EVER WONDER: So, Pedro, what’s up with Manitou?
My tween said she heard Manitou Springs was in that movie classic “Napoleon Dynamite.” True?— Candy
ANSWER: Yes, indeed, it got a mention. I’ll borrow from myself with an answer I posted a couple of years ago.
When smarmy Uncle Rico is eyeing Starla and trying to sell her his Bust Must Plus, he says, “Now if you look right here, we have Sally Johnson from Manitou, Colorado. Would you like to read her testimonial right here?”
And there was another Colorado reference. Uncle Rico says, “Grandma took a little spill at the sand dunes today. Broke her coccyx.” Napoleon asks, “What the flip was Grandma doing at the sand dunes?”
Was any filming done at Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes or anywhere else in Colorado? Nope. It was all in Idaho where writer/director Jared Hess was born and Utah, where he went to college and lives.
Kevin Shand, former executive director of the Colorado Film Commission, heard that one of the guys involved with the production is from Colorado and said that’s probably how the references were added. “Sometimes they just like the name of something, the way it sounds.” Although “Napoleon Dynamite” wasn’t filmed in Colorado, many other movies and TV shows were and are. Just for fun go to www.coloradofilm.org/filmography.html for a list of films that go back to the 1890s.
By the way, the state’s sites have always had regular mentions on the animated show “South Park.” No surprise considering co-creator Trey Parker lived in Denver, graduated from Evergreen High School and went to college at University of Colorado at Boulder where he met the other show creator Matt Stone from Littleton. They have a huge — and environmentally PC — mountain home near the base of Steamboat Ski Area.
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Send questions or answers to questions to linda.navarro@gazettedev.gazette.com






