Hundreds of Beavers is a curious film. It first launched in 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival and was finally made widely available to the world in 2024. In fact, it topped some people’s best film of the year lists.
It takes a bit of time to get into, but once you’re in line with its slapstick call-backs to the films of Buster Keaton, then you know what to expect here. It’s a callback to films from 60+ years ago, including a poster that nods to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Anyway, brace yourselves for the beavers as there a lot of them here.
Embrace the Old Fashioned Silly in Hundreds of Beavers
With a minute budget and a bit of modern technical primitive prowess, Hundreds of Beavers was a 2024 standout. An independent film, it’s so relentlessly slapstick it’s almost impossible to ignore.
That’s complemented by its distinctive name.
Directed by Mike Cheslik in his cinematic debut, you can generally think of the film as two hour series of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner skits. You’re either going to find a blast… or a bit annoying. We lingered between the two, but the film’s creative spirit did continuously impress us.
The black and white setting allows for some great imagery, after which the slapstick kicks off.
There is a plot here. Hundreds of Beavers is about applejack salesman Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) who has his orchard destroyed by beavers. Left to fend for himself in the wilderness, he goes on a long slog to catch food.
His efforts are repeatedly scuppered. Repeatedly. As this is a concept the film is determined to take to its logical limit.
Eventually, he’s tasked by the Master Fur Trapper (Wes Tank) to bring him 100 beavers. In so doing, Kayak will be able to win the hand of the Master Fur Trapper’s daughter (Olivia Graves).
That’s it! The plot, which means plenty of slapstick. One of the highlights has got to be the beaver brawl scene, which is a good old punch up with plenty of argy bargy.
The onslaught of slapstick is almighty.
In between the endless madness, there are occasional moments of refrain. Even pathos. But as with Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), we found the relentless bombardment of stuff happening a bit tedious.
The continuous skits can be hit and miss. Although we feel pompous typing it out, we didn’t laugh. And some of the jokes about sex, with men dressed in rabbit costumes thrusting their hips, are crap.
Has the film got a free ticket to critical acclaim thanks to its throwback qualities? That it stands out as unique in a market driven by superhero CGIfests? Well, possibly. It is a good film, but we found it more passably entertaining than Movie of the Year quality.
Full credit to the creative efforts and everything the team went through to make this. It’s very impressive on such a tiny budget they could do this. One of the big problems Hollywood has is with its obsessive corporate execs refusing to take risks. That’s led to many modern blockbusters playing it safe.
Whereas if they funded projects like this, they’d get hits. The reaction from the public to this film shows that, as it’s become a much-discussed film. Overnight it’s become one of the most hotly discussed films of the year.
Good fun, then! Although we kind of feel it would have worked better as an episodic TV series. But as a have-a-go-hero, let’s make a movie type of project it gets full marks for its bravery.
The Intriguing Production of Hundreds of Beavers
The film had a budget of $150,000 and the crew shot 108 minutes of footage with that. There’s lots of clever stuff going on to get around the small budget and it’s all very impressive (see the above video).
Adobe After Effects was put to use for some 1,500 special effects. Green screens and real-world locations were used to then merge everything together, with nine weeks of feeling spent in Michigan, US, with most of the film shot during the winter of 2019.
For the extensive use of beaver costumes, the cost of that lot was $10,000 (with purchased online from a Chinese mascot website). The costume-to-animal ratio goes like this:
- Beavers: Six
- Dogs: Five
- Rabbits: Two
- Racoon: One
- Wolf: One
- Skunk: One
- Horse: One
Throughout many scenes there are nodes to Peter and the Wolf Op.67. This was written by composer Sergei Prokofiev for children’s stories and the like.
Director Mike Cheslik drew inspiration from the black and white days of Hollywood, obviously with Buster Keaton, but also The Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin, and Abbott and Costello.
Curiously, Cheslik also took some inspiration from the Super Mario video games.
Hundreds of Beavers launched at Fantastic Fest (an Texan film festival) in 2022. It then had to wait a little, before premiering at various film festivals from 2023 onwards. In 2024 it finally got its wider releases online, where you can now rent and stream the SOB.
The critical reception has been very impressive (again, some critics named it their favourite film of the year). It’s been nominated for loads of awards and won a bunch, too! Congrats to them.
