A Man. And His Blog.

Season 1, Episode 1
Produced as season 1, episode 4
Date of airing: Jan 15, 2012 (FOX)
Watched for review: Jan 16, 2012
Number of review in January/2012: 67/67

Most TV remakes and TV sequels are obvious. The premiere of THE FIRM isn’t far behind us, but is probably not going to have a long life on crapped-up NBC. With some TV shows, you have to think and research hard to actually find out it’s an adaptation, based on another movie or TV show. Mostly because the original work is not well-known to be known by the TV audience. It seems to be a rule that animated TV shows are the “official” sequels to movies – like the animated TV sequels to BACK TO THE FUTURE (1991 – 1992 on CBS), THE MUMMY (2001 – 2003 on Kids’ WB) or DUMB AND DUMBER (1995 – 1996 on ABC), which were airing in the morning hours on those various kids animated hours, but weren’t much successful. With NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, FOX’s new effort to have another animated hit on their schedule, another TV sequel comes around the corner. The original is the same-titled independently produced teenager comedy from 2004, which became a cult hit with its fans (for reasons I don’t know though). $US 400 000 were spent to produce the movie with Jon Heder in the titular role, who plays a 16-year-old high school student, living together with his 32-year-old jobless brother Kip and annoying grandma, just to dream through the day. The TV adaptation metaphorically continues where the movie left off. Meaning, it doesn’t do it literally, being a real TV spin-off. Instead, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is the animated TV version of the cult movie.

Napoleon is, like in the movie, a bored-out-of-his-mind high school student in a bored-out-of-hell state named Idaho. He is considered to be a loser than a nerd. His brother Kip is on the lookout for his future wife (which will also need the attention of grandma Dynamite), which is why it’s difficult for Napoleon to find a place in life and Idaho. At least he has great hobbies: martial arts, hip hop dancing and tetherball are good enough to fight boredom and giving Napoleon to survive in this dull place. That he hates his brother Kip to the ground proves not to be the only recurring storyline of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE…

FOX already makes a mistake on NAPOLEON DYNAMITE’s first day: not airing the real pilot, instead airing two random episodes in the first season (namely episodes four [standing as this pilot] and three [which was aired after]). This has a kinda good “effect” , because this episode takes a lot of elements over to the series, and makes fans watch it. It is probably the episode, which wanted the fans of the movie to continue watching, maybe because the pilot itself is not that great and something completely different story-wise. That the non-airing of the real pilot also contains a disadvantage shows in the waiver of character introductions and the story for non-fans of the movie (which kind of resembles the movie in some parts). Napoleon’s awkwardness felt way too normal for this episode, even though it should be considered anything but normal – this episode basically shows Napoleon as one of the most normal guys on the planet, despite his characteristics of not being the normal guy he was depicted here. The movie is probably a cult figure, because of Napoleon as a weird character, who justifies the comedy aspect of the story. Yet for the TV show, the writers have written Napoleon pretty much into a corner with his awkwardness, not being existent in this episode. Does that mean the show will eventually lose the tone of its movie? And does it mean that NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is just another show, fitting enough for the animation domination Sunday nights, instead of being something different?

That’s the biggest problem this episode (and therefore the show) has: It feels too normal to be something special. The comedy bits show that the writers were looking for the punchline in their jokes (barely succeeding), as well as the crazy scenes which define THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY. That exactly makes NAPOLEON DYNAMITE fit into the SUnday night block, looking like a brother to all the other shows, but at the end this show is nothing but another effort to put on another crazed-up animated show with crazed-up characters and even more over-the-top storylines. While NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is bringing in all the elements of the movie and therefore tries hard to make the movie fans tune in, the normal TV audience is fobbed off with the fact that this show has nothing new to offer. Like its competitors in the genre.

I have nothing to say against the 2D animation, they are clean-cut and normal. Also pretty much free of any surprises or specialities. But the animation doesn’t contribute much to the style of the show, or the animation domination block, even though it couldn’t be more fitting in there. Only the voice acting is pretty tiring, especially when I think about Jon Heder. He pulls down almost the whole episode with his monotone and sleepy voice. If you need sleeping pills, look no further and watch NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Also, Aaron Ruell doesn’t seem to be much of a great voice actor here, when he sounds like an old woman in a mustache costume most of the times. Over the top? Oh yes – I’m still waiting for the first animation to not be overexcited.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is for the animated world, as FUTURAMA was/is for THE SIMPSONS: an effort for writers and producers to expand their point of view of the comedy into another project. And since the genre of TV animation is hot and buzzed at the moment (despite all the ratings flops FOX was landing in recent years), the producers don’t miss out to bring all the craziness into their very own show, just so it looks like every other animated show on FOX. If this helps the comedy aspect of the show, has to be seen in the future – for the first-aired episode it wasn’t enough though. Maybe only because FOX has chosen to not air the pilot, maybe the seasonal episodes are better while the pilot sucks. Question mark. 5/10

Napoleon just gave a Rambo performance

Now it's time for Kip to show what makes him a hothead