We're Convinced That A Minecraft Movie And Napoleon Dynamite Are Set In The Same Universe

"A Minecraft Movie" has come a long way since that worrisome first reveal, from exceeding analysts' predictions for opening weekend box office tallies to going viral because fans are having a little too much fun in theaters. And while longtime fans of the games have been sharing all the Easter eggs crammed into the movie, there are also some other things only adults notice in "A Minecraft Movie" — and that includes its apparent connection to a certain other movie from 20 years prior.

Jared Hess, director of "A Minecraft Movie," made his feature-length directorial debut with 2004's "Napoleon Dynamite." The indie comedy tells the story of the titular quirky teenager, his eccentric family and friends, and the odd Idaho town he lives in. Hess definitely has a style, and that style is apparent in all of his movies — so it stands to reason that there are some basic tonal similarities between "Napoleon Dynamite" and "A Minecraft Movie." 

But there is also some compelling evidence that the connection between the two movies goes beyond a director's filmmaking style. We believe that both movies actually take place within the same cinematic universe, and we've got plenty of evidence to back up that theory. In fact, it's entirely possible that said cinematic universe encompasses more than just the two films in question. 

Jared Hess graduated from Preston High School in Preston, Idaho, the town which would later serve as the setting for "Napoleon Dynamite." In fact, Preston is where "Napoleon Dynamite" was actually filmed, serving as the perfect backdrop for the vibe that the movie was going for. For "A Minecraft Movie," the real world portions of the film could have basically taken place anywhere. And honestly, it wouldn't have even mattered that much if the town was never named at all, and was just a sort of vague Anywhere, USA.

The Overworld — the part of the movie that actually looks like the "Minecraft" video games — is where the bulk of the action in "A Minecraft Movie" takes place. But yet it's explicitly stated that the film is set in the fictional town of Chuglass, Idaho. Small-town Idaho isn't exactly a common setting for a movie, so it feels intentional to set "A Minecraft Movie" there — and to force audiences to wonder if Chuglass and the "Napoleon Dynamite" version of Preston are both in an Idaho that's in the same universe. 

To take things even further, we don't actually see any locations in either movie outside of Idaho — beyond the Overworld, of course, which is another dimension entirely — so maybe the "Idaho" in question is more than just a mere U.S. state and actually something much bigger. 

"Napoleon Dynamite" feels like a movie that exists out of time. Several things point to it being set in the present day — such as the existence of the internet and chatrooms — but so much of the fashion, home decor, and other aesthetic details have a very 1970s vibe. Yes there's the internet, but people also seem to have VHS players instead of DVD players, and hardly anyone has cordless phones, let alone cell phones. And that's to say nothing of the fact that the houses all look like they haven't been updated in at least 30 years. 

Also seen are side pony tails, fanny packs, and a lot of orange and brown clothing, none of which had been prevalent for a generation or two when "Napoleon Dynamite" was released. In fact, a dark fan theory about "Napoleon Dynamite" even suggests that the reason things feel frozen in time is that the movie actually takes place in purgatory.

Sure enough, Chuglass, Idaho seems very much the same in "A Minecraft Movie." There are various signposts that suggest the movie takes place in the present day, like Natalie (Emma Myers) getting a social media job. But those things also conflict with how much of Chuglass feels trapped somewhere between the 1970s and 1980s. It's as though both movies are set in their own present day of our universe's timeline — 2004 for "Napoleon Dynamite" and 2025 for "A Minecraft Movie" – but the shared universe of those movies has evolved a bit more slowly than ours in terms of technological advancement and changing fashion trends. 

The title character in "Napoleon Dynamite," played by actor Jon Heder, loves tater tots. He's seen shoveling them into his mouth at lunchtime, he asks his friend Pedro (Efren Ramirez) if he can have his tots, and he even keeps them in his pants pocket to munch on in class. Of the dozens of iconic and oft-repeated "Napoleon Dynamite" quotes, several involve tater tots specifically. And the starchy connection between that and "A Minecraft Movie" — which takes place in the so-called potato chip capital of America — goes pretty deep. 

Tater tots are almost immediately established to have a major presence in "A Minecraft Movie." Upon having to relocate to Chuglass after the deaths of their parents, Natalie is trying to lift the spirits of her younger brother Henry (Sebastian Hansen). One of the ways she does that is to make him a tater tot pizza, apparently a comfort food from their childhood. Later, in the Overworld, Henry crafts a potato gun that literally uses tater tots as ammunition. And how does Henry happen to have tater tots on hand to use as ammo for that weapon? Because he previously stashed them in his pocket. Quite the coincidence indeed.

The classic side dish is not only a popular food in this universe, but it's a multifunctional item that serves as a food, a social currency, and a type of ammo all in one. 

One of the major plot points of "Napoleon Dynamite" is that Napoleon's grandmother has to go to the hospital, so she enlists Napoleon's uncle Rico (Jon Gries) to come stay with Napoleon and his brother, Kip (Aaron Ruell). Uncle Rico is a man stuck in the past, forever reliving his glory days as a high school football player and currently struggling to make ends meet. For one particularly memorable stretch of the movie, Uncle Rico tries to sell Tupperware door to door — an endeavor that clearly doesn't pan out for him, as he then switches gears to selling a breast enhancement supplement instead.

Similarly, Steve (Jack Black) from "A Minecraft Movie" finds neither professional nor personal fulfillment in his job as a door knob salesman. The shared universe of these two movies seems to be one that doesn't have very much wealth to go around, and many adults are forced to either take on mundane, dead-end jobs or extremely quirky and unusual ones. Even the town of Chuglass, which is supposedly the center of the lucrative potato chip industry, doesn't seem to have much going for it and nobody appears to be getting rich off that business. 

Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison (Jason Momoa) in "A Minecraft Movie" is also struggling, and still pining for the 1980s youth that marked the last time he was happy and popular. Perhaps so many people in both films seem to be stuck in that time period is because it was the last time this universe saw success and prosperity. 

There is a recurring backstage visual gag you likely never noticed on "Saturday Night Live," which is that a random llama can often be seen just walking through the studio's hallways. This is not only because llamas are an inherently funny animal, but because it's jarring and unusual to see them milling about in human spaces and co-existing with people outside of farms and zoos. So it's hilarious that a llama named Tina is the family pet in "Napoleon Dynamite," doubly so because not a single character ever remarks about how odd it is that the Dynamites have a pet llama tied to their fence that they feed and talk to. It's treated as perfectly normal and no different than having a dog.

In the early scenes of "A Minecraft Movie," Henry and Natalie meet one of their new neighbors, a woman named Dawn (Danielle Brooks). Dawn is a real estate agent, but she also has a side hustle of running a mobile petting zoo. And what animals are the main attraction of this petting zoo? Why, llamas, of course — something that doesn't seem to faze anyone that Dawn talks to about the petting zoo. So once again, llamas are seen as run-of-the-mill animals that everyone seems to interact with on a daily basis. 

Llamas are also prevalent within the Overworld, which — while accurate to the "Minecraft" games — the characters again don't seem particularly taken aback by. Like the characters in "Napoleon Dynamite," the people in "A Minecraft Movie" apparently see llamas as frequently as we see cats, birds, or squirrels. 

Something that often comes up among the various dumb things that were ignored in "A Minecraft Movie" is the fact that Henry, Natalie, and Dawn somehow all miraculously know how to fight when they take on the hordes of evil creatures in the Overworld. But how would a shy, introverted high school kid, his mild-mannered social media manager sister, and a real estate agent/mobile petting zoo owner all have the skills to hold their own against an army of bad guys that have previously proven to be a dangerous threat to the Overworld?

It is never stated where Natalie and Henry relocate from prior to moving to Chuglass. Who's to say they didn't previously live in Preston? And who's to say that, if they did live in Preston, they hadn't taken the self defense class of Rex (Diedrich Bader) at his Rex Kwon Do dojo as seen in "Napoleon Dynamite?" If that seems like a stretch, how about the fact that Natalie herself not only opens her own self-defense class at the end of "A Minecraft Movie" — cleverly called Survival Mode Self-Defense in a fun nod to the "Minecraft" game — but one that bears more than a passing resemblance to the kind of class Rex teaches. 

Natalie is also wearing a red, white, and blue T-shirt, which immediately conjures up images of those delightfully tacky American flag pants worn by Rex. 

One thing that might make it tough to prove that "Napoleon Dynamite" and "A Minecraft Movie" are in the same universe is the existence of the Overworld. How would none of the characters in "Napoleon Dynamite" ever stumble upon the Overworld, or even hear of it? Well, it's possible that one does discover it — or at least an extremely beta version of it. 

In "Napoleon Dynamite," Kip spends a lot of time in internet chat rooms. He clearly uses them for an escape from the real world, and it allows him to be a version of himself that he doesn't feel he can be in real life. It's that version of him that is supposedly training to be a cage fighter, something we never see him actually partake in and of which he displays no evidence of doing. It's also that version that eventually lands LaFawnduh (Shondrella Avery), who then gives Kip the confidence to actually be the person he is on the internet. 

So this is a universe in which there is a digital dimension that characters can escape to, where they can learn to be better versions of themselves, then bring that version back to the real world. It's just that, in "A Minecraft Movie," that dimension is an actual physical space to explore. That makes sense, given that the idea of cyberspace in the real world actually did evolve from just text on a screen to tangible worlds to traverse. The universe of these two movies simply follows suit. 

One of the biggest surprises in "Napoleon Dynamite" is when Napoleon breaks out into an intricate dance routine — one he absolutely nails, by the way — on stage in front of his classmates. Pedro doesn't realize there is a talent section in the process of running for school president, and has nothing prepared. So Napoleon steps in, displaying his self-taught dance skills to fulfill Pedro's talent portion requirements. That dance ends up being what turns the tide in the election, with Pedro defeating fellow candidate Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff), who's already established as one of the movie's villains after the cruel way she rejects Pedro's invite to the prom.

In "A Minecraft Movie," the villain arc of piglin queen Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House) begins when she's mocked for her dance routine in the Nether's Got Talent competition. This is a universe in which dancing holds significant power: it's used to defeat the villain in "Napoleon Dynamite" but causes the creation of the antagonist in "A Minecraft Movie." 

If Napoleon's dance fails to win over the crowd, Summer wins the election. On the flip side, if Malgosha's dance ends up being met with praise, she very likely never becomes a villain in the first place — and things would be very different for not only the Nether, but the Overworld as a whole. 

People might not bat an eye at the prevalence of tater tots or the anachronistic nature of the home decor choices in both "A Minecraft Movie" and "Napoleon Dynamite" if it weren't for the fact that Jared Hess directed both. But "A Minecraft Movie" also features callbacks to some of Hess's other films, suggesting that maybe there is an entire Jared Hess Cinematic Universe that encompasses more than just the two movies in question.

Hess's second feature film was "Nacho Libre," which teamed him with Jack Black for the first time. It's been pointed out that the wrestling scene in "A Minecraft Movie" feels like a shoutout to "Nacho Libre," not only because of the Jack Black connection but in the chicken jockey's behavior mirroring the tag team of small, wolf-like wrestlers that Nacho faces. Also, actor Jemaine Clement appears in "A Minecraft Movie" as the man who runs the storage unit auction where Garrett obtains the crystal as well as the voice of piglin Bruce — with Clement previously starring in Hess's "Gentleman Broncos," "Don Verdean," and "Thelma the Unicorn." 

All of this feels more like filmmaker Easter eggs than proof of a shared universe, but it is still noteworthy how it isn't only "Napoleon Dynamite" that "A Minecraft Movie" calls back to. And it won't be until "A Minecraft Movie" comes to streaming, and we're able to watch it over and over again, that we might be able to look for more evidence that connects it to "Napoleon Dynamite" — as well as the other films in what we might call the JHCU.