Movie Review: 'Hundreds of Beavers'

Hundreds of Beavers (2024)

Directed by Mike Cheslik

Written by Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews

Starring Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank

Release Date Streaming April 12th, 2024

Published April 12th, 2024

Hundreds of Beavers is among the funniest movies of 2024. It's a wildly inventive, entirely unique and utterly bizarre comedy and I loved every minute of it. The brain-child of Mike Cheslik and his star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the film mixes animation, furry costumes, and old west tropes to craft a live action Looney Tunes movie about an old west trapper and the wacky animals he traps and violently murders in the name of love.

Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) was a successful tavern owner. He served apple based alcohol to mighty trappers, hunters, and burly, manly, manly, men. Then winter came and Kayak, now a stumbling drunkard, accidentally blows up his apple grove, home, and thanks to some interfering beavers, his gigantic barrels of alcohol. Waking up covered in snow, Jean suffers through the winter, unable to kill anything for food and being tormented by the elements and the animals.

In a series of escalating comic miseries, it appears that Jean simply has no luck and the world, including human sized beavers, people in beaver costumes but who we are to see as actual beaver, are all working against poor Jean. Slowly Jean will turn things around. Finding a trading post nearby, Jean is able to get supplies one at at time that allow him to begin a career as a trapper. Eventually, he befriends The Master Fur Trapper (Wes Tank) who shows him the ropes.

Jean also meets the daughter of the trading post operator, known as The Furrier, she guts and cleans all of the pelts. To win her heart, Jean will have to kill hundreds of beavers. He will also kill rabbits, birds, and even wolves in order to reach is goal. My description doesn't do remotely do justice to the bizarre inventions of Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews. It's a live action Looney Tunees cartoon with Furry costumes and DIY yarn creations taking the place of Bugs, Daffy and friends. And our Elmer Fudd wears a giant furry raccoon head when he isn't running around the snow nude, covered Austin Powers style by strategically placed items.

The craziness of Hundreds of Beavers never lets up. The style is so wonderfully odd that the laughs are constant throughout. It's wildly unique, part silent film, part furry comedy. It's a non-stop riot. I truly cannot do the comedy justice. When Jean goes fishing, the fish is made of yarn, woven to look like a fish but with big expressive cartoon eyes. The visual is quite funny evoking a bit of The Muppets and Sesame Street with the anarchic irreverence of Spongebob Squarepants crossed with H.R Puffinstuff. But there's also a genuine western story going on with just a hint of a romance. And all of it is played silent movie style with the bare minimum of dialogue. I adore Hundreds of Beavers.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and more than 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip. Thanks!