Hundreds Of Beavers
USA | English
2023 | 108 Minutes
Director: Mike Cheslik
Cast: Olivia Graves, Doug Mancheski, Luis Rico, Wes Tank, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
I knew from the moment I saw the first still frame from Hundreds Of Beavers that it was a film I had to see – but I wasn’t fully prepared for the bombardment of total lunacy that was to about to engross me for the next hour and a half.
Director Mike Cheslik is either completely insane or on an Einstein level of genius – and I haven’t yet decided which side of that fence he sits on. A man-versus-nature narrative about overcoming the cruel and unforgiving landscape of a northeastern winter, using puppets, or more aptly people in giant cute furry suits as the protagonist to French-Canadian antagonist Jean Kayak!
See Also: The Primevals at Fantasia Festival 2023
Paying homage to silent cinema and cartoonality, Mike Cheslik’s feature debut Hundreds Of Beavers opens with an epic animated sequence introducing us to our trusty hero, a drunken applejack salesman whose supply of Applejack Cider is ruined due to the work of some hungry beavers. To recover his fortune, he must become the greatest fur trapper the continent has ever seen by defeating hundreds of beavers. Hundreds Of Beavers is a no-dialogue heroic epic that is endlessly inventive, embracing the innovative spirit of cinema’s first decades while using animation to reimagine natural laws in creative and compelling ways.
The film captures zany and anarchic energy by featuring a new gag every few seconds. It has many one-offs but similarly builds momentum with slower build-ups and call-backs that keep the experience fresh and surprising. A man-versus-nature narrative about overcoming the cruel and unforgiving landscape of a northeastern winter, Hundreds Of Beavers is an uproarious and dynamic theatrical experience.
Words like zany or looney tunes don’t do the onscreen insanity proper justice. A heavy and healthy dose of Benny Hill meets the cartoon antics of early Saturday morning cartoons to bring to leave the story of Jean Kayak, a drunkard that is quite happy to swig his own cider supply until the entire orchard and cider supply are destroyed. Left naked and alone in the harsh winter landscapes like those the coureurs des bois (or “runners of the woods”) would have faced during the fur trading days.
Slight spoilers may possibly be found from this point on. Beware.
The film opens with some great gags that are a composite of stop motion animation using film of humans – and humans in various animal costumes, which moves much like the running scenes in a Benny Hill skit would do back in the day. A lot of the slapstick from Benny Hill can also be found throughout the film, and – possibly because I grew up on Benny Hill – I find that deeply satisfying and highly engrossing.
The entire film is presented in grainy black and white, with the only dialogue being the grunts and groans or screens of anguish from of hero, monsieur Kayak. It is ultimately a film of survival, where Kayak has to find ways to feed and cloth himself and along the way, undercovers that the nature about him is up to something. Building an elaborate damn at the expense of the forest that surrounds him, but stricken by hunger, he begins to attempt to trap these hilarious characters for food in the most Wile E. Coyote versus Roadrunner ways possible.
Of course, there is a love interest for Kayak and a father that wants nothing to do with the two pairing up. The result is a competition for Kayak to win over the spittoon-missing business man by dragging the lifeless corpses of beavers and other creatures to him to trade for items to… cull more beavers. There is a lot of repetition used throughout this wacky adventure but it never seems to over do itself. There isn’t a point where the crowd grows tired of seeing the same circle of events unfold – because they’re too busy being by stunned the spectacle before them.
The results are mesmerizing and absolutely hilarious. The gags and traps border on insanity with a touch of genius and although the film reuses scenes on multiple occasions; even that is fun and only adds to the overall enjoyment of the film. When the viewer begins to feel that the film couldn’t possible get any stranger, and that it has breached insanities crescendo – it reaches on and finds an upper echelon to pull from. Hundreds Of Beavers is by far the strangest movie I have seen in quite some time and also one of the best. I laughed until my sides hurt.
Hundreds Of Beavers was a four-year long labor of love, that was filmed solely during the winter months in Wisconsin and amazingly none of the actors, cast or crew seems to have suffered the lasting effects of the frostbite that you’d assume they would have suffered. Then again, perhaps that is where the zany ideas came from. Frost bitten brains. The levels of detail in the later parts of the film are truly something to behold. Drawing obvious influence from the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise, we find Kayak hoping along from one plank of wood to the next, avoiding deadly obstacles while also seemingly channeling Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Arc.
Read More:
>> The First Slam Duck at Fantasia Festival 2023
>> Talk To Me at Fantasia Festival 2023
>> Shin Kamen Rider at Fantasia Festival 2023
There’s even a trial in a court of beavers where detective beavers show evidence of Kayak’s mass beaver genocide to a jury. Hundreds Of Beavers grows more and more loopy by the minute until its incredible conclusion where I swear I heard at least three people saying the words “what the fuck!“. And yes, I was one of those three people.
Anybody that loves weird and strange comedy, made with puppets and stop-motion animation – or wacky British style humor, owes it to themselves to see this film. In a sea of terrible remakes of classic films or sequels that should never have been committed to film, Hundreds Of Beavers is a breath of fresh air. Possibly because nobody else would have even considered to make a film as bonkers as this. I, for one, sure am glad that Hundreds Of Beavers exists. And let me tell you – I’ll be searching the internet for any possible upcoming physical media release of the film and have already opened up a slot of my packed shelves for it sit in.
