The year was 2007 and I felt out-of-the-loop for watching a smash hit movie three years after it hit theaters.  However, after watching such a marvel of low-budget cinematic genius, I was hooked.  I incessantly wore my “Vote for Pedro” shirt and I may or may not have danced to Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat” at a family reunion or two.  Still, even I can’t approve of this mediocrity. It’s safe to say that Napoleon Dynamite provided a plethora of laughs, but rather than bad one-liners like the ones in this new, rehashed animated series, the humor came from Jon Heder’s (who played Napoleon and now voices him) sulking body language, which is nigh-impossible to translate to animation, and ridiculous diction.

This was never what Napoleon Dynamite was meant to be.  A Seth MacFarlane-esque animated series always gets its humor from the vulgarity of its jokes, but here, Fox has tried to release a family-friendly animated series based upon a cult classic film that was adored for the subtleness in the actor’s performances.  But while hiding behind the veil of animation, the show accomplishes nothing that the film did.

While there are a few good laughs to be had here and there, they are mostly provided by bits of nostalgic dialogue from Heder’s character, whether it be him reasoning why he would want to fight a bear more than a moose, since “The moose has more woodland allies” or “You can’t kill a ghost, Kip!  Not without charmed weaponry!”

Ultimately, this attempt at humor should go the way of other, short lived animated series, and be officially declared non-canonical by true Dynamite fans everywhere.