Peluca

This is a slice of life thing with the people from Napoleon Dynamite. The whole thing is to be as bland and autistic as possible as these guys maneuver their ways through a day in and out of school. There is some really clever stuff. Despite being on a nearly empty bus, the main character goes to the back and sits next to some kids half his age. Good work.

I have seen Napolean Dynamite a good 6 times, and just finally saw "Peluca". Don't let the die-hards fool you - this thing is a mess. It shows promise and Hess is about as good as he is in "Dynamite", but the cinematography is awful, the "Gosh!" and "Idiot!"s are way overused.. I can't believe they got the green light to make a major motion picture based on this.

Again, that said, I love Napolean Dynamite, and am glad they re-cast the character of Pedro, among others. It just wouldn't have worked the way they originally set out.

It's on side 1 of the DVD if you want to check it out.

A hilarious short piece about a wacky kid and his adventures in trying to help his friends out. The humor isn't corny and it's not even smart, but it makes you laugh nonetheless.

A fantastic story, with great acting from the lead. One of his Hispanic buddies understands English yet only says two words NOT in Spanish the entire time (if you understand Spanish these parts are even funnier).

The cinematography/editing looks professional -- it's hard to believe that the graininess and such is a mistake, because it adds to the feeling of dullness in a small, rural Idaho town.

A must-see!

I've seen Napoleon Dynamite lots of times, and finally learned where I could see Peluca. So I checked it out. I mean, I can see where they got the idea for Napoleon Dynamite for this. Same personality in each character, just different names. Also, the whole "Pedro shaving his head" thing and Napoleon throwing that toy out the window and making it jump around and all. But I must say, Jared Hess must have gone from desperation to domination. Also, maybe if this was longer and had more detail in what Seth, Gayle and Pedro, maybe, just maybe, I'd like it better, despite it being in b/w. The Defiant Ones, was in b/w, yet still a great movie, the same for Schindler's List, but if you watched it in a different DeLuxe format, it could be in color.

David Hess's first short film was a prototype that would serve as the basis for his first feature film and one of cinema's most outstanding characters. Peluca is a small student project that portrays a simple friendship many will have experienced in their adolescence. Due to its budget, it's a fairly small-scale production with a mediocre level of production. Unfortunately, the footage has aged very poorly because a higher-quality camera wasn't used to keep the quality intact. But behind its mediocre appearance lies a diamond in the rough. The characters Seth, Pedro, and Giel have good chemistry that makes their relationship believable. Jon Heder was already giving a preview of his iconic character that would catapult him to fame. Seth is the first sketch of the famous Napoleon Dynamite, and his peculiar personality is already on display. Although it's just a prototype, it's already a good preview of what would later be seen in the extended version. Peluca is ideal to watch before exploring David Hess's filmography and before diving into the world of Napoleon Dynamite. My final rating for this short film is 6/10.