Hundreds of Beavers (2024) Dir. Mike Cheslik

With influences from the slapstick comedy of the 1920s and 30s, a peculiar new comedy comes from, and is set in, the winter wonderland of Wisconsin. The film’s co-writer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews stars as a man called Jean Kayak, an applejack maker whose farm is destroyed by beavers.

In a desperate effort to stay alive, he attempts to capture various woodland creatures before he notices a fur trapper making a tidy profit by selling carcasses to a local merchant.

With the merchant’s daughter hinting at a romantic interest in Jean, the man heads off with the fur trapper himself to learn the ways of the forest, before going it alone after an attack by some vicious wolves.

Essentially a silent film (there’s some minimal noises and sounds), the most obvious comparison for this weird and wonderful flick is to classic Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes and Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoons. The black and white cinematography of the freezing winter is effective and also evokes the Charlie Chaplin physical comedy of the film but it's the animation which plays a huge part in its success.

It mixes with real life and comes together as a successful whole, delivering a living and breathing collage of different techniques where simply no style, joke or 4th-wall breaking is off the table.

It's especially clear in Jean’s attempts to catch (and kill) beavers which mixes the stealthy hunting of Elmer Fudd and the desperation of Wile E. Coyote. Jean ends up creating increasingly ludicrous contraptions and Rube Goldberg machines which use a chain reaction of laughable undertakings to snare the animals.

And the animals themselves? Well, they’re made up of stop motion, animation and puppets - but for 95% of the time, they’re simply just people in large caricature animal outfits with literally no attempt to hide them as costumes. Visible zips on the back and heads close to falling off fit perfectly into the film's homemade and incredibly charming cut-out-collage style. 

From the start, we see Jean chasing rabbits and creating snowmen traps, all to a 30s style jaunty score. The comedy continues and runs from clever to silly and everything in between with some gags more rude than others. However, the visual jokes hit so regularly that it’s so much fun to revisit this innocent childhood zaniness.

The filmmakers’ ingenuity and creativity really helps keep things interesting, clever and funny for the best part of 2 hours and no type of comedy is off limits. Sound gags, sight gags, pratfalls, clowning, prop comedy and much more all gel together to keep it swift yet impactful and each scene is an enjoyable sketch on its own. An animated map later helps the audience follow Jean within the natural environment and of course there’s even a Woody Woodpecker nod as well.

A fair few stunts and crude cock jokes reminded me of the simplistic violent pleasures of Jackass too. From a snow nappy and “plushy” animal entrails to dogs playing card games, the sometimes vulgar yet surreal comedy delivers an aesthetic that mixes German Expressionism with the extreme comic book monochrome of Sin City.

But as Jean becomes increasingly successful in killing more and more beavers, the film continues to surprise (with credits starting 30 minutes in and the film’s title appearing over an hour into the feature). And just when you think you’ve got a grip on it, it doesn’t do anything by the book and is all the better because of it. 

With these efforts in consistently throwing the audience off, it ensures it stays fresh throughout. And when you feel every single joke has been exhausted, an ending involving Sherlock Holmes and Watson beavers, a big speeder-bike/sledge action sequence, a mecha-beaver and a court case comes along, ensuring the finale cranks everything up to 11.

Some may call the film an animation, a drama, a farce, a tragicomedy, a romance, a detective story, a parody, a loving homage or many other things in fact. But for me I’d simply call it one of the most unique and funny films I’ve seen in a very long time with hundreds of reasons to recommend it.

★★★★

4 / 5

Michael Sales