Napoleon Dynamite appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 and in a fullscreen version on this double-sided, single-layered DVD; the letterboxed image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Only the widescreen edition was viewed for this article. The movie’s indie origins occasionally rendered it a little iffy, but it usually presented a good image.
With only a few exceptions, sharpness came across well. Some shots - mostly wider ones - displayed mild softness. Those didn’t occur frequently, as the majority of the flick was accurately defined. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw only a smidgen of edge enhancement. As for source flaws, occasional examples of specks popped up, but the movie didn’t show too many of those.
The film went with a natural but slightly subdued palette. The tones came across as adequately defined, though they tended to be a little pale. Blacks were deep and firm, and low-light shots offered good delineation. Ultimately, the movie didn’t jump off the screen, but it looked fine.
Don’t expect too much from the low-key Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Napoleon Dynamite. Just like the movie itself, it was a logy affair. The audio concentrated heavily on the front speakers. Music presented decent stereo imaging along with mild environmental elements. These meshed somewhat awkwardly, as they could be a little speaker-specific. In any case, they didn’t offer a lot of activity. The surrounds played an extremely insubstantial role in the film. A couple of scenes like the one in the chicken coop and the dance showed minor use of the rear speakers, but for all intents and purposes, they were passive.
Audio quality was fine but unexceptional. Speech came across as fairly natural and distinctive, with no problems connected to intelligibility or edginess. Effects played a small role but sounded reasonably accurate and clean. Music was a little thin at times but usually appeared nicely defined and warm. The soundtrack didn’t offer much to stand out, but it was acceptable.
When we head to the disc’s supplements, we find an audio commentary with director/co-writer Jared Hess, actor Jon Heder, and producer Jeremy Coon. All three sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion. They chat about subjects like real-life inspirations for the film’s events and elements, locations, the cast and crew, and general production notes. The parts in which they talk about the movie’s background and genesis are good, but the rest of it seems pretty bland. Most of the comments don’t tell us much, and the guys devote too much time to praise for things. We constantly hear about how much they like this scene or that line. It’s a bland and only sporadically informative commentary.
The rest of the features can be found on one side of the disc or the other. Starting on the “widescreen” side, four Deleted Scenes appear. Viewed together, these run eight minutes and five seconds. A couple present alternate versions of existing scenes, and we also see a pair of new segments. The latter two are the more interesting of the set. We can watch the clips with or without commentary from Hess, Heder and Coon. They offer some basic production notes and also relate why the clips got cut.
In the Still Gallery, we get 43 shots. Mostly these give us production photos, but a few details like close-ups of drawings also pop up here. Under the Searchlight Features banner, we see ads for Millions and The Ringer.
Over on the fullscreen side of the disc, we get a short film called Peluca. It lasts eight minutes and 46 seconds as it presents Hess’s 2002 student film precursor to Dynamite. It casts Heder as “Seth”, a character identical to Napoleon in every way other than name. Really, Peluca is essentially a short and primitive version of Dynamite, as it consists mainly of scenes in the final flick (or deleted scenes, in any case). It’s cool to see as a historical artifact, and since it’s so much shorter, it might actually be more entertaining than Dynamite.
We can also watch Peluca with commentary from the usual trio. They toss out minor production notes but don’t tell us much. Instead, they largely just make remarks related to the movie’s story.
The three-minute and 46-second The Wedding of the Century! gives us a little behind the scenes look at the shoot of the movie’s epilogue. We get notes from Heder and actors Efren Ramirez, Aaron Ruell, and Shondrella Avery. They chat a little about the ending scene and the movie in general. It’s promotional and not very interesting.
In addition to a soundtrack promo and a trailer for Arrested Development, the disc finishes with seven MTV Promos. They’re simply quirky TV ads, though some of them include some unique footage.
Based on the trailers, I thought Napoleon Dynamite had potential to be amusingly quirky. Instead, I found a movie that was nothing more than a tedious exercise in forced weirdness. The DVD presents reasonably good picture and sound. It includes a surprisingly broad roster of extras, though the bland audio commentary is a disappointment. If you enjoyed Dynamite, you’ll be pleased with this DVD, but I can’t recommend this wearisome clunker to others.
