Napoleon dynamite where is it set

For at least a decade I still saw people occasionally rocking the 'vote for pedro' shirts. If you have not seen it, Napoleon Dynamite is about a super awkward teenager navigating home and high school in a small town.

The goofy and silly cult classic got a lot of attention. As it turns out pretty much the entire movie was filmed in Preston, Idaho. Something that the town is obviously proud of. Preston to this day still sees visitors who are fans of the movie and want to see the locations where scenes where filmed.

The scene of the farmer shooting the cow in front of the school bus full of children is a true anecdote from director Jared Hess' childhood. Despite playing high school students, Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez were, respectively, 26 and 31 when this movie was made. Both Jon Heder Napoleon and Efren Ramirez Pedro , who play the lead characters in the movie, have an identical twin in real life. Uncle Rico's girlfriend, who rides up to him on her bicycle at the end of the film, is Aaron Ruell 's Kip wife in real life.

Jon Heder 's big dance scene at the end was the last scene scheduled, but film ran out while shooting it. The sequence was edited together from less than ten minutes of his dancing.

Aaron Ruell Kip had braces put on his teeth for this role. Two orthodontists are thanked in the credits. Every dish shown during the opening credits is eaten by a character later in the movie.

The dishes presented in the opening credits were the work of the three people who present them. Jon Heder credited Tina Majorino Deb with helping to choreograph the dance scene.

He also states that some of the dance moves were "borrowed" from Michael Jackson , Backstreet Boys , John Travolta , and Soul Train , as well as some of his own moves. Idaho unanimously passed a bill praising Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess for making the film, citing amongst their reasons that the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention.

Tater tots figuring prominently in the film had promoted Idaho's most famous export. The opening title sequence was partially re-shot due to some of the executives at Fox Searchlight not liking the look of the actor's hands who placed the food into the shot.

They flew out a hand model to reshoot some of the shots with the director. Jon Heder permed his hair for the film. When Kip is on the computer at the beginning of the film, all of the words he is saying were improvised by Aaron Ruell.

If listened to closely, one can hear him singing a little bit right as Grandma comes in. Jack Black almost played Rex. He would later star in director Jared Hess ' next film, Nacho Libre Deb's photo studio is actually the basement of the interior version of Napoleon Dynamite's house. The film is based on a short film Jared Hess made in with Jon Heder. Almost everything from the short made it into the feature film.

For instance, there is a scene in the feature film where Napoleon and Pedro are at a state fair appraising cows or tasting milk. In the short, there is only a line of spoken dialogue that mentions the taste-testing of milk. Heder had on moon boots—something Hess used to wear—so they traveled to the end of a dirt road. Heder told HuffPost he found inspiration in Michael Jackson and dancing in front of a mirror, for the end-of-the-movie skit.

But when it came time to film the dance for the feature, Heder felt "pressure" to deliver. Everything leads up to this. This has to be the moment where he lands a victory.

Besides the filming locations, the town used to host a Napoleon Dynamite festival. In , the fest drew about people and featured a tater tot eating contest, a moon boot dancing contest, boondoggle keychains for sale, and a tetherball tournament.

The fest was last held in In , the Idaho legislature wrote a resolution praising Jared and Jerusha Hess and the city of Preston.

Computer scientist Len Bertoni had trouble predicting whether people would like Napoleon Dynamite.