For some folks it might be easier to remember Aaron Ruell as Kipland Dynamite from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, but in reality Aaron had a pretty decent run at being an actor and filmmaker. In the movie there wasn’t much to be said about Kip other than the fact that he was quiet, kind of reserved, and yet had a way about him that made the character one of the more memorable figures in the movie, somehow. Napoleon Dynamite was in many ways a movie that one really had to sit down and get into in order to appreciate the dry and somewhat oddball sense of humor it represented since the utter deadpan comedy didn’t really kick things up that much through its entire length. Out of all the prominent characters in this movie Kip is probably the one that changes the most once he meets Lawfawnduh, the woman he chats with online and then finally ends up marrying at the end. All in all Kip is kind of a hard character to get into, but he’s also a hard character to forget since by this time he’s become the subject of many popular memes and GIF’s.
Apart from his easily-wounded character though Aaron has gone on to direct and create a few different projects, though it seems his acting days ended back in 2012 as he doesn’t have a lot of other credits to his name. He did remain active in TV as a director until about 2017 but if he has anything else going it’s a well-kept secret since his IMDb page and bio doesn’t really show much. He did become known for being the only person to have two films that he wrote and directed appear in the Sundance Film Festival back in 2005 so he has had a few noteworthy moments in his career outside of being Kip. But if we’re being completely honest the role of Kip Dynamite will likely be how people remember him the most since the character was just such a wimp but somehow made an impact that people were willing to keep him in memory on par with Pedro it would seem. The whole dynamic between Kip and the rest of the cast was kind of awkward most times since he was quiet, very unassuming, and in some cases it was hard to think that he was actually the older brother of Napoleon.
A lot of it might have had to do with the fact that both of them still lived with their grandmother and that Kip was so easy to push around that even his younger brother could do it. When Uncle Rico came to live with them however things only got crazier since let’s face it, Uncle Rico was kind of a jerk and did his best to impose his will whenever he could. Apart from this however Kip was still one of the biggest surprises in the movie since when he and Lawfawnduh met it was something that made a lot of people go ‘huh?’ if only because the pairing didn’t seem as commonplace as one might think. But the whole relationship, despite being cringe-worthy mostly because of Kip, did seem to go off without a hitch on screen and despite anyone’s laughter and disbelief it was something that emerged as a positive point in the movie. It’s still worth laughing at even now since imagining it is enough to make someone think that anything can happen in the movies and it usually does.
There hasn’t really been any word from Aaron for a couple of years, in fact the animated series of Napoleon Dynamite was his last acting gig as Damian Alonzo of ScreenRant writes. After that he kind of dropped off the map and has been focusing largely on his own website and other interests that have kept him busy. Whether or not he’ll ever return to the business is hard to say at this point since there doesn’t seem to be any rush on his part to get something going again. There are of course those people that would love to see something else come from the Napoleon Dynamite movie, maybe a reunion of some sort since that seems to be the in thing at this time, but whether or not it would or could ever happen is difficult to say since at this point everyone has gone their separate ways and Jon Heder is actually kind of busy since he just joined the Tremors franchise for at least one movie, if not more depending on how far they choose to go with it. So for now we get to remember Kip as he was and hope that the story line ended on a happy note when it came to his marriage to Lawfawnduh, as the two were seen to be pretty happy in the movie. As for Aaron, it would seem that he’s doing just fine at the moment with his own life.Jon Heder
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