former high-school quarterback who lives in an orange 1975 Dodge Santana campervan and is mentally stuck in the year 1982 (a fact which caused a breakup with his girlfriend). His presence, although increasingly irksome to Napoleon, is a boon to Kip as he and Uncle Rico embark on a joint project to become door-to-door salesmen selling sets of Tupperware. Kip reveals that he would like to earn some money to enable him to meet his new Internet girlfriend from Detroit, LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery). Uncle Rico is not averse to using Napoleon’s name to gain credibility in his attempts to sell herbal breast-enhancement products to Napoleon’s school mates, causing increasing friction between Uncle Rico and Napoleon.
As the plot progresses, Napoleon makes two new friends from high school, Deb and Pedro. Deb (Tina Majorino) is a shy and sensitive girl. The two have a falling out, when Uncle Rico attempts to sell her breast-enhancement herbs and implies that Napoleon suggested it. Pedro (Efren Ramirez) is a transfer student from Juárez, Mexico, who decides to run for class president against popular girl Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff). Despite a couple of hiccups, the campaign goes well until the time Pedro is about to deliver his final speech, when he discovers that each candidate must perform a skit afterwards. Having not prepared a routine, a despondent Pedro gives a lacklustre speech, believing that his candidacy is over. Napoleon gives a music tape he had received from the visiting LaFawnduh to the sound engineer and performs a dance routine (to “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai), which wins a standing ovation from the school audience.
The film closes out with a montage of scenes showing a happy ending for all concerned. Pedro wins the class presidency. LaFawnduh, smitten with Kip right from the start, transforms his fashion, and they leave town together. A fully recovered Grandma returns and has clearly missed Tina, the llama, more than her grandchildren. Uncle Rico’s girlfriend returns to Rico, and while Napoleon is playing tether ball by himself, Deb shows up and starts playing with him, having forgiven her friend.
A post credits scene, added after the festival release, reveals Kip and LaFawnduh getting married.
Setting
Preston is a real town in southeastern Idaho, located near the Utah border. Since the release of Napoleon Dynamite, it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with Preston High School being a main feature. Also with its premiere in 2004, Preston has held a Napoleon Dynamite Festival every summer to celebrate the filming of Napoleon Dynamite in Preston and nearby towns. In April 2005, the Idaho Legislature approved a resolution commending the filmmakers for producing Napoleon Dynamite, specifically enumerating the benefits the movie has brought to Idaho, as well as for showcasing various aspects of Idaho’s culture and economy. Most of the film was filmed in Idaho, except for the diner scenes in Richmond, Utah.
Origin of the name “Napoleon Dynamite”
Upon the film’s release, it was noted that the name “Napoleon Dynamite” had originally been used by musician Elvis Costello, most visibly on his 1986 album Blood and Chocolate, although he had used the pseudonym on a single B-side as early as 1982. Filmmaker Jared Hess claims that he was not aware of Costello’s use of the name until two days before the end of shooting, when he was informed by a teenage extra. He later said, “Had I known that name was used by anybody else prior to shooting the whole film, it definitely would have been changed … I listen to hip-hop, dude. It’s a pretty embarrassing coincidence.” Hess claims that “Napoleon Dynamite” was the name of a man he met around the year 2000 on the streets of Cicero, Illinois, while doing missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Costello believes that Hess stole the name: “The guy just denies completely that I made the name up… but I invented it. Maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came about it by chance. But it’s two words that you’re never going to hear together.” Costello has taken no legal action against the film.
Source: http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/interests/movies/150531/plot_and_setting_napoleon_dynamite/
See Also : Mooncake, moon cake, Mid autumn festival