The holiday season means family get-togethers, and after the dinners, the present openings and the cutthroat games of Uno, if your family is anything like mine, they'll gather around the TV set to end the evening with a movie that everyone present can enjoy. And that's when the trouble begins.
The Find a Crowd-Pleasing Movie Challenge, Difficulty Level: Impossible seems to be more fraught than ever, despite the proliferation of the best streaming services. Try finding a movie that engages both the youngest and oldest people in the audience, that's not so saccharin that the hipsters in the crowd suffer a muscle strain from all the eye roles, but not so edgy that your more conservative family members drown out the dialogue with their harrumphing. If you can meet all those criteria, you're a savvier programmer than I.
But this year I've found a movie that's sure to satisfy all but the hardest-hearted people who drop by for holiday gatherings. It also happens to be the best movie that I've seen in the past year.
"Hundreds of Beavers" seems an unlikely candidate for anyone's year-end list. Typically, black-and-white indie movies with very little dialogue and a no-name cast don't find a wider audience, especially when they're shot on what you'd call a shoestring budget if that didn't over-value how much shoestrings actually cost. And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" benefitted from strong word-of-mouth, crafty marketing and availability on streaming to capture the attention of a lot of viewers. It also helps that "Hundreds of Beavers" is laugh-out-loud funny.
Here's the plot of the movie briefly, since your enjoyment of "Hundreds of Beavers" will not in any way hinge on the narrative. An applejack salesman named Jean Kayak sees his business ruined by frisky beavers who not only destroy the keg containing his liquor supply but also his orchard.
Left half-frozen and starving in the snowy north, Jean becomes a 19th-century fur trapper, tries to win the heart of a local furrier and the approval of her stern merchant father by confronting the very beavers that laid waste to his fortunes. Or to be more specific, he faces off against hundreds of beavers, as the name of the movie suggests.
As I said, don't worry too much about following the ins and outs of the storyline, as you can count the lines of spoken dialogue on both hands. And don't fret about the grisly end that awaits the assorted wildlife in "Hundreds of Beavers." Nearly all the animals — the bunnies, the wolves, the raccoons and, yes, even the beavers — are portrayed by humans wearing adult-sized animal costumes. (The only exception: Jean goes ice fishing for fish portrayed by adorable puppets.) When an animal meets its end, its eyeballs are replaced by two cartoon-style Xs.
"Cartoon" is very relevant to any description of "Hundreds of Beavers," as the movie is essentially a live-action cartoon. Swap out Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the actor who plays Jean Kayak, for Elmer Fudd, and "Hundreds of Beavers" wouldn't miss a beat.
That's because a lot of the comedy in "Hundreds of Beavers" is physical. There's no snappy patter or withering one-liners — just a guy trying (and usually failing in increasingly hapless ways) to capture beavers and whatever other woodland creatures land in his elaborate traps. There's a definite through line from the silent film comedies of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to "Hundreds of Beavers," with a lot of hard-won beaver pelts scattered along the way.
But it would be a disservice to "Hundreds of Beavers" to simply describe it as a throwback to silent movies with a touch of Loony Tunes thrown in for good measure. The movie also takes its cues from video games — Jean Kayak uses a map to track down beavers and trade their pelts to level up his gear in a way that will strike any RPG fan as very familiar. With some video game-inspired sound effects thrown in for good measure, it's a clever way for director Mike Cheslik to make a black-and-white silent movie feel accessible to modern audiences.
Is "Hundreds of Beavers" a holiday movie? Well, there is plenty of snowfall, which will help you feel warm and cozy while you sip your cocoa and watch Jean Kayak spend the first 20 minutes of the film avoiding hypothermia. And you'll see a lot of wooly beards that will would rival Santas. But no — a tale of one man's revenge against the beavers that have done him wrong does not touch on the themes associated with your holiday classics.
Yet, I insist that "Hundreds of Beavers" is a perfect movie to watch during the holidays — it's lighthearted, funny and appealing to a wide range of viewers. Even better, it's easy to track down. "Hundreds of Beavers" is currently streaming on Prime Video, as well as Tubi, Pluto and the Roku Channel, three of the best free streaming services out there.
So if your family gathering is running low on good cheer, sit everyone down in front of the TV and treat them to a screening of "Hundreds of Beavers." You'll likely spend the next 108 minutes laughing your head off and gaining a new appreciation for beavers and their cunning industriousness.
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