napoleon-dynamite
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The Road to Mordor: A talk with the crew of The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers
Buzz has been increasing about an intriguing independent film that looks to blend Tolkien love, geek pride, and Lord of the Rings Online fandom into one epic adventure. Called The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers, this movie is about a group of friends who undertake a journey to a convention in order to participate in a LotRO gaming competition (and stick it to some bullies while they're at it). Many blogs, such as LOTRO Reporter and A Casual Stroll to Mordor, have promoted this up-and-coming film, and after seeing the trailer, we too became fascinated with what could be a fun movie that puts MMO gaming front and center. One may not simply walk into Mordor, but with the right connections, one could phone the folks up there. We got on the line with three crew members for The Fellows Hip -- Ron Newcomb (producer, director and writer), Scott Mathais (producer and writer), and Shane McClung (producer) -- to see just what type of lovable insanity would cause a group of people to throw together such a movie.
The Perfect Ten: The evolution of /dance
I recall when I was a wee... teenager and C+C Music Factory would blast through our Walkmans to demand that everybody (1) dance and (2) dance now. It was commanding, enthralling and extremely dorky, but the dance could not be denied. Dancing is in the soles of our souls as humans; we simply must boogie to a good beat. I'm not quite sure when or where dancing in MMOs became all the craze, but these days it seems as though every game (except the dour ones with bears, bears, bears) prides itself on a good set of /dance emotes. For some players, it's the perfect way to unwind after a long raid or chew up a bit of time while one waits for SgtCuddlyMonkey to return from his refreshing bio break. For others, it's a legitimate career path with a long and distinguished history of gyrating on top of mailboxes while annoyed postal recipients long for a day when a pelvis will not be gesturing at eye level. So this week, let's loosen up, let our hair down, and samba across the ballroom floor as we count down (up?) 10 incredible MMO dances.
Napoleon Dynamite finally hitting Blu-ray in February: flippin' sweet
It was bound to happen, and while wildly speculating was fun, we can now finally mark our calendars. The appropriately christened "sleeper hit of 2004" is all lined up for a Blu-ray release, and it'll arrive not a moment too soon. The film will be presented in 1080p / AVC MPEG-4 with a lossless 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio track (not to mention French / Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks on the side). There's no date set in stone just yet, but "February" at $34.95 (MSRP) is close enough... gosh!
DS Fanswag: The latest two-pack goes to ....
Yet another contest has wrapped, and one lucky DS Fanboy reader is going to walk away with the one thing that's really important: free DS games. This time it's Hostile, whose comment reflected a very apt screenname (though we're assuming it's sarcasm, which is big around these parts): I would side more with Napoleon Dynamite but only because you're pushing us to answer. Stop shoving! Congratulations to Hostile for picking up copies of The Spiderwick Chronicles and Napoleon Dynamite! To everyone else: sorry you didn't win this time, but don't worry -- we'll do another contest soon!
DS Fanswag: Time is short for the licensed two-pack!
So maybe it's not the most exciting giveaway ever -- see, we pay attention to you -- but it's still free stuff, and who doesn't like free stuff? Our latest giveaway, featuring copies of The Spiderwick Chronicles and Napoleon Dynamite DS, is winding down, so don't forget to throw your name in the hat. Remember, you can enter once per day, and the contest ends March 4. Go forth and enter by commenting on the original post.
DS Fanswag: Pick up a cinematic two-pack!
Ever feel like trying out a couple of licensed games, but don't feel like buying them? DS Fanboy is here to help! We've got one copy each of The Spiderwick Chronicles ($29.99) and Napoleon Dynamite ($29.99) to give away to one lucky reader, and all you have to do is tell us which movie is more your style in the comments below. The contest will run through March 4; we'll stop taking entries that night at 11:59 p.m. EST. As with most of our contests, you can enter once per day, and as usual, is limited to legal U.S. residents age 18 or older. For any other questions you may have, check the official rules. We'll announce the name of the lucky winner (drawn at random) on March 5, so get your name in now!And while I have your attention (free stuff always works for that!), I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who extended their congratulations when JC wrote about my beautiful new baby boy. Thank you, fanfolk ... it meant a lot to us.
DS Fanboy Review: Napoleon Dynamite
Director Jared Hess has a 100% rate of movies turned into DS games. His latest film, Nacho Libre, was released in June of 2006; a DS game followed in October. Despite the fact that the movie featured the very video-game-friendly subject of wrestling, the game was not a major success, critically or financially.Nacho Libre the movie was preceded by Napoleon Dynamite, which was about the very non-video-game-friendly subject of awkward people standing around. Now, three years after the release of the movie, Napoleon Dynamite is joining Nacho Libre on the Nintendo DS. It is something of a victory for developer 7 Studios that the Napoleon Dynamite DS game works as a game at all, despite the handicap of being based on a movie with no action of any kind. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great game. In fact, Napoleon Dynamite is the very definition of a middle-of-the-road game. It isn't completely awful, and it isn't good. It doesn't inspire disgust and it doesn't impress. It's just kind of there.%Gallery-8037%
Napoleon Dynamite screens are (insert catchphrase here)
When we received a press release containing Napoleon Dynamite screenshots, we immediately loaded up our Snark Guns with fresh supplies of venom and bile, ready to fire a wide spread of lulz out into the Internet. It's a licensed minigame collection! Based on a movie that came out in 2004! That should never have been made into a video game! It was going to be a rare opportunity to hate like we've never hated before. MORE LIKE NAPOLEON DUD AMIRITE, we were going to say.But our Snark Festa ended a little too soon when we saw the screenshots and realized that we sort of respected what Crave was doing with the game. Some of the minigames look a little iffy (like what appears to be dodge ball controlled entirely with the touch screen), and the whole thing seems to be too dancing-based, but damned if they didn't use an intriguing art style.The results aren't always the prettiest, but any game that uses a mixture of pencil-on-paper and photo collage is at least a little bit cool. Man, we wanted to be too cool for this game, but we just couldn't help it. And, uh, we kind of want to play a minigame about throwing food into a llama's mouth.%Gallery-8037%[Via press release]
We play Crave's pre-E3 games so you don't have to
You love licensed games, don't you? Of course you do! We had a chance to play Crave's upcoming games in a Pre-E3 media event. Games like Napoleon Dynamite and Crayola Adventures were on display, and we played every single thing we could grab our hands on. There was one good game on display ... but which one will it be? The George of the Jungle game ... or the spelling game? Read on to find out. Dave Mirra's BMX ChallengeWhat do you do when you create the worst PSP game of all time?You put it on Wii.%Gallery-4398%
PSP Fanboy attends Crave's Pre-E3 event
PSP Fanboy and Joystiq got its hands on a lot of different games at Crave's Pre-E3 event. Not many were good. In fact, many were downright terrible. Here's our impressions: Spelling Challenges and More!Honestly, this was the best game available at the event. And, it's not the best bad game. No, it's actually pretty good. Taking a page from Brain Age, this "learning" game has you participating in a spelling challenge. And more! There's hangman, and other language games that'll make your English teacher proud. The game is presented as a game show, and the host is a lot of fun. The game has a great progression in challenge, and its easy to navigate. The PSP version has audio definitions of words, which makes for a far more natural game (the DS version, instead, flashes the word quickly). This game is going to be a ton of fun for the casual market ... who knew spelling could be so entertaining?%Gallery-4404%
WoW Moviewatch: So that's where that dance came from!
We've all seen the videos of different dances. We've had ones where they all dance together, ones where the original source is cited. We've even seen video of a guy dancing like a Night Elf Female. Now we have another dance movie. There's one thing about this one that sets it apart, however. This is the first one I've seen that does a really good job of putting the dances side-by-side with their inspirations. As Bowzerblack on the WoW LJ said: "I didn't know that about ogres!" All I can say is that I didn't either. And yes, I know it's the Boomkin dance too, but you don't see a lot of (completely-bare) topless Boomkins running about. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing.Previously, on MovieWatch...[via the WoW LJ community]
Napoleon Dynamite gets a PSP videogame
Crave Entertainment announced their plans on bringing the cult-favorite Napoleon Dynamite to smaller screens, or more specifically, PSP and DS screens. The game will include popular characters from the film, like Pedro, Uncle Rico and our favorite, Kip. No word yet on LaFawnduh Lucas. We hope the game includes a (sweet) bike race with Napoleon dodging ligers and Deb tossing boondoggle key chains at chickens with large talons. The possibilities are endless. No further details at this time other than the announcement, but stay tuned for more.[Via DS Fanboy]
Napoleon Dynamite, we wanna play you
We're not really sure we get the timing, but we'll take the announcement whenever: Crave announced a Napoleon Dynamite game for DS and PSP. While there are no real details yet -- like when it will be out, or what it will involve -- Crave's Mark Burke did promise that fans of the film will probably like it. Gosh! We fully expect lots of random quotes, as well as drawing and dancing minigames.[Thanks, Andrew!]
