When I was coming out of the theater, I overheard another patron say, “It’s pure brain rot. And I love it.” And honestly, I’d say that’s a pretty appropriate description of Hundreds of Beavers.

The movie Hundreds of Beavers follows a drunken apple cider salesman (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) as he loses his orchard to a bunch of dam-building beavers. He is left in a winter wilderness where he must learn to survive and outwit beavers, rabbits, and wolves to become a trapper. During his journey, he meets a skilled fir trapper (Wes Tank) who becomes his mentor, teaching him how to successfully trap furs. With his newfound skills, he visits the merchant shop to purchase power-ups and prepares to confront the beavers and win the heart of the merchant’s daughter. It’s basically the hero’s journey done as a black-and-white slapstick comedy. Think Charlie Chaplin meets Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

Writer/director Mike Cheslik who co-wrote the film with Cole Tews, makes his feature film directorial debut by taking something that has been done before and flips it on its head with reckless abandon.

On a miniscule budget, and primarily filmed in front of a green screen, Hundreds of Beavers combines live action and animation, cleverly edited with sound effects and physical comedy to delight viewers. This is primarily because of the expressiveness of Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who manages to keep audiences engaged through prank falls and sheer foolishness. Using people dressed as if they raided the costume department and a furry convention, Cheslik provides audiences with a comedy like those we don’t get anymore – the types of comedies that allow audiences to laugh at overstated violence.

Now that I have praised this film and highly recommend seeing it, there is one criticism that I have of it, and that is that it’s too long. Compared to most films nowadays that can go up to three hours, an hour and forty-eight minutes seems short. However, Cheslik could have edited ten minutes from the film, as it became somewhat repetitive at times. I know that the repetitiveness was intended to be funny, but it became monotonous after a certain point.

Overall Hundreds of Beavers provides over-the-top hilarity and is a fantastic escape from the big-budget action films, and three-hour long epics showing at most theaters. It’s pure brain rot and my brain is so much better off because of it.

Rating 4/5

  • Directed by: Mike Cheslik
  • Written by: Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
  • Starring: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
  • Rated: R
  • Budget: $150,000 est.
  • Released: April 15th, 2024
  • Running Time: 1 hour and 48 minutes

Review by Milo Denison, the author of How to Manage Your Manager and host of podcast The 80s and 90s Uncensored.

Hundreds of Beavers Trailer