Hundreds of Beavers

This is the sort of movie where you really need to be relaxed and feel that you have nothing else you need to be doing. My husband, son, and I went to view this film at a local indie theater. It was their last showing of the year. I knew the film was long but was so curious about such a unique concept that I bought tickets for all three of us despite the busy-ness of the holiday season. I ended up feeling like the film could have been finished 30 minutes sooner. With that being said, there were some laughs, some unexpected moments, and some zaniness in a truly creative and impressive way. While I wouldn't just recommend this movie to anyone (would rather tell them what they need to know to make their own decision), the truth is that I am still thinking about this film.

You should only watch it if you appreciate film as art and appreciate creativity. Definitely not for the average person who only likes the Hollywood type of film.

Endlessly inventive in the style of a 1920's silent movie, Hundreds of Beavers asks the question, what do you get when you cross Wile E Coyote with Buster Keaton and set him loose in the wilds of a Wisconsin winter? The answer is a damn good time despite - and in some cases because of - the low budget effects and cheap production values.

Blending animation with live footage, the movie is a series of pratfalls, skits and visual gags that could just as easily be tasks in a video game, or else a drunken dream brought on by imbibing too much cider.

Humans wearing animal onesies are a terrific stand-in for anthropomorphized cartoon characters. Similarly, the fact that the over the top violence more often than not results in death also seems more appropriate to the live action genre.

It's unlikely that Disney will come calling anytime soon (unless they discover a market for a pole dancing princess), which means you'll just have to take a chance and discover the charm of this movie's raw, unpolished nature on your own.

There are so many great old-school type gags running past the screen at full tilt, built-on or even combined in ways that I never saw coming, encouraging multiple viewings (which I will gladly do with giddy enthusiasm).

This flick is like a combination of the best classic cartoon skits, all mooched together, added with a hint of video-game logic, then stretched out into a full length feature, and somehow nailing it. With barely any downtime, it keeps upping the ante, getting more and more zany, yet always with a focused eye on the narrative. Not to mention, for such a small budget they really got the animated style down, with prefect settings or simple but effective tools, such as goofy costumes and multiple humorous props.

One of the most fun theatre experience I've had in quite a long time, the audience belly laughing the whole was trough.

Brilliant concept, and for a while it had some really funny moments. The problem is, an hour and forty eight minutes of slapstick leaves you feeling quite numb at the end. There is a reason why cartoons are short or why Three Stooges shorts are less than 15 minutes. You watch too many of them and the law of diminishing returns rears it's head and you end up tuning out. I found myself looking at my computer and looking up at the TV the last half hour or so. It's a shame because if this was edited a little bit tighter I might consider this for repeated viewing but this one is a "one and done" for me.

A black and white, essentially silent film has never been this much fun, nor has it been crafted with such exuberant adolescent heart, yet Hundreds of Beavers channels all of its ambitious, lo-fi energy into one of the most exhilarating gut-busting films I've seen in quite some time. Scrabbled together with no money, six beaver costumes, and spare time with friends Mike Cheslik creates a Looney-Tunes-level physical comedy romp, enlisting endless sight gags and simple plot mechanics that only get bigger, better, and sillier. The one-note story of an applejack farmer becoming a master beaver hunter gets elevated by revenge, romance, and subtle intelligence, leading to a climax full of payoffs that have been carefully placed throughout its runtime, amplifying Hundreds of Beavers' ability and soul. While the film isn't necessarily an emotional one, I found myself moved, if not for the characters than for the filmmaking. With no studio backing or theatrical distribution, Hundreds of Beavers has nothing to leverage and nothing to sacrifice, it's inherently itself through and through to the very end. Doing so, it soars to such great giddy heights that it's unwaveringly momentous that so much imagination still exists and proves there's still so much more to make, a true testament to the power of visual storytelling.