Written and directed by Mike Cheslik, co-written by leading actor Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, in this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers. Also starring: Olivia Graves, Wes Tank, Doug Mancheski and Luis Rico.
Hundreds of Beavers immediately has a lot of familiar elements of the golden age of silent cinema with Chaplin and Keaton, but it’s also surprisingly reminiscent of retro videogames. Especially with its penchant for animation, and a score which feels influenced by Hitchcock pictures. That eclectic mix means that there’s a big energy and personality built by Mike Cheslik, which feels both original and familiar at the same time.
Its entire style feels imaginative and creative, trying to capture a more simple, old-fashioned, physical sense of humour that doesn’t really ask anything of its viewers. It’s inherently accessible, with its mostly silent nature and light-hearted feel, then bringing through the violent tendencies throw back to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. A constant game of your goal being just beyond your reach, upping the stakes as they go.
Ryland Brickson Cole Tews gives a great performance, truly leaning into all of those different elements and creating a surprisingly relatable character. He gives viewers a typical underdog, he’s easy to root for and ridiculously committed. Much like the comedy, it’s a very physical performance and Tews does well to keep the slapstick side of things interesting, always having something to add.
However, while it does all work, at a certain point it can feel like more of the same. It’s such a committed style that it takes over the entirety of Hundreds of Beavers and there isn’t really anywhere for it to go beyond that. There are also a couple of choices which don’t work as well, the Minions style voices that arrive later in the film feel out of place. It can feel drawn out, with a relatively simple story, it’s arguable that the same thing could have been achieved in less than ninety minutes.
Hundreds of Beavers has a great concept and really throws a wonderfully big, imaginative energy at the audience. It’s entertaining and funny, the style and animation are a lot of fun but at a certain point it can begin to feel repetitive. As well as feeling like its runtime comes in a fair bit longer than it needed to but it’s satisfyingly simultaneously a homage to classic cinema and refreshingly different.
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