Hundreds of Beavers

Hundreds of Beavers is certainly a film. Is it a good film, or an enjoyable one? That may depend on many factors, including your tolerance for the bizarre, zany, and downright, at times, hallucinogenic work on display in this distinctive film. The plot follows the misadventures of an Applejack maker-who consumes more than his share of his own product-who then becomes a fur trapper, following several of the titular beavers wrecking his operation, in a film which plays out like a cartoon.

This is important, because this is played as absolutely normal within the rules of the film’s universe, yet none of it would make real sense in the world we live in, as viewers. Your ability to simply go with this knockabout slapstick fantasy will determine your pleasure or lack thereof. Shot in black and white, with humans dressed in obviously fake outfits as various creatures, including Bugs Bunny knockoff rabbits, and a horse, among other creatures, this also features animation.

Courtesy SRH

Yet, the cheapness is perhaps part of the point of this, like the old It’s Gary Shandling’s Show, where the titular character would often break the fourth wall, and speak about how he wishes he had a bigger budget, or they really shouldn’t show you how the sausage was made. This is one of the ways you slowly become aware that this is not inept film making, at all, but very assured. The film is a fantasy, and the central conceit is quite simple. Imagine a live action, slightly pickled, driven by love, Elmer Fudd, who turns into a reliable hunter, and you are on the right track.

The former Apple Jacker-a fellow named Jean Kayak, played by the film’s co-writer, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, in a performance that is asked to carry the film-the  trapper, must first look for food, which leads him to look for money, which leads him to meet a woman and her father, who runs a trading depot. Falling for the woman, who is a furrier, Kayak decides he will win her hand. After learning the trade from an expert trapper, who dies and gives him his secret map, Kayak begins eliminating the local beaver population. As it turns out, these are no ordinary beavers. Indeed, they often eat rabbits whole and are constructing an ominous tower deep in the forest. All this is done with a minimum of dialogue, mostly simple vocalizations and sound effects while a constant score runs.

Courtesy SRH

The effect is that of a black and white Road Runner v. Coyote cartoon, mixed with some Buster Keaton, Ralph Bakshi, Lotte Reiniger. Guy Maddin and even some Georges Melies. It is a mélange of insanity and unreality which bends and sometimes cracks, but never fully gives. This is ultimately too good natured, despite the violence, too knowing and too intelligent, to be labeled a bad movie. It is an unusual film, and one of the weirdest things you are likely to have seen in a film in many years. The flaws of the film do keep it from being truly great.

Those flaws are chiefly the repeated gags, to the point of inanity. How many times can our hero fall through a hole? How many times can he arrive at a trap just a second too late? How often can the beavers fall for the traps? Should our hero not be dead? Is he, in fact, having a hallucination as he lays dying, or is it simply cartoon logic, where we do not look or think too closely? Those who can surrender will have a more enjoyable experience than those who cannot, who may find this painfully zany, frantic and brutal, even sadistic. Yet, for those who can find patience, there are rewards.

Courtesy SRH