Hundreds of Beavers
| Hundreds of Beavers | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mike Cheslik |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Quinn Hester |
| Edited by | Mike Cheslik |
| Music by | Chris Ryan |
Production company | SRH |
Release date | September 29, 2022 (Fantastic Fest) April 15, 2024 (VOD) |
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $150,000 |
| Box office | $360,292[1][2] |
Hundreds of Beavers is a 2024 American slapstick comedy film directed by Mike Cheslik and written by Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews.[3] The film stars Tews as an applejack maker in a conflict with beavers, trying to win the hand of a merchant's daughter.[4][5]
Hundreds of Beavers premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 29, 2022. The film has received widespread acclaim from critics. The film was self-distributed and received a video on demand release on April 15, 2024.
Plot[edit]
Successful 19th century applejack salesman Jean Kayak has his farm destroyed when a beaver eats one of the support beams of a giant keg, which rolls into his fireplace and explodes. Jean awakens in winter, repeatedly failing to catch food. He finds a group of beavers collecting logs to build a structure and attacks a pair, but is easily beaten by them. He catches fish by making his fingers bleed and using them as lures, and when he sells them to a local merchant, he notices a fur trapper turning an immense profit.
Jean buys a knife with the fish and cuts his shirt into rope. When he realizes the rabbits use a tunnel system, he rigs an exit with the rope and lures them into it, but raccoons eat his catches before he can get to them. He cuts up his pants to hoist the rabbits in the air and out of their reach. Jean catches a raccoon and runs into a Native American, who trades him snowshoes for the knife, and the merchant's daughter skins the raccoon and makes it into clothing for Jean.
Jean breaks his leg when he falls into a pit made by the trapper, who rescues him and takes him on as his protege. Wolves start killing the trapper's dogs, and when the pack attacks in full, the trapper gives Jean his trapping guide before being killed. Jean erases it and starts a new guide as he begins to master the area, finding creative ways to trap the area's animals, selling them to the merchant and trading with the Native for better gear. He and the merchant's daughter develop a mutual attraction, but the merchant demands hundreds of beavers for her hand in marriage. A Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson-esque pair of beavers begin investigating Jean's traps.
Jean realizes the wolves in the area are hoarding a large collection of beaver carcasses. When the detectives report back to the beavers, who have built a massive dam, they send a large squadron after Jean. He lures them into the wolf cave and seals the entrance with icicles, allowing the wolves to slaughter them. He brings the bodies back to the merchant's cabin, only for it to be a cardboard cutout made by the detectives, who take the bodies to be buried.
Jean sneaks into the dam, but is eventually caught and put on trial for his beaver killing. He is found guilty and set to be skinned and made into a coat, the same thing having happened to the trapper. Jean narrowly escapes his restraints and beats up the group trying to kill him. While trying to escape, he notices the beavers building a rocket ship out of one of his kegs. He accidentally pushes a beaver into it, causing it to malfunction and launch in the wrong direction, breaking the dam and creating the Green Bay with the flood.
Jean rolls the bundle of beaver bodies into a snowball, which he rides as the beavers climb on top of each other to form a giant figure and chase him. The Native latches onto the rocket with a grappling arrow and launches it at the beavers, destroying the figure. The snowball stops at the merchant's cabin, and Jean is allowed to marry the daughter.
Cast[edit]
- Ryland Brickson Cole Tews as Jean Kayak
- Olivia Graves as The Furrier
- Wes Tank as The Master Fur Trapper
- Doug Mancheski as The Merchant
- Luis Rico as The Indian Fur Trapper
Production[edit]
The idea for Hundreds of Beavers was created by Mike Cheslik and Ryland Tews while at a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in October 2018. Cheslik directed, wrote, edited, and created the visual effects for the film while Tews played the lead role.[6] Cheslik and Tews previously made Lake Michigan Monster, a black-and-white film that cost $7,000, in 2018.[7][8]
The black-and-white film had a budget of $150,000. It was shot over the course of twelve weeks by a six-person crew during winter in two years. Nine weeks of filming was done in Wisconsin. Over 1,500 visual effects were made using Adobe After Effects. Editing and post-production took two years to complete.[6][7] The beaver suits were purchased online from a Chinese mascot website and modified the teeth.[9]
Inspiration was drawn from the Mario video games, America's Funniest Home Videos, and the slapstick comedy of Abbott and Costello, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and The Three Stooges.[6]
Release[edit]
The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2022. Cheslik and the producers chose to distribute the film themselves and Kurt Ravenwood oversaw the promotion campaign. They were aided by Jessica Rosner, a former executive at Kino Lorber. It was shown at 14 independent theaters in the Great Lakes region, including the Music Box Theatre, in fall 2023.[10]
The film received a video on demand release on April 15, 2024.[11]
Reception[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 65 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sustaining a zany premise with stylistic bravura and inspired gags, Hundreds of Beavers is a comedic gem that gives a dam."[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]
Dennis Harvey of Variety called the film "a sort of vast homage to comedy traditions past [...including] the Road Runner v. Coyote saga, as well as pre-talkie knockabout humor, frontier parody Cannibal: The Musical, pioneering screen fantasists Georges Melies and Karel Zeman, and so on. On paper, it would hardly be expected to remain funny for eight minutes, let alone 108. But this ingeniously home-made lark never runs out of steam."[7] Nick Schager of The Daily Beast declared the film "a marvel of slapstick invention that in terms of pure unbridled creativity puts most big-screen comedies to shame" and "an overstuffed live-action homage to the golden age of animation that's bursting with ingenuity and personality."[14]
References[edit]
- ^ "Hundreds of Beavers (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
- ^ "Hundreds of Beavers (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
- ^ "Synopsis". Hundreds of Beavers. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Varietywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Whittaker, Richard (February 23, 2024). "Movie Review: Hundreds of Beavers". Austin Chronicle.
- ^ a b c Dunn, Jack (May 6, 2024). "How the Slapstick, Black-and-White Movie 'Hundreds of Beavers' Took Over the Indie Scene With a $150,000 Budget, Sub-Zero Temperatures and More". Variety. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ a b c Harvey, Dennis (February 17, 2024). "'Hundreds of Beavers' Review: A Singular Live-Action Cartoon of Inspired Slapstick". Variety. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ Tropila, Jake (May 13, 2024). "Hundreds of Beavers: A Fur Trapping Photoplay of the Highest Order". Film Inquiry. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ Whittaker, Richard (April 30, 2024). "Into the Wilds With Hundreds of Beavers". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ Fuster, Jeremy (May 14, 2024). "Going It Alone: The Indie Filmmakers Getting Their Movies in Theaters Without a Distributor". TheWrap. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ Bolt, Neil (April 3, 2024). "Hundreds of Beavers VOD Release Date Set for Epic Slapstick Comedy". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.
- ^ "Hundreds of Beavers". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
- ^ "Hundreds of Beavers". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
- ^ Schager, Nick (February 27, 2024). "'Hundreds of Beavers' Is a Gonzo, Adult 'Looney Tunes'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
