I’ve written voluminously about the peculiar magnetism of Napoleon Dynamite. Suffice to say that if for some reason you haven’t yet seen the film, then jumping with two feet into the middle of its rapturous cult reception can be a bit overwhelming. Jon Heder plays the squinty-eyed title character, and even if every future role he ever does demystifies or devalues slightly the wonked-out uniqueness of his grade-A nerd petulance on display here, it still won’t diminish the idiosyncratic charm of the movie as a whole. Napoleon Dynamite, like all lasting comedies, locates its humor in universal conditions and circumstances told from a very specific and canted point of view.



Co-written by director Jared Hess (the forthcoming Nacho Libre) and his wife Jerusha, the film centers around an Idaho teenage outcast and the unlikely bonds he forges with a new transfer student and an equally awkward girl. Mirroring its clumsy inelegance is the unlikely, little-engine-that-could story of the film itself. Made for just $400,000 in 2003, it was an under-the-radar selection at the Sundance Film Festival before becoming a hot ticket, getting snapped up by Fox Searchlight and grossing over $44 million over the summer of 2004 on the strength of savvy low-fi marketing and scintillating word-of-mouth. It’s a behind-the-scenes story that gets fleshed out — some might even argue overly stretched out — and roundly celebrated in the new, exhaustive, two-disc set Napoleon Dynamite: Like, the Best Special Edition Ever!

The original DVD release of Napoleon Dynamite featured both full screen and widescreen presentations of the film, an audio commentary track with Hess, Heder and producer Jeremy Coon, deleted scenes with optional commentary, MTV promos for the movie, a still photo gallery and several other featurettes. In short, it was certainly no slouch, burned-off release. Diehard fans, though, will still spark to the new inclusions. This set shaves off the full screen presentation while retaining the first audio commentary track and adding a sparkling, fun second one with costars Aaron Ruell, Jon Gries, Efren Ramirez and Tina Majorino. In addition to the aforementioned fare, the short film Peluca and the kitschy The Wedding of the Century add-on (a rib-nudging bit filmed for late theatrical appendage and MTV run) are also carried over from the initial release, along with nicely offbeat menu screens keeping with the film’s tone.

The new bits, then, include all-new outtakes and additional extended scenes, never-before-seen audition clips, an on-location featurette/diary from the shooting of the film (notable for more footage of Uncle Rico’s famous steak toss) and “Napoleon and Pedro Sightings,” which collects cast and in-character appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live and the MTV Movie Awards. The biggest supplement, though, is the hour-long documentary World Premiere: Jared Hess, aptly billed as a nonlinear look at the director’s journey from before Sundance all the way up to and beyond the commercial release of the movie. While on the one hand full of some fascinating snippets, its direct-address, crisis-of-confidence ramblings can get kind of repetitive, and it also shows Hess to be a nitpicking director prone to stiflingly arbitrary line readings. An upgrade isn’t an absolute must given the superb quality of the first release, but this is the definitive version of Napoleon Dynamite — it’s hard to imagine there’s anything else left. A (Movie) A (Disc)