The Hilarious Deleted Scene In Napoleon Dynamite Fans Never Got To See
Since "Napoleon Dynamite" awkwardly danced into theaters in 2004, tator tots, llamas, and chapstick have never really been the same. It's one of the most quotable movies of all time ("Lucky!") mostly because of its awkward, nonsensically brash sense of humor. Everything about it is weird, and that's why it is so good.
As it is, the movie is pretty perfect. Personally, I can't think of anything else that it would need to be better. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to see some of the scenes that didn't quite make it into the final cut. Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, talked to the Movie Madness Podcast about some of the deleted scenes in the Sundance-selected comedy, and he described a hilarious scene that would have cracked up audiences.
Apparently, before Napoleon tries to romance Deb at the tetherball courts by telling her that he caught her a "delicious bass," there was an entire scene in which Napoleon went full-on Bear Grylls and worked hard to catch a bass in the river. "He finds one that's too small so he drop kicks it back into the lake," said Heder.
As much as I would love to see Napoleon's technique for bass fishing, Heder talks about another, even larger scene that leaves me feeling like the woman Kip and Uncle Rico try to sell Tupperware-like bowls to. "I want that," I whisper to my husband as I look on at the exquisite model ship that could be mine if I just commit to buying a 24-piece set of bowls.
Nothing says Napoleon like Kickball
The longer scene that Heder says ending up on the cutting room floor involves the characters playing a game of kickball. "There's a big kickball scene that was probably the chunkiest thing that was cut from the film" he says, describing how it was most likely cut because it didn't exactly paint Napoleon in the best light. "It shows Napoleon being a jerk to Don," Heder explains. Now, as much as I would love to see Napoleon be a jerk to the bleach blonde bro Don, the real reason I'm desperate to see this scene is because of the apparent artistic decision they made involving the kickball itself.
"I don't know if the art director screwed up" wonders Heder, as he explains that the kickball they were using to play the game in this scene was absolutely not the size of a normal kickball. When you think of a kickball, you're thinking of something similar in size to a soccer ball, just a lot softer. Usually it's reddish orange, and when your foot connects with it as you kick, it makes a very satisfying "thwump!" as it (hopefully) sales far off into the distance. This is not the type of kickball Heder and the rest of the actors used in their game. The kickball in question was much, much larger. "It was just silly," says Heder as he tries to emphasize the size of the ball with his hands which make it seem like the ball they were using was the size of the largest inflatable beachball you could find.
I don't know, maybe Heder is right and the person in charge of the kickball had never seen a real kickball before in their entire life. But I like to believe they knew exactly what they were doing. After all, the movie is already extremely ridiculous and over-the-top. Who's to say the kickballs in Napoleon's universe aren't actually the size of small meteors? Whether or not it was intentional, it still sounds hilarious, and I would love to see this deleted scene just for the gargantuan ball used to play the game. Not every scene deserves to end up in the final cut of a movie, but this one certainly sounds like a giant bunch of fun, and I'm sorry we'll never get to see it.