Hundreds of Beavers is bizarre and hilarious
Streaming Movie Review - Hoopla/VOD - Comedy
All art is subjective, but comedy is the most subjective. Maybe that’s not absolutely true, but it certainly seems like it. Where most genres are geared toward a particular audience who goes into the film expecting to enjoy it, comedy is geared toward a broad audience, making it a much riskier endeavor. Which is why a lot of comedies have aggregate scores that tend to fall somewhere in the middle, with some people loving them and others hating them. So, when a comedy is overwhelmingly loved by critics and audiences alike, it is probably an absolute banger. That is, without question, the case for Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers, available on Hoopla with a library card or to rent on VOD.
The premise is rather simple. Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) is an applejack salesman who loses everything to some naughty beavers. In order to avoid starving to death, he must learn to become a master trapper. With the help of The Indian Fur Trapper (Luis Rico) and The Master Fur Trapper (Wes Tank), he is able to learn enough to purchase more tools from The Merchant (Doug Mancheski) to defeat hundreds of beavers and maybe even win the love of The Furrier (Olivia Graves).
This movie was filmed in black and white. It has almost no dialogue. The beavers and other woodland creatures that Jean Kayak must defeat are people dressed in low-budget costumes. There is a spitoon joke that happens probably eight times over the course of this nearly two-hour movie. But lest you think I say these things as negatives, please know this is one of the funniest movies you will see this year. It is bizarre and indescribable in all of the best ways.
Because this is basically a silent movie, the performances in this all need to be over the top, and they are. This is a masterclass in slapstick humor. And while many of the gags are repeated throughout the film, they are tweaked just enough in each iteration to keep them fresh and funny. In fact, the repetition works to create something more hilarious each time. During the runtime, there was only one gag that felt stale.
One of the most fascinating parts of this movie was the blend of live-action and animation. It has a tremendously clever use of greenscreen and cut-out animation to create something that looks incredibly simple and unique. Visually, Cheslik uses numerous techniques to create something that is tremendously fun and inventive.Â
We live in a time of sequels and prequels and reboots and movies that require a decade’s worth of knowledge to fully enjoy, so the opportunity to see a movie that is independent, hilarious, and unique is something everyone should take advantage of as soon as possible. Hundreds of Beavers fits that bill better than anything I’ve seen in a while. So grab your library card and watch this movie right away.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on May 4, 2024.