Hundreds of Beavers

There's a cutesiness to it and after the first ten minutes, I wasn't sure if I would be able to get into it. I'm happy to report, I did. Won over by the sheer amount of cleverness on display. This "Wallace and Gromit" Wile E. Coyote-Bugs Bunny, Buster Keaton, slapstick, video-game, mashup is a silly and joyous wonder to behold. On a shoestring budget of 150 thousand dollars, "Hundreds  of Beavers" is far superior to most of the 150 million dollar CGI messes Hollywood likes to inflect upon movie going audiences. What's it all about? Ryland Brickson Cole Tews plays Jean Kayak, a drunken apple Cider farmer who has lost everything due to pesky beavers. He must video-game-level-up one beaver pelt at a time to finally win the hand of The Merchant's daughter. The beavers look like people in beaver costumes, which is what they are. When sliced open, they contain a plastic human skeleton, bits of Styrofoam, and plush fuzzy organs - of course they do! The film crescendos with Jean Kayak infiltrating the giant beaver damn as if it were the fortress of Dr. No or Han's Island Fortress of "Enter the Dragon." "Hundreds of Beavers" is one of the most creative and fun movies you will see this year. Catch it in rep theatres now.