"Napoleon Dynamite" is so Good Even My Kids Liked It

I adore the movie "Napoleon Dynamite". This is no secret to the people closest to me. I saw it six times in the theater. I bought it the day it came out on DVD. I had a Vote For Pedro t-shirt. My folks would gift me random bobbleheads of characters from the movie. I had a very big doll of Napoleon dancing in his Vote For Pedro shirt. Hell, I was even in a fanclub for the movie, and the only other thing I go to bat for as hard as that is Michigan football. I'm a big time fan.

I often quote the movie, and lately that has ramped up since my son is now a moody teenager. He often says things like, "GOD!", or "GEEZE!", and when he does that it gets me started. One day, while on vacation, my son told me that he wanted to watch the movie. I guess they had started it a different night, but he said he felt guilty not watching it with me. And we happened to have one night where we stayed in and we decided to watch it from start to finish. I have tried watching it with them in the room before, but it never took. They never sat down long enough to get into the movie. So, with all of us being in a one story AirBnB, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Going into the movie I will say I was a bit nervous how my kids would see it. My daughter decided to join us, she wanted to take a break from drawing, and this made me even more anxious. She's as tough a critic as there is in the world. As we sat down and the movie started, I was right back into the world that the writers, actors and director created over 20 years ago. That is what I love about this movie, I can turn it on at anytime and be transported back to the first time I saw it. Luckily, for me, my kids were just as into it as my wife and I were. They were laughing when we were laughing. There were some jokes that I would laugh at, and then my kids would also laugh at, and I'd ask them if they understood why I was laughing. My 13 year old, for the most part, got the jokes. My 9 year old knew some of them, but she did admit that she was laughing from time to time because I was laughing. As the movie was going on my son asked me what it was rated. I told him PG. He said that seemed right because there were no curse words and no "adult moments", which is kissing in his mind.

That was when I realized that "Napoleon Dynamite" is truly a movie for anyone and all ages. There is nothing off putting or gross about this movie. It is truly just about a few months of a school year in a few kids lives. Sure, the bullies say some odd things to Napoleon, but it never gets out of the hand. The one bully that puts his hands on Napoleon is served his commuppence when Pedro's cousins confront him. And the kids in the movie are showing how to navigate high school with people that are your true friends. I hope my kids got that out of the movie, and I think they did when I asked them what they thought when the movie was over. My daughter simply said she liked it and it was funny. She also said she liked how much I was laughing. My son had a deeper response. He said he liked that Napoleon found the right people for him, that Kip found the right person to spend his life with and that Uncle Rico seemed like he learned from his mistakes. I thought that was very well put and a very solid summation of the movie.

This viewing made me like the movie even more than I already do. It truly does stand the test of time and, in the right setting, even cool, young kids will enjoy their viewing. "Napoleon Dynamite" is a classic and I'm so happy that my kids finally got to see this wonderful movie I've been yapping about their whole lives. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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