[IHTTA: I Have To Talk About]
I just saw Hundreds of Beavers earlier today and I have to talk about it.
First, after seeing the movie I understand why it’s a critical darling. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it in the live-action space! It seamlessly combines the language of cinema (by way of visual comedy), cartoons (via “toon logic”), and video games (the shop, the beaver count, etc), which is no small feat. The movie is also unabashedly absurd (see: toon logic). This applies to the movie’s premise, plot, and costume design. You’ll leave the theater wondering: how on earth did they acquire that many beaver costumes (or, perhaps, how did they edit their footage to make it look like they had that many beaver costumes)? You might also walk away thinking something similar to what one of the movie goers in my theater said: “wow, someone made that,” (ie “what an incredibly zany and creative production”).
Of course, another reason that critics may love the film is that it is laugh-out-loud funny. It uses a combination of slapstick comedy, visual humor, and unfettered tomfoolery to achieve that end and while the movie isn’t “laugh a minute funny,” the proceedings garnered consistent laughter throughout the run-time at my screening. With that said, I won’t go into the specifics because the movie lives and dies by its bits. To share them here would be a faux pas akin to explaining a joke, and I think most people would be better served to just see the film. Some might have reservations about the fact that the movie does include some scatological humor (and a scene or two of “gross out” humor, too), but in my opinion the scenes in question were brief and fell well within the bounds of jokes or situations made or encountered by a cartoon character.
As an added bit of cosmic absurdity to the proceedings, Hundreds of Beavers was shown at my local art house theater on (Inter-)National Beaver Day. I’m not sure if the theater decided to show the movie on this day because of the national celebration or if it was a happy accident, but it only enhanced the experience for me. You can’t make this stuff up.
If you could level a nit-pick at the movie it might be that it doesn’t seem to have a broader point. It exists more for its own sake, for entertainment, and for silliness. Instead of having a message (TM), Beavers feels much more like a movie you sit back and laugh along with rather than one you interrogate for deep political or philosophical meaning. If you want a message, and only a message, this may not be the film for you. If you want something that is simultaneously unhinged, riotously funny, and probably unlike anything else you’ve seen in theaters, however, Beavers is definitely worth a watch.
