This delightful, slapstick romp will be at the North Park Thursday, December 5

By Frank Housh

Hundreds of Beavers has charmed the film festival circuit and it’s easy to see why. It is a strikingly original, slapstick romp through a magical, snowy world. 

Slapstick

A “slapstick” is a hinged, wooden instrument originating in the commedia dell’arte of the Italian Renaissance that makes a slapping noise to emphasize staged, comedic violence. The sound accompanied the devious Harlequin spanking the posteriors of others and migrated to the comedies of Shakespeare (Comedy of Errors), and Victorian Punch and Judy.

Slapstick crossed the Atlantic in the form of Vaudeville theater and silent film with Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. 

In our time, the term “slapstick” has evolved to describe a style of comedy characterized by exaggerated physical actions and absurd situations.

In my childhood slapstick comedy was the reward for getting through the school week, as Saturday mornings featured a Harlequin Bugs Bunny, unmoored from the laws of physics, turning the tables on the hapless Elmer Fudd (“A Wild Hare,” above). Note the manic, jaunty, orchestral score that accompanies silent films, Looney Tunes, and “Hundreds of Beavers.”

Mike Cheslik filmed “Hundreds of Beavers” over twelve weeks for $150,000. As discussed in this space here and here, independent film is rising, refreshing the cinematic arts as it did in the 1970s, the last time a bloated movie industry was suffocating under the weight of its own greed.

“Hundreds of Beavers” is shot in black and white and devoid of dialogue; it is an homage to the silent movies of a century ago and features the Bugs/Fudd, predator/prey dynamic, as our handsome hero Jean Kayak battles an army of human-sized beavers in the maple forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

I heartily recommend watching “Hundreds of Beavers,” so I won’t spoil the (unexpectedly) complex plot. In sum, Jean Kayak undergoes a surreal, snow-covered, hero’s journey on the way to a satisfying ending. The woodland creatures who oppose him are possessed of a collective, Bugs-like intelligence, but the violent conflict remains slapstick and absurd.

“Hundreds of Beavers” is a delight.

“Hundreds of Beavers” will show at the North Park Theater, 1428 Hertel Avenue in Buffalo at 7:00PM and 9:30PM Thursday, December 5th. For tickets are more information click here.

Frank Housh is a contributing editor at The Buffalo Hive and publisher of Media Room. This movie review was originally published at Media Room on May 28, 2024. 

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