Directed by:
Mike CheslikCinematography:
Quinn HesterComposer:
Chris RyanCast:
Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Doug Mancheski, Wes Tank, Luis Rico, Brendan Steere, Mike Cheslik, Jon Truei, Tobias Christian WongVOD (1)
Plots(1)
In this 19th century, slapstick 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. (Atlanta Film Festival)
Reviews (10)
Hundreds of Beavers brings to mind a hyperactive kid whose foster parents were Guy Maddin, Buster Keaton and Tex Avery, but no such analogy can capture the originality and franticness of this incredible whirlwind of wacky gags, game-like mechanisms (which at times include frustrating repetition and variation) and DIY aesthetics. Every shot is a joke. Mostly hits, with occasional misses. It’s not perfect, just like the Monty Python movies aren’t perfect, but that’s also why it may just be considered a cult classic someday. 90%
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I feel like a bit of an oddball for rating an obviously authentically loved by all bizarre film as low as I do, but I just don't see it there. And I've given it a chance twice! First time a couple of weeks ago, I gave up after 15 minutes, thinking it must have hit me in a bad mood. Today, the second time, I made it to the end, but no. I didn't laugh once, and I'm not even sure what I was supposed to laugh at. When you get the Teletubbies stoned and dress them in black and white, you get stoned black and white Teletubbies. They're still Teletubbies, not an independent film masterpiece.
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Jean Kayak is stranded in the North American wilderness and must learn to fend for himself. And even though he'll eventually turn into a courageous outdoorsman, hunting hundreds of beavers to buy his beloved a ring won't be easy. This frantic black-and-white slapstick combines the classic silent films of Charlie Chaplin and other legends with the poetics of Looney Tunes cartoons, the visual style of Karel Zeman, and the intense action of Wallace and Gromit. You've probably never seen anything like Hundreds of Beavers, and you definitely should.
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Beavers; hundreds of shaggy beavers. A quirky, playful, imaginative (and above all bloody funny) romp working with the poetics of silent slapstick. The authors manage not to stay still, gradually and constantly pushing the concept and each and every joke.🎵La La La La La🎵
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Tasteless, infantile and almost unwatchable. The humour is in the style of Charlie Chaplin's worst work with a brain aneurysm, so if you're 10+ enjoy. It's a series of gags with no story and no wit, creativity or intelligence. It's all about beavers, sorry people dressed up as beavers and is it funny or does it lead to anything funny? It doesn't. A laughably unconvincing farce where lasting two hours was almost a superhuman feat. I was praying for Jigsaw to walk in the door and end this torture. In a sentence, black and white silent crap. I have not been as embarrassed watching a film as I was here in a long time. The film is lucky I don't give Boo! ratings and I appreciate that it must have taken quite a bit of work to create, but that's all – never fuckin more (maybe under the influence of various substances it can work). 3/10.
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The world championship in escalating dumb jokes. There's no point in repeating the oft-mentioned (and sometimes assumed) sources of the inspiration, just go have royal, childish fun. It's just a shame that there's so much calling out of artists, reminders of the small budget, and all the nonsense that comes along with it. As a small and almost unknown cult film, there's nothing wrong with Hundreds of Beavers; but as something you get practically assigned screenings to spread among the masses , it's just an unnecessary cramp.
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Whereas CGI spectacles have long since lost the ability to amaze us, here a green screen in combination with a group of friends in plush-toy costumes again and again becomes a field of limitless possibilities. The hyperactive genius Ryland Tews and his up-for-anything partner Mike Cheslik revive the tradition of both live-action and animated slapstick by means of RPG narrative formulas, DIY creativity and their own trademark mix of deadpan absurdity and frantic physicality. I tremendously enjoyed the way in which this film’s narrative established individual elements and is built on simple gags that subsequently vary, intensify and multiply with video-game combinatorics. Hundreds of Beavers is a loose, unrestrained work that deliberately avoids compromises in relation to current narrative, style and production norms. It thus also provides tremendous and unflagging pleasure both as a series of gags and as a creative, production and aesthetic challenge in which one enjoys particular madcap ideas and the fact that someone came up with them at all, as well as the way they are rendered using a full range of both sophisticated and primitive techniques (from camera angles and editing, through various forms and combinations of live-action scenes, animation and post-production tricks, to the actual physical placement of the actors). _____ Hundreds of Beavers was a case of love at first sight that grew from intense infatuation into a serious union. It was perhaps inevitable that one day I would lose my mind and fall so madly in love with a film that if my effort to persuade my acquaintances among the established distributors failed, then I would push it into Czech cinemas myself, i.e. with the funds of the Aero cinema in Prague and with the help of many particular people, as well as with the tremendous cooperation of the aforementioned established distributors. I can’t imagine a better film for such an undertaking, because in this case the only windmill at which it was necessary to tilt was the mere conviction of what kind of films work in Czech distribution and how they should be promoted and distributed. Though Hundreds of Beavers is not a film for everyone, it still easily wins the hearts of a large subset of film enthusiasts. Its charm, weirdness and distinctiveness are the strengths on which it was possible to undertake atypical distribution. We intentionally did not do standard promotion and instead relied on word-of-mouth, because this kind of film lives an all the more intense life when viewers are allowed to discover it for themselves and shower it with their enthusiasm. That’s exactly what happened when reports from abroad and the first enthusiastic responses resulted in a sold-out premiere at The Shockproof Film Festival and brought hundreds of viewers to additional screenings at Aero. In the following weeks, viewers’ interest was sustained by exclusive screening at Aero and Bio Oko, whereupon Aerofilms put the film in broad distribution. Then came the second wave with outdoor summer cinemas, at which Beavers became a firm fixture, and interest surged further with Tews’s presence at the Summer Film School festival. This summarisation of the film’s journey to Czech viewers is meant to highlight the fantastic potential and unique quality of Hundreds of Beavers, as well as to pay tribute to its viewers. I want to thank all of you for making this obsessive thought and crazy idea into a great, joyful experience.
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An idea-packed sweetheart that is a pleasure. Mike Cheslik obviously likes Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, Tom and Jerry and Chaplin. A whirlwind of wacky gags, video game leveling up as individual animals are killed, and heavy backwoods romance. P.S.: a prequel to The Revenant?
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Hundreds of Beavers is a low-budget film set in snowbound 19th-century Wisconsin that combines the visuals of classic silent films with the dynamism of Warner Brothers animated slapstick, takes something of the video game aesthetic, and mixes all of these styles into a well-crafted whirlwind of bombastically funny ideas and curious situations. It's a masterclass in script construction and, in particular, the creation, repetition and expansion of individual gags, which abound with an inventiveness like no other film in a long time. I can't remember the last time I laughed in a cinema like this. For the two main filmmakers, this is a seven-mile leap forward from their previous Lake Michigan Monster, and at the same time, we have once again a wonderful demonstration that you can get a lot of value for money if you have solid ideas in your head. And that some of those ideas have the chops to make this little flick an instant comedy classic.
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An extraordinary torrent of creativity in the best comedy of recent years and, at the same time, a surprising update of slapstick for the 21st century. It’s as if Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd joined hands with Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote, with the late, great Czech fantasy director Karel Zeman in the director’s chair, having just discovered the possibilities of computer graphics. This film is definitive confirmation of the proposition that a small budget is not an obstacle when you have enough ideas and creative ability. In the case of Hundreds of Beavers, the filmmakers have ideas in spades and they pack so many of them into the film that they easily fill the whole runtime, thus turning the limited resources for making the film into a strength, so the result, including the visual aspect, is outrageously funny, creative and endearing. The plot never slows down for even a minute, the individual gags progressively evolve and build up to unpredictable levels, and the film works superbly with the characters and recurring motifs while making full use of the snow-covered forest setting and the associated props. Hundreds of Beavers is a unique film and clearly a future cult classic.
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