Idaho Examiner: Napoleon Dynamite Flippin Sweet Festival"Common Sense News"

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Recreation

Napoleon Dynamite Flippin Sweet Festival

Posted on: July 14, 2006

The Napoleon Dynamite Festival was held this weekend in Preston, Idaho. The event started on Friday with the Happy Hands special performance. On Saturday, the events included bus tours

of the movie filming sites, a tetherball contest, a tater tot eating contest, a Rex Kwon Do Dojo tour, a football throwing contest, a “sweet” bike-rollerblade contest and a look alike moonboot dance contest. In the rural town of Preston which has a population of around 5,000 this has put there bedroom community on the proverbial map.

The highlight of the day was meeting some of the local celebrities that participated in the making of the film. Meeting Lyle (the guy who shot the cow) was great. He reminded me of several farmers that I grew up with and seemed to be taking his new found stardom in stride. He has no plans of pursuing a career in movies. The young man who was on the bus with Napoleon with the line “What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?” was also signing autographs. While talking to his mother, I discovered that he is also not taking his notoriety to seriously. The tater tot guy seemed tired of meeting people; he looked like he was getting sick of tots. However, he was more that willing to sign autographs. Even the Happy Hands gal was there signing autographs. She looks great in person. She was also very pleasant. It was interesting to learn that none of these local actors were paid for there role in the movie.

While touring the events I spoke with a Ryan Grisso from San Francisco. He was dressed like Rex. His wife is from Caldwell, Idaho. He said that he is a big fan of the movie and would be interested in moving to Boise. Another family was taking pictures of Uncle Rico’s van. They currently live in Utah and would love to move to Preston. Obviously, they are also big fans of the movie, which brought them to the community of Preston.

Preston is a nice place. It is small enough to be a great place to raise a family and with the new two-lane road being constructed to Logan it will have the convenience of a larger city at its disposal. The movie Napoleon Dynamite has brought the attention of a large audience. It is the epitome of the small movie that could. The cost of making the movie was only $400,000 while it grossed 44 million. Hopefully that will also be the fate of the community that inspired the movie.

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