MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:
A slapstick epic about a frostbitten battle between JEAN KAYAK and DIABOLICAL BEAVERS–hundreds of them–who stand between him and survival.
REVIEW:
Hundreds of Beavers is a low budget comic delight that mixes silent-era splastick, animation, mascot worthy furry costumes, with the absurdity and chaos of a Loony Tunes short. Think Coyote vs Roadrunner mixed with a lot of Elmer Fudd rabbit misery.
Director Mike Cheslik and star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews reteam, showing that they have learned from their premiere effort, 2018’s Lake Michigan Monster. In this new collaboration they have kept the black and white but dumped the semi-serious art house façade, dump the talk and proto fantasy sequences but kept the reliable comic elements that their best at- sight gags that are inspired homages from the Buster Keaton and Chuck Jones catalog.
The frame for all the gags relates to Jean Kayak, a former 18th century Apple Jack entrepreneur and drunk who loses his valuable apple crop to ravenous beavers, ends up going into suspended animation, wakes up years later, and more or less battles them all over again, along with some pesky rabbits and assorted greedy humans.
Tews is a human cartoon part Bruce Campbell and Jim Carrey, part Elmer Fudd with the dexterity for pratfalls of a Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplain. The animals are all furrys in funny but almost bad costumes. (Casey Harris is credited with the fun and inventive costume design.).
The beavers are eager and wise in the ways of outsmarting human stratagems. In fact all of nature is wise to this wise ass. Besides the Bugs Bunny imitators, there are noggin peckin woodpeckers, flies who know shit from shinola, and canines who mush and play to man’s worst instincts.
Tews physical clowning shows he knows his way around all the effect shots, puppetry, miniatures, cartoonish props, as well as other practical and post-production devices. Adding. to the fun is the soundtrack, which — with its combined foley effects, nonverbal exclamations, amusingly selected library music, and diverse original score by Chris Ryan — proves equal to the visual imagination on display Also helping, DP Quinn Hester’s monochrome compositions and Cheslik’s astute editing which allows Tews to milk every gag without belaboring it. Mike Wesolowski the joke creator gets a prominent “gag man” end credit. Tews exists in a world perfectly designed to annoy his existence.
This ingeniously home-made lark never runs out of steam, Hundreds of Beaver gets a 3.5/5 or a B+.
CREDITS:
Directed by
Mike Cheslik[1]
Written by
- Mike Cheslik
- Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
Produced by
- Kurt Ravenwood
- Matt Sabljak
- Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
- Sam Hogerton
Starring
- Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
- Olivia Graves
- Wes Tank
- Doug Mancheski
- Luis Rico
Cinematography
Quinn Hester
Edited by
Mike Cheslik
Music by
Chris Ryan
Production
company
SRH
Release date
September 29, 2022 (Fantastic Fest)
Running time
108 minutes
Country
United States
Budget
$150,000
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