Just Such a Wild Ride

I would consider myself someone that keeps up with cinema. I’m not a reviewer working for a big corporation or a media group so I don’t get access to screeners for film, don’t get passes to see movies ahead of time, and no one is inviting me to film festivals. Instead I just try to keep up on my own, with everything I can, so that I can watch and review anything that seems interesting, good or bad. I have to selectively choose what new movies I can see at any time, but I always try to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s coming out so that, even if I have to wait for streaming to catch something, I can watch it and evaluate it fairly. But even then, some stuff will fall through the cracks.

One such film is Hundreds of Beavers, a really strange, delightfully zany movie that, up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t even know existed. Somehow this movie, which really deserves to be discussed far and wide, slid right under the radar for almost everyone. I only heard about it watching a “best of 2024” video from Patrick H. Willems over on YouTube, and I instantly knew I had to see it. But if other sites had covered it more extensively, you can bet we’d be having this conversation a whole lot sooner because, seriously, this film is worth watching.

Written by Mike Cheslik and Ryland Tews, starring Tews, and directed by Cheslik, Hundreds of Beavers is a slapstick, silent-ish film done in the style of 1920s and 1930s zany comedies. It’s like a live action cartoon writ large, with its own set of rules and storytelling conventions, building on itself over and over as the film unfolds. It’s absolutely wild, but the most impressive part is that the film was made on a budget of only $150,000 dollars, and was shot, edited, and had all its special effects work done by Cheslik. This was an absolute labor of love, start to finish, a silly movie that everyone should watch and then spread the gospel of far and wide.

In the film, Jean Kayak (Tews) runs an apple cider bar, selling liquor to the trappers and hunters that work in the area. One long night of partying at his tavern is ruined when beavers come along and chew up the legs holding up his massive cider stills. His house is destroyed, his apple orchard set ablaze, and Kayak is left out in the cold, hungry and alone, to try and figure out a way to rebuild his life. Step one: catch something to eat so he doesn’t starve to death. Oh, and build a fire. That’s step two.

But catching something is harder than it seems, with the wily animals of the forest (beavers, skunks, racoons, rabbits, and wolves, all played by dudes in shitty animal costumes) evading capture time and again. After a lot of work, Kayak finally gets some fish together, and whatever he doesn’t need to eat he sells to the local Merchant (Doug Mancheski). While there, Kayak catches the eye of the Merchant’s daughter, the Furrier (Olivia Graves), and she certainly is interested. Her father, though, wants her to marry the Master Fur Trapper (Wes Tank), who the Furrier is not interested in at all. Kayak eventually learns the trade from the Master Fur Trapper and, when wolves get the trapper, takes over his route. Now he has to find a way to get the money together to buy a ring, as well as earn the respect of her father, so he can take the Furrier’s hand in marriage. Only problem: he has to go through hundreds of beavers to do it.

Let’s be clear: Hundreds of Beavers is a very silly movie. It has Looney Tunes logic to its world, with every interaction, every bit of logic, everything you see working like a live action cartoon. Kayak gets sent flying through the air, down into frozen water, spiked, slammed, frozen, and more, and he survives because of cartoon logic. At times he feels like a human version of Wile E. Coyote, always hunting for his prey and never getting it, while also getting punished in the process. It’s all very funny, and very silly, and it works really well.

The film is told largely without dialogue, using body language, basic symbols, and a lot of grunting and pantomiming from the players to convey the story. Honestly, it works delightfully well. It’s amazing how much of a story can be told without any kind of exposition as well, a lesson Hollywood could really learn for most of their blockbusters. The storytelling in the film is economical, keeping the characters moving, the action going, all while never leaving the audience confused or lost. It never has to over explain in any way, in part because it really can’t, and that works to the film’s benefit.

Honestly, the whole production is economical. It has to be, really, since it was made for so little money. Just five named characters, five extras playing all the animals, and one sound designer, plus the director / editor / designer. Yes, at times it looks goofy, such as the dudes in animal costumes, the obvious duplication of assets, the weirdly grafted on effects, but that’s all part of its charm. It has a makeshift sensibility, a can-do attitude. It might look like it’s held together with felt and yarn but that all sells the design of it better. Once you get used to Kayak going up against dudes in rabbit and beaver costumes, the whole aesthetic falls together perfectly.

It’s also funny as hell, really. The movie perfectly captures the zany, over-the-top comedy of the classic slapstick live-action films and cartoons of the bygone era. There’s plenty of physical comedy, a lot of silly jokes and on-screen goofs, all kinds of things that add to the humor. As an example, at one point Kayak gets lonely and builds a snowman to keep him company. Eventually he uses that snowman to help him fish, having the snowman hold the pole while Kayak does other stuff. But it’s just a pole in some stick arms so, obviously the snowman can’t hold the pole. To remedy this: Kayak redesigns the snowman to look more ripped and buff. Obviously that would work better.

There are so many instances of these kinds of visual gags, and they’re paired with a lot of silly, cartoon logic ideas that add to the humor. One gag with set up a simple joke, like Kayak whistling, attracting the attention of an angry woodpecker, and then will build on it, having the woodpecker become a useful tool, and then crescendo into an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine of gags and jokes all culminating with Kayak summoning the bird to do his bidding and set the whole affair into its long run of silliness. So much of the film builds like this that its whole construction really should be considered a masterwork of physical comedy.

By the end of the film you stop noticing anything that might be considered a “flaw”. The animal costumes are silly atm first but you get used to them, and then they add to the humor which adds to the film. The fact that the film is done in black and white is period appropriate but it might put some people off. But as the film goes on you notice it less and less as the stark, simple colors become useful to the whole production. And the silent-ish nature of the dialogue becomes a boon early in, keeping the story focused squarely on the humor and action. So much of it works, and works well, that it rises above any perceived “flaws” that some might throw at it.

Honestly, Hundreds of Beavers is one of the best films I saw in 2024. It’s wacky and zany and silly but it is never boring, stupid, or annoying. It’s a tight, economical film that kept me engaged from the beginning to end. I simply wish I’d heard about it sooner so I could have sung its praises the second it came out. It’s too good to miss so you should absolutely go to whatever streaming service you can find it on and give the film a watch. It will delight you, I have no doubt.