Lock up your ligers: 2004's cult indie hero Napoleaon Dynamite** is returning, as a Fox TV animation. The shading on his upper lip will take them hours, but it'll probably be the best drawing they've ever done.
In case you missed it, Napoleon Dynamite is the titular Idaho high-schooler, who lives with his grandma and his wannabe cage-fighter brother Kip, and is bullied at school despite his ninja-like prowess with a bow staff. It's important to have skills. Chicks dig skills.
There's some business about Kip designing a time machine, but the main thrust is Napoleon's friend Pedro's decision to run for class president, despite no discernible popularity or ability. The humour is several fathoms below deadpan. We'd almost call it the funniest comedy of its year, but it did have some rather strong competition in the form of Anchorman. (Discuss - 10 marks)
The series, according to Deadline, is pitched as "the misadventures of an awkward high school teenager and his quirky friends as they struggle to navigate life in rural Idaho." That's a horrible description, but we'll let it slide as necessary studio-speak, since "Superbad crossed with Gummo" probably wouldn't do much to sell the series to a mainstream audience.
The original writer / director Jared Hess is still the creative force, along with his writing partner Jerusha Hess and The Simpsons' Mike Scully. And "the original cast" are providing the voices, which certainly means Jon Heder as Napoleon, and should also mean the further adventures of Kip (Aaron Ruell), Lafawnduh (Shondrella Avery), Pedro (Efren Ramirez) and Uncle Rico (Jon Gries).
We're quite excited, but Fox are being slightly cautious, only commissioning six episodes to start with. The further seven episodes of the thirteen-show block (that's the way they do things on American TV) will see another debut series: Jonah Hill's Allen Gregory, about the world's most gifted seven-year-old negotiating elementary school with normal kids. Both debut "next season".