by Alex P.

When Hundreds of Beavers got released to streaming services last year, it became one of the biggest success stories and most beloved films of the year, and for good reason. As a black-and-white slapstick comedy, awash in practical effects and Adobe After Effects 2D animation, completely devoid of dialogue and produced with only $150,000, it feels remarkably out of place in a cinema landscape dominated by CGI and character-driven dramas. But that very out-of-placeness is what makes its inventive qualities all the more precious. I feel that the poster, which IndieWire called one of the best of 2024, captures this perfectly. Its hand-drawn caricatures and bold red lettering are a direct throwback to the absurd comedies like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and those by National Lampoon from the 60s and 70s, which make up just some of the film’s many influences. 

The influences are even wider than Hollywood comedies. The first act is a perfect translation of Looney Tunes cartoons to live-action film, before heavily incorporating video game logic in the second act. I particularly like how directly it translates the video game mechanics of survival games like Minecraft or Terraria into film action. We’ve seen a lot of video games adapted into films in the past decade, but they seem to flatten how the games work into standard Hollywood action. Seeing a movie that literally functions and presents itself like a video game as a framework for its action and plot is a bold innovation. Similarly fusing old and new influences, the slapstick feels equal parts Charlie Chaplin and early YouTube sketch comedy. 

Co-writer Ryland Tews stars as Jean Kayak, a 19^th century applejack salesman turned fur trapper. The film’s action completely centers around his efforts to trap and kill cute critters (played by people in mascot suits) for sustenance and to trade their pelts for goods. The rigid logic about the tactics to trap each animal (beavers always fall for turds lacquered in castor oil, rabbits will go for anything that resembles a carrot) sets up most of the action as Jean discovers the logic of his world and his trade the hard way. The film’s best quality is the virtuosity with which it immerses you in recurring gags and wild internal logic that feel as well-scripted as a classical symphony. Again, thanks to the heavy use of video game logic, gags that would be throwaways in other movies recur again and again only to culminate in centerpieces where Jean uses everything he’s learned to set up giant, hilarious Rube Goldberg machines. 

In our age of digital proliferation, you’d think independent film would have flourished to a much greater extent than it has. Nearly everyone has a camera and powerful editing software sitting in their pockets. Instead, though, modern film has felt more suffocated than ever, as big studios insulate themselves from big risks by trying fewer crazy ideas and releasing fewer movies. In this era, then, it’s comforting and much needed to see a film made with no money whatsoever that looks amazing and oozes more creativity than most blockbusters and made more than six times its money back solely by word of mouth.  

You can watch Hundreds of Beavers on Kanopy with your library card and PIN. 

Alex Pyryt is a DIY Instructor & Research Specialist at HCLS Elkridge Branch.