Napoleon Dynamite's Success Led To An Awful Animated Series That Was Canceled After 6 Episodes
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Jared Hess' oddball comedy "Napoleon Dynamite" was an enormous success when it was released back in 2004, making over $46 million on its tiny $400,000 budget. The film was just peculiar enough to attract a snarky audience of jeering twentysomethings who liked to quote the film's kooky dialogue and imitate lead actor Jon Heder's peculiar delivery. The title character lived in a boring city in Idaho, but, like a Wes Anderson character, also lived in a carefully constructed personal universe of his own. Napoleon was always confident and assured, even as he was relentlessly picked on at his high school. His fashion sense stunk, but he attacked the world with a strangely laconic self-assurance that one can't help but envy.
The character was striking enough to launch a miniature industry of "Vote for Pedro" T-shirts, sweaters, mugs, Funko Pops, bumper stickers, and Halloween costumes. "Napoleon Dynamite" stayed entrenched in the pop consciousness for way, way longer than anyone might have expected. It has inspired reunion screenings and countless post-rep-screening Q&As. And I, fool that I am, predicted in 2004 that it wouldn't attract a cult. I am rarely more wrong.
What even the deepest-cut Pedro fans may not recall was the "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series that aired on Fox, eight years after the film was released. The "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series reunited most of the original film's cast, including Heder in the title role, Efren Ramirez as Pedro, Tina Majorino as Deb, Aaron Ruell as Napoleon's older brother Kip, and John Gries as their shiftless Uncle Rico. Even Diedrich Bader and Haylie Duff returned. The show also boasted guest spots for Jennifer Coolidge, Sam Rockwell, Jemaine Clement, Amy Poehler, and Alan Tudyk.
It also sucked. The series immediately got terrible reviews (it has a 32% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews), and the ratings were immediately low. It was canceled after six episodes.
Napoleon Dynamite was just repeated for the animated series
The "Napoleon Dynamite" TV series zoomed in on the feature film, following the same characters in the same town, but on a timeline that took place before the "Napoleon" feature film ended. There was a two-month gap in the film that elapsed after Pedro had been elected class president, but before Kip married his internet sweetheart Lafawnduh. The TV series takes place entirely in that two-month gap. It seems that the characters hadn't changed much since the movie, though, and still behaved in a similarly understated and laconic fashion.
The first episode concerned Napoleon getting a job at a liger sanctuary (a cross-breed of a lion and a tiger; Napoleon's favorite animal). New characters are introduced, of course; Poehler, for instance, plays a teen girl who falls for Napoleon after he gets hooked on testosterone-laced facial cream. Rockwell plays a local champion, the winner of the Future Farmers of America competition. Clips of the series were posted on /Film back in the day.
Reviews for "Napoleon Dynamite" weren't wholly kind. The Chicago Sun-Times gave the show one and a half stars, with critic Lori Rackl saying that one's mileage may vary, depending on one's affection for the original film. Deadpan humor, she said, doesn't work as well in animation. The review on the Uncle Barky website was kinder, although it was only compared favorably to "Allen Gregory," another short-lived animated Fox sitcom that aired at the same time. Comparing two bad, forgotten, early 2010s primetime animated shows doesn't really complement either. The Los Angeles Times review, written by Mary McNamara, pointed out that slow-burn humor and long awkward pauses don't function well in TV animation, even if they may work in feature films. Even the people who liked the series felt that it was inferior to the original film ... and not everyone liked the original film.
Six episodes later, it was gone, pulled from Fox and shoved into the world of lost curios. It can currently be purchased from Apple TV, if your curiosity is getting the better of you.