Tuesday 22 October 2024

VOD: Hundreds Of Beavers (dir: Mike Cheslik, 2024)

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In possibly THE cult hit of recent times, truly fuelled by festivals and word-of-mouth, applejack Jean (a cider-maker) sees his orchard and business destroyed by beavers, so he sets out into the snowy wilderness to get revenge, finds a love interest and becomes a fur trapper to impress her father.  Fusing lo-fi animation and greenscreen with live action, it is a relentless stream of very silly sight and sound gags, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny.  The silliness is compounded by having the beavers and other animals played by people wearing childishly exaggerated costumes, as the beavers and nature inflict a barrage of slapstick indignities on our hapless protagonist who can never catch a break.  The film bowls along without dialogue, accompanied by a whimsical silent-movie-styled score.  The first act is probably the funniest, and the second act drags a little, but all credit to Ryland Brickson Cole Tews's clowning skills and  to all involved for keeping up the madness and inventiveness right to the end.
Hundreds Of Beavers is every bit as utterly daft and entertaining as its reputation suggests. 
 

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