A brutal, wintry frost. An applejack salesman stranded in the frigid cold of the forest. Hundreds upon hundreds of beavers.

These elements encompass Mike Cheslik’s “Hundreds of Beavers,” one of the most original films released in recent years. 

The film follows Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), an applejack salesman for Acme Applejack who, after having his orchard destroyed by a beaver, must fend off in the frigid wilderness against the animals that inhabit it with all of them depicted in life-sized cartoony costumes. Kayak is also in love with the daughter (Olivia Graves), a furrier, of a stern merchant (played by Doug Mancheski) – who will only allow him to marry her if he brings in hundreds of beavers (hence the film’s title). 

In his feature-length directorial debut, Mike Cheslik (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) crafts a comedy epic that is seemingly influenced by the films of Buster Keaton and the animated shorts of Tex Avery (and the cartoons the Golden Age of Animation, in general, such as Looney Tunes). The latter is reflected in the visual gags featured throughout the film – such as the lifespan of a few generations of rabbits shown in the snow’s imprints in the film’s second act. Cheslik’s film also contains a heavy dosage of slapstick, a great example of this being the brawl between Kayak and several beavers in the film’s third act. In “Hundreds of Beavers,” Cheslik subverts expectations and blends live-action and animation from the film’s beginning with the opening sequence consisting of a musical number between Jean Kayak and His Acme Applejack.

There are also elements of the film that are reminiscent of the works of Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin who has cultivated a distinct style throughout his filmography, which is influenced by 1920s silent cinema and early 1930s sound cinema (such as 2007’s “My Winnipeg” and 2003’s “The Saddest Music in the World”). 

Similar to how the late David Lynch created a bleak industrialized world drenched in desolation in his 1977 directorial debut, the surrealist body horror film “Eraserhead” with a budget of only $100,000 — Cheslik demonstrates with “Hundreds of Beavers” what can be accomplished with a low-budget. Cheslik harnesses the surrealist atmosphere that encompasses these works and sculpts an offbeat world of snow and bizarrely depicted animals, a live-action cartoon universe unlike anything else, on a $150,000 budget.  

“Hundreds of Beavers” takes a unique concept and delivers it in a way that resembles a live-action version of a cartoon from the 1930s. With a truly original vision and hilarious sense of humor, “Hundreds of Beavers” showcases Mike Cheslik as a filmmaker to look out for.

The wilderness is drenched in hundreds and hundreds of beavers. 

“Hundreds of Beavers” is available on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.

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