As the late great Terrance Dicks once said ‘You can have an original idea, but it needn’t be *your* original idea.’ 2022’s ‘Hundreds of Beavers’ manages something of a rare feat, taking the old silent slapstick comedies of the 1910s and 20s marrying them up to the ‘Merry Melodies’ sensibility and producing an offspring that has vibes of ‘Forbidden Zone’ but with less of the snark and a much more charming and simplistic edge.

The plot? a story of an applejack maker who accidentally burns his orchard in a drunken outing and winds up buried in the perma frost awakens and has to start a new life as a furtrapper to make ends meet. Initially striving just to find a meal, he seems to be all but done for, when he finds a local merchant (and by extension…a local merchants daughter with whome he falls madly in love) and in an attempt to ‘woo’ the young lady, he sets about becoming a professional furtrapper, eventually becoming an apprentice to a professional, before striking out on his own when unforutnate circumstances arise.

And this thing has Buster Keatons DNA running right through it. Its a largely silent film that has a reliance on monosyllabic utterances and sound effects to guide the narrative. But when I say that this film has a creative TIDALWAVE sitting just below its surface I very sincerely mean that. This thing is NUTS. absolutely 100% doolally tap, its positively exploding with ideas, whether its slapstick gags, visual pieces, small jokes in the background its just…TEEMING with ideas and full of life (ironic of course given 99% of the cast in this movie are dressed in full mascot costumes).

The act structuring is strong, it manages to tell a simple story very effectively, the comedy is razor, if you have ANY appreciation for physical comedy you’ll probably love this, the tone is wonderful coming across as wonderfully charming, but just the very VERY feintest slither of darkness running under the current to act as a welcome contrast.

The characters say very little, but the film goes to great lengths to make them feel fleshed out, to give them personality VIA their physicality. even the animals in this through the power of editing and simply the way they stand seem to emit IMMEDIATE personalities.

with a solid act structuring, decent pacing and a wonderfully robust tone. I had very little to dislike about the script side of this movie, If I was splitting hairs, I think it could have stood to have been 10 minutes shorter, but honestly? when a film is THAT alive behind the eyes and has a seemingly ENDLESS well of creative input to pull from, even if it did stay a little longer than expected…I didnt much mind because the creativity shone through.

Direction is pretty rock solid too, largely sticking to the kind of shot types that would have existed in 20s and 30s cinema, the film drenches itself in that style and era of film making, which I think is an inspired choice given its not particularly a period of time that gets much love from mainstream audiences these days. Here? it comes acorss as authentic and important to the narrative to present the film in this way. the aesthetic choice to present the film in black and white, and even the film posters choice to frame itself in a similar way to 1963’s ‘Its a mad mad mad mad world’ automatically puts you in the mindset that your going into something grand and hilarious. and on that front it doesnt dissapoint.

Which is especially impressive given this film was predominantly shot on greenscreens and during several winters. how they’ve managed to bring so much to life in a medium that I frequently decry as being so dead is honestly a marvel for me.

same goes for the cine, where every shot seems to be some kind of great multi layer world build using stock photographs and manipulated images overlayed. the black and white, rough and ready feel of this presentation really helps hide a lot of the rougher layering work, but its that kind of creative choice that makes the end product look and feel so good!

and it absolutely CANNOT be overstated enough how amazing the editor on this project is. With a film like this, timing is integral, one bad cut, and the jokes ruined. here? it doesnt let up for a second…and while, as mentioned, I feel like maybe a couple of scenes could have been culled to just make this thing a tighter package over all. there is not a SINGLE scene that has a missed beat. EVERY joke lands with impeccable timing. its a miracle work quite honestly, and whoever cut this is clearly very knowledgable about this era of film making and clearly in a fair society they’d be heading to hollywood sooner rather than later.

throw in some wonderful performances that really cement this thing in place as being a highly animate and enaging picture and a soundtrack that mixes public domain tunes with classics from the DeWolf library. and ‘Hundreds of Beavers’ is a classic in the making, make no mistake. If you have any appreciation for ‘old style’ comedy, im sure this will more than impress. Definitely not one to miss, check it out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hundreds-of-beavers/