Hundreds of Beavers
As I was growing up, Disney was not really something my mother was exposing me to. Part of that is because she was a Looney Tunes person, and it stuck. What I love about it is the comedic anarchy of each short film; it doesn’t matter which combination of characters the short is about- there is genuine lunacy on the screen each time. During Mike Cheslik’s “Hundreds of Beavers,” the same rules apply for 108 madcap minutes, as we watch an applejack salesman reinvent himself into an animal trapper when meager wealth, and a woman, is at stake. It was, far and away, my favorite film at last year’s Atlanta Film Festival, and rewatching it as it starts to enter wider release, it remains one of the most deliriously entertaining films I’ve watched in years.
The visual language of “Hundreds of Beavers” is basically that of the silent masters, with low-budget visual trickery bringing the absurd hero’s journey of Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) to life. When we first meet him, he is an applejack salesman whose empire explodes, leaving him destitute. His look is that of a 19th Century frontiersman, not unlike Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in “The Revenant.” The difference is, by halfway into the film, Jean will have an oversized racoon head for a hat. The animals he will hunt, including the titular beavers, are human-sized animal costumes. My kingdom for another film in this series, “Hundreds of Dinosaurs,” where Jean is a prehistoric man who is trying to woo a cavewoman by killing hundreds of dinosaurs, in those now-iconic blow-up dinosaur costumes. Whatever it takes to get this going, hit me up, guys.
I love the ways in which Jean’s progression as a trapper is a series of trial and error. He has some help along the way, from another trapper and a local Native American- though their help is sometimes begrudging- but along the way, Jean remains a bumbling fool, especially when in front of “The Furrier” (Olivia Graves), a woman adept with a knife, and putting him in precarious situations, and her father, whom has a very simple trading system for “pelts.” Each animal has a distinct personality to them- the rabbits, the racoons, the wolves, and- last but not least, the titular beavers, which are basically supervillains, but also oddly inclined towards justice and science, as well. We also get fish, skunks, frogs (poor, poor frogs) and flies, and all along the film, Jean is learning about the environment, and how the hierarchy of power goes. The film ominously setting up the beaver’s uber-damn is a wonderful touch that is emphasized in the glorious score by Chris Ryan, which gets to the slapstick nature of the film magnificently, and with some wild emotional beats that keep us endlessly surprised.
When I first saw the film back in May, I thought it dragged a bit at over 100 minutes, but in rewatching the film, it moves like a bullet. Part of that initial feeling might have been exhaustion from how much viewing I had done, but I think this time, I recognized the ways in which each “animal” encounter, and following the tracks of his map, is different for Jean. The little nuances of the humor came out, and I fell in love with this film’s silliness all over again. The performances are great examples of silent slapstick comedic aesthetics, to the point where you feel like the kings of silent comedy- Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd- must have been watching down on this film’s production, and smiling. That extends to the stunt performers in the animal costumes, as well. The rabbit taunting Jean. The wolves trying to track him. The racoons tormenting the rabbits. And the multitude of beavers, whether it’s the ones Jean is trying to lure into his traps, the Holmes and Watson detectives investigating the deaths, the scientists and lawyers, and the ones chasing him during the film’s final 30 minutes. There’s so much joyous insanity and invention in this movie it might require multiple viewings to capture it all.
I also wrote about the film at In Their Own League here.
