Reviews: Hundreds of Beavers

Final Rating: 3.5/5

From its first moments, Hundreds of Beavers, directed by Mike Cheslik,  wears its inspirations on its sleeve. An irreverent, black-and-white, live-action cartoon, Beavers is a mostly-silent survivalist western by way of Looney Tunes. Though it ultimately runs a tad long at just under two hours, Beavers skillfully tells an affecting story of man vs nature, and does so almost entirely with sight gags.

Beavers opens with a song introducing Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), an bright-eyed applejack salesman with a weakness for his own product. Rendered in monochrome against the backdrop of the idyllic Wisconsin frontier, the opening number features a live-action Kayak interacting with a variety of clients at his fur trapper rendezvous, all depicted in a mix of hand-drawn and collaged 2D animation.

After a freak – possibly beaver-related – brings an abrupt end to Kayak’s business, he’s left to fend for himself in the wintry wilderness with nothing more than the shirt on his back. Though Kayak starts the film oafish in his hunting endeavours, he learns quickly, maturing into a master trapper over the course of the film. Like Elmer Fudd, early-film Kayak can’t be expected to kill a rabbit, but by the end, his quest to slay “hundreds of beavers” hardly seems daunting.

In his portrayal of Kayak, Tews sells that progression well. Kayak is endearing, evoking Charlie Chaplin as he slapsticks his way through a variety of traps and fistfights with fauna. As he grows as a hunter, the efficiency and cruelty of Kayak’s kills becomes shocking, despite their cartoonish nature. Kayak’s growing confidence and single-mindedness when eliminating wildlife even results in some of Beavers’ later scenes portraying the film’s protagonist in a more dastardly, villainous role. 

That role reversal is helped by director Mike Cheslik’s approach to worldbuilding. Beavers could easily be a string of constant sight-gags, but Cheslik instead connects events through subplots about beaver society, light commentary on the fur-trapping industry in the 1800’s and the relationship of trappers to nature and the First Nations, and a kindly Santa-esque master trapper (Wes Tank) who serves as a mentor to Kayak. 

Beavers features excellent performances from Olivia Graves and Doug Mancheski in auxiliary performances. While no character is given enough time to qualify as particularly deep, each is wildly entertaining, with their own running jokes, and efficiently brought to life by the performers. The Furrier (Graves) is a classic Betty Boop-type, immediately established as a love interest for Kayak, and nearly as quickly revealed as particularly mischievous as she repeatedly tries to get Kayak shot by her father (Mancheski). 

Another good performance is turned in by Luis Rico, who plays a native hunter occasionally met by Kayak in the forest. The writing lets Rico down a bit, harkening back to portrayals of natives in old cartoons. While never explicitly problematic, his character is pretty flat. 

But just as impressive as the small cast of notable humans is the much larger cast of woodland creatures. All the animals in Beavers are portrayed by people wearing mascot suits, enhancing the cartoony feel of the film while allowing for some hilarious visuals. Early into Kayak’s tutelage under the master trapper, the two find a beaver in a trap, who is then kicked to death by six “dogs”. One recurring joke throughout the film sees Kayak pursued by two beavers wearing Sherlock Holmes’ attire. And of course, while the whole film is wordless, the animal actors are given even less leeway on the variety of sounds they can make, yet still excel at creating animals with unique personalities and characteristics. 

Despite the strength of individual scenes, Beavers stumbles in its pacing. Running 110 minutes, the film has a lot of jokes, but really takes its time setting them up. More egregious is the overarching narrative of the movie. It takes 20 minutes before the opening credits appear, longer for the first onscreen appearance of a beaver (barring the opening song), and an hour before the title of the film is shown. Even once Kayak decides to kill “hundreds of beavers”, his process mostly involves walking around the entire forest in a large circle, repeatedly checking each of his traps, and only occasionally encountering a punchline. Though the jokes mostly work in isolation, they end up a bit of a slog when strung together. 

The humour in Hundreds of Beavers works best in small doses. Though the live-action Looney Tunes inspiration is charming and leads to some excellent slapstick comedy, it overstays its welcome over the course of its runtime.

Thank you to Justin Cook PR for the screener.