View full sizeJon HederPASADENA, Calif. -- It's been almost eight years since the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" became a cult hit for a generation of teens and 20-somethings. Belatedly, the cast and creators are ready to revisit the awkward teen, his family and friends in "Napoleon Dynamite" the animated series, premiering Sunday with episodes at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. on Fox.
Jon Heder, who grew up in Salem, returns to give voice to the title character, a mouth-breathing, slack-eyed nerd.
Napoleon's newest catchphrase? "You do, you die!"
What took so long to get back to "Napoleon Dynamite," which seems like it should have spawned a sequel not long after the original movie was released?
"There had been very little talk (of a sequel)," Heder said. "I think schedules and even interest level (got in the way). I wasn't against it at the time but I wasn't pushing it. I certainly wasn't the one calling the shots and I think everybody was off, busy doing other things."
It's somewhat a relief to Heder to have the animated series on the air because it will end the question he gets asked most often.
"I was excited because I'm finally able to tell fans like, yes, we're making more stuff," Heder said. "That's the No. 1 question you always get, 'Is there going to be any more Napoleon?' I was just really excited to kind of get back into the character and get back with everybody involved with the film."
Executive producer Jared Hess, who created the character in a student film Heder starred in while both were attending Brigham Young University, said reimagining the world of a rural Idaho town in animated form felt like a natural extension of the "Napoleon" story.
"The movie was kind of a live-action cartoon anyway," Hess said, "and the transition into animation just kind of made a lot of sense to us. It opened up what we were able to do with the character and the stories."
For example, the "Napoleon" movie mentioned ligers (a cross between lions and tigers, of course).
"We wouldn't be able to really work with those creatures in real life, but in animated form (we can)," Hess said. "I think the animators did a really good job. They really studied the film; we spent a lot of time just getting Napoleon's run down -- his arms down by his side, armpits closed, running."
Heder said it's not difficult for him to play Napoleon, largely because his eyes are nearly closed.
"You're kind of resting," Heder said. "You can hide behind your eyelids and you just kind of rest your voice."
But for an animated show, accommodations had to be made.
"We actually spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make him look alive," Hess said. "We worked a lot on the eyes for the cartoon."
Animation also changes how Heder performs the role: "I've had to show way more emotional range in this role than I ever have in anything else I've done," he said.
Life in Salem
Heder, born in Fort Collins, Colo., moved to Oregon at age 2 when his physician father, Dr. James Heder, moved the family to Salem to set up a practice. The Heders live in West Salem and Jon graduated from South Salem High School in 1996.
Heder, who also starred with Will Ferrell in the 2007 movie "Blades of Glory," didn't act in high school productions, leaving that to oldest brother Doug. Instead, Jon took a video production class and made videos with twin brother Dan after school. He also appeared in productions with Children's Educational Theatre of Salem, attending a summer theater camp that staged shows. He and Dan played swindlers in "The Emperor's New Clothes" and Oompa Loompas in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
Heder said growing up in Salem helped shape his portrayal of Napoleon, who lives in the smaller town of Preston, Idaho.
"Everything about me leading up to 'Napoleon' was my background," he said, "I attest a lot of that to my experiences not in a small town -- it's Salem, it's not huge but it's certainly not a podunk, small, little town -- but I always grew up in West Salem, just enough so I could be outside in what feels like a classic neighborhood, biking around doing all the things Napoleon would have liked to have done."
Heder gets back to Salem about once a year to visit his family -- his wife, Kirsten, has family in Keizer, too -- and he returned last May to talk to students at Walker Middle School on the occasion of the school's 50th anniversary.
"I love Oregon," Heder said. "I don't consider myself from L.A. even though I live here now. That's who I am; I'm from Oregon."
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