Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - 75 mistakes

Continuity: When Napoleon is waiting while Rico makes a sale, he checks his watch to see how much time he has before the dance. The first time he checks it, the date on the watch indicates Thursday July 17. When he checks it again a few minutes later, it shows Monday July 21.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Napoleon watches the farmer shoot the cow, the film crew and camera are visible in the reflection of the glass door of the passing school bus.

Continuity: When Napoleon is asking Pedro if he is going to eat his tater tots the position of the tots keep changing between shots.

Continuity: When Napoleon drops off the drawing of Trisha with her mom, he is standing on the porch. He then says 'bye' and runs off of the porch. The next camera shot is from Trisha's mom's perspective of the screen/glass door closing. When the door is closing you can see Napoleon's reflection in the glass (he's standing right there when he should have been far away from there if he had run off the porch as portrayed).

Visible crew/equipment: When Deb is calling Napoleon from the pay-phone, you can see the reflection of the camera-men in the payphone number-pad, as pointed out in the director commentary section of the DVD.

Audio problem: When Napoleon knocks on Trisha's door he knocks four times but you only hear three knocks.

Continuity: When Kip and Rico go bowling, Kip knocks down all but one pin. In the following shot Rico asks Kip if he has access to a car and two standing pins can be seen over Kip's left shoulder.

Continuity: When Napoleon starts his dance skit near the end of the movie, his t-shirt is tucked into his pants. Shortly into the skit, the shirt comes loose in the back and on one side. A few seconds later, the shirt is once again completely tucked in. This happens several times throughout the scene.

Continuity: When the bully beats up the nerd with the turtleneck and puts him into a headlock, notice the disabled girl in the red shirt that walks by them. She walks past them twice in about 6 seconds.

Continuity: Kip puts a green bowl under the wheel of his truck, but the next second it's a blue bowl.

Continuity: Toward the end, when Napoleon is standing outside his house yelling at Rico to "get off my property", the front door of his house, behind him, keeps changing from nearly closed to wide open and back, between shots.

Visible crew/equipment: Just after Rex slaps Kip in the face, the actors' white tape marker is visible on the floor.

Visible crew/equipment: When Napoleon is walking up to Trisha's front porch, if you look in the door, you can see the reflection of a cameraman standing out by the street.

Continuity: When Napoleon asks Deb for a keychain, a piece of paper is seen on the ground to Napoleon's left. Then after Deb gives it to him and runs off, the paper is behind Napoleon.

Continuity: When Napoleon is feeding Tina, he stretches his arm over the fence and there is a rope visible. The rope repeatedly goes from being closer to further away from Napoleon's arm.

Continuity: When Napoleon, Grandma, and Kip are all in the kitchen area, in the shot of Grandma leaving, the container is nowhere close to the counter top edge and next to what looks like a phone book. Two shots later, in a close-up of Kip, the same food is now close to the counter top edge with the phone book nowhere to be seen. As the two argue in different shots, the container of food moves back and forth. On top of this, the phone book that was there in the original shot has mysteriously disappeared from every subsequent camera angle.

Continuity: When Summer and Trisha are handing out "vote for Summer" fliers, in the close up of Summer handing them out you can see that one of the girls has on pink nail polish. Moments later, in a shot from a further distance (yet close enough to see nails), neither girl has on any pink nail polish.

Visible crew/equipment: When Napoleon throws an orange at Uncle Rico, the shot goes from the front of the truck to the side of the truck. In the little window, one can see a camera and a cameraman.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico is eating steak in the kitchen, the roll of paper towels changes before he takes one for a napkin.

Continuity: When Napoleon and Pedro are sitting on the bleachers, between shots they move closer and then further apart from each other.

Continuity: After Pedro puts the cake down it moves closer to Summer's door and slides across her doorstep. The envelope under it also disappears and reappears.

Continuity: When Rico stops at the farmhouse while taking Napoleon to get his prom date, watch the passenger-side outside mirror on the van. While driving, it is positioned at a normal angle to see straight back from the driver's vantage point. When Rico gets out at the farmhouse, the mirror has been turned substantially and now sticks straight out.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico tells Napoleon about the sale in Bemida the jar/ glass of milk was not lifted up before the shot of Rico putting it down. It doesn't seem like he had picked up the jar before then because we can see it in Napoleon's shots.

Continuity: During the opening scene on the school bus, they drive past a neighbor's barn as soon as they pull away from Napoleon's house. There was no gap in time because the dialogue is continuous, yet later when Napoleon walks out his front door to feed Tina, the closest neighbor in that direction is far off in the distance.

Continuity: Tina is not tied up to the fence, when Napolean first begins feeding her.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico hands Trisha and Summer the "Bust Must" fliers, at the end when they show a close up of them reading it, there are two sets of hands holding up the paper. However, in the shots both before and after, Trisha is only holding up the flier with her right hand.

Continuity: When Napoleon, Kip, and Grandma are all talking in the kitchen, notice the bag of Tostitos next to the refrigerator. In the close-up shot of Napoleon, the bag's front is facing to where it can be read. Moments later, in the camera view from Kip's perspective, that same bag of chips is now backwards. Then in the next close-up shot of Napoleon, the front of the bag is facing forward again.

Continuity: When Kip goes to the bus station to meet LaFawnduh for the first time, you see LaFawhduh getting off the bus. But it is obvious that she is not the last person to be getting off the bus. As she's standing in the doorway of the vehicle, there is somebody standing directly behind her who's wearing a white shirt. The scene quickly changes to Kip & then back to LaFawnduh, but now there is no one standing behind her - and you are now able to see the bus driver seated there.

Continuity: When the class president candidates present their program and perform some skit, there are several shots of students sitting in the auditorium. Keep your eye on Deb. She sits in the third row on the left side, but in the first and second shot she isn't there. Then she appears, disappears and finally reappears and changes her position by one seat.

Continuity: In the scene where Napoleon tells Uncle Rico to leave, Uncle Rico is throwing footballs in front of the video camera. There are three footballs; two on the ground and one in his hand, yet he throws four.

Continuity: At the very end, when Napoleon asks Deb if she wants to play tetherball, the sprinkler system behind her disappears.

Continuity: At the end of the movie when Napoleon is dancing for Pedro's campaign, you can see his boots have mud on them sometimes and sometimes they're clean.

Continuity: When Kip and Uncle Rico are first shown talking in the restaurant, the little brown cups by his cup are sometimes next to it and sometimes behind it.

Continuity: When Kipp places the bowl by the tire, the tire is to the left of the bowl with the curb behind it. When a full shot of the van is shown, the view is now opposite with the curb in front of the bowl, but the tire is still to the left.

Continuity: When Napoleon asks Don for a "Vote for Summer" button, there is a boy in a checkered blue shirt that walks by Don and off the screen. Then when Don hands Napoleon the button, the same boy is back, but now he is walking by Napoleon.

Continuity: When Napoleon is talking to Deb in the cafeteria, the drink is behind the plastic bag. Then when Napoleon notices that it's 1%, the drink is in front of it.

Continuity: When Deb shoves the box of keychains into Napoleon's arm, between shots the green keychain on the far right disappears.

Continuity: When Napoleon asks the woman if he can use her phone, the position of the phone's cord changes between shots.

Continuity: When Grandma is motorcycling at the dunes, the lines in the sand change dramatically between shots.

Continuity: When Napoleon shows Pedro the picture of his "old girlfriend", the position of his fingers on the picture changes between shots.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico gives the "Bust Must" demonstration to Starla, he picks up two pots. The bottom of the pot in his left hand is nice and silver, and the one in his right hand is slightly brown, as if it had been burned. In the next shot, the silver one is in his right hand, and the brown one is in his left hand.

Continuity: Napoleon is drawing lines from the back of the unicorn in class. When the teacher calls him up, it flashes to his notebook and the drawing but no lines on the rear of the unicorn.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico takes out the ship from the box, the box is near the woman's arm. In the next shot, when she tells her husband "I want that" the box is nowhere to be seen.

Other: Although Napoleon comments that he wishes he could grow a mustache like Pedro, in chapter 19 after Kip gets on the bus with Lafawnduh, Napoleon has a 5 o'clock shadow in the next shot.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico and Kip are eating at the restaurant, Uncle Rico's straw goes from straight up to the left and to the right.

Continuity: When Deb comes to sell handycrafts to Napoleon, she has three boxes: a blue one, a red and white one, and a teal one. When Napoleon leaves his house he only has two boxes. But when he gives them to her at school, he has all three.

Continuity: When Napoleon calls Kip from school, you see that he was grating cheese for nachos. When the view goes to Napoleon and back, you see that the position of block of cheese and amount of cheese on the chips changes. This happens multiple times throughout the scene.

Continuity: When the camera shows the table of egg food, several flies are crawling around the sandwiches. It is highly unlikely that either the flies all at once left their meal in the short time before Napoleon moves to grab a sandwich, but we see no flies fly away when he does so.

Continuity: When Napoleon is about to have lunch at the egg farm, one egg is standing out on the top of the bowl, a second later there are more eggs.

Continuity: When Rex announces that his program costs, "Only $300," Kip's hands go from being on the ground to in his lap.

Audio problem: In the last scene before the credits, Napoleon and Deb are playing the ball game, and when they high-five each other at the end, it is out of sync.

Continuity: When Napoleon is waiting for Uncle Rico, he checks his watch and it says Thursday, July 17. This movie is set during the 2004-2005 school year, as seen on Napoleon's lunch card at the beginning. July 17 was on a Saturday in 2004 and on a Sunday in 2005, not Thursday.

Continuity: When Napoleon arrives at Pedro's house just after he has cut his hair and is sitting on the lawn, his bike is upside-down with the reflector in the shot. When the camera comes back to Pedro, the bike reflector has moved out of the shot.

Other: When Napoleon finds Tricia's picture in the yearbook, the person to Tricia's left is named Stephanie Stevens, however the picture to her left is obviously of a male. Also, the row of pictures above Tricia includes Matthew Smith, whose picture is of a female, and Taresa Sorenson, whose picture appears to be rather masculine.

Continuity: When Napoleon is calling Kip, the position of the phone on the table changes between shots.

Deliberate "mistake": When Napoleon asks the school secretary if he can borrow the phone, she pushes the phone toward him but in the shot of Napoleon you can see the phone never actually moved from before he asks to borrow it to the time he makes the call. This is only seen on the full-screen version of the film. The phone is not visible on the wide-screen version because the bottom portion of the image is cut.

Revealing: When Deb is taking Uncle Rico's picture for the an ID badge, you can tell that the camera on the tripod is a prop as you can see right through the lens to the clothing hanging up on the clothes rack behind the camera, specifically the red dress/shirt.

Visible crew/equipment: When Napoleon is talking to Deb on the porch, as he says, "I made about infinity of those at scout camp," he looks off to the side a bit and you can see crewmembers and a reflector screen standing on the lawn, reflected in Napoleon's glasses.

Continuity: The first time that Napoleon is seen walking out of his house to feed Tina, the front steps are in bright sunlight. When he returns a moment later, and Kip is lacing his rollerblades, the steps are covered in shade from a nearby tree.

Continuity: When Uncle Rico goes alone to see Deb at her studio, she's trying to decide what backdrop to use. Her hands are together and under her chin. She turns to Uncle Rico and drops her hands, but in the next shot they're up again. Then Uncle Rico's gold chain is visible, but not visible in the next shot.

Continuity: When Pedro is sitting at the table in the cafeteria, Napoleon comes to sit down, and Pedros's arm changes position from shot to shot.

Continuity: When Napoleon is counting up his money, his watch moves further up his wrist between shots.

Continuity: In the opening scene, when Napoleon first gets on the bus, he puts his hand on the seat in front of the seat that he's going to sit in, right by a kid's head, but in the next shot, the kid is gone.

Continuity: When Deb gives Napoleon the picture of the girl, the position of the picture in Napoleon's hand changes between shots.

Continuity: When Pedro returns to school after being sick, Napoleon sits next to him in the cafeteria. There is a piece of food on the table next to Pedro's lunch tray, and in the next shot it's gone.

Continuity: When Napoleon and Pedro are eating lunch in the cafeteria Napoleon takes all of Pedro's tots and Pedro is only left with a corn dog. In some shots there is one tot next to his corn dog and in others there is none.

Continuity: During the first cafeteria scene, Napoleon has tater tots in a perfect pyramid on his plate. When the camera cuts back to him the pyramid is now in a pile.

Continuity: When Napoleon throws the fruit on Uncle Rico's van, it hits the windshield and leaves only splatters of juice on the windshield, but when Rico stops the van, the windshield has several chunks of the fruit on it.

Continuity: Napoleon's curls change throughout the movie, as they messed up his perm the first day, and made them too big and loose. If you watch scenes shot on the first day, they are big and loose, but the scenes that were shot later on are much smaller and tighter. This is because they fixed the perm on the second day. I saw this on a DVD.

Continuity: When Napoleon first talks to Deb at lunch, Deb has some of her sandwich on her right upper lip. In the next shot of her, it moves to below her lip, on her chin.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, Napoleon is looking across the road at Kip and Lafawnduh and the bus arrives. The bus crosses in front of Napoleon and the camera cuts to the other side that shows Lafawnduh get on the bus and then Kip follows. The next shot shows Napoleon smiling in satisfaction that Kip got what he wanted. However, he could not see Kip get on the bus from the other side of the street.

Continuity: When Napoleon is giving Trisha's mom the dance invitation you can see a car in the reflection on the door. Then when it shows the door again the car is gone.

Continuity: When the uncle and Kip are eating at the restaurant, the uncle's onion rings continuously change position between shots.

Continuity: When Kip runs over the plastic bowl to demonstrate its strength, watch the location of the left rear tire's valve stem. In the close-up when Kip wedges the bowl behind the tire, the valve stem can be seen near the top of the screen at the 4:00 position. When Kip walks to the front, but the van hasn't moved yet, the valve stem is now at the 7:00 position.

Other: Turn on subtitles when Uncle Rico says "So why don't you go outside and feed Tina?" There is a period at the end of this sentence - there should be a question mark.