By Brian Skutle

The eternal struggle between man and nature has not been this comical since the early days of Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny, and it’s a blessing. I first watched Mike Cheslik’s delirious slapstick comedy, “Hundreds of Beavers” (2023), as I was catching up with some of the movies I missed during last year’s Atlanta Film Festival online. Immediately, I was in love with the film’s comedic style, its visual imagination, and robust sense of anarchy. The Looney Tunes comparison is apt, because this film- about an applejack salesman-turned-trapper who takes on hundreds of beavers to earn the love of an outpost owner’s daughter feels like a live-action film straight out of Termite Terrace. As a lifelong Looney Tunes fan, thanks to my mom, this was just the film I needed as I was navigating her ongoing health issues last year.

Ever since my viewing of the film last May, I’ve been heavily invested in the film’s impending releasing, and appreciative of the ridiculous ways they’ve promoted the film as its rolled out to theatres since February. On April 15, it hit digital platforms, starting with Amazon and Apple, and I’m excited for people who have not had the chance to see the film yet to finally get the opportunity to do so.

At the same time as I’ve been following the release of “Hundreds of Beavers,” we’ve had distressing news about a live-action/animated hybrid film, “Coyote vs. Acme,” likely getting shelved for a tax break from its studio, Warner Bros. Discovery. Would the movie have been a big concern for a lot of audiences without the awareness of WBD’s potential shelving? It’s a moot point, at this point (though I very much wish to see it, as Coyote vs. Roadrunner has always been my favorite Looney Tunes rivalry), but the idea that a studio would take an L on one of the most durable properties it owns- for all its faults, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” (2021) was a success- without even showing it to audiences is a troubling development in the film industry, where it now appears that a film has to be the right IP-driven movie to get taken seriously by the financiers. Thankfully, Cheslik’s film is here to fill the void for us.

Man vs. Nature is the driving force behind a lot of the most iconic Looney Tunes pairings. In “Hundreds of Beavers,” the main character (played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) is an applejack seller whose business gets destroyed by nature, and he must reinvent himself as a trapper. He finds an outpost, and is taken in by the owner’s daughter, and suddenly, he is going after every form of wildlife in the wilderness. Fish, rabbits, wolves, racoons, and finally, the titular beavers, whom are building an enormous dam- and wooden fortress- as they look to achieve world domination. Did I mention that all of the land animals are portrayed by humans in giant costumes? It only makes the film feel more insane than it already is.

There are sound effects and music throughout the film, but dialogue is at a minimum. I think this is part of why I love “Hundreds of Beavers” as much as I do. Especially as the main character is working his way through learning to be a trapper, the film takes on a tone that is very much Coyote vs. Roadrunner, but in black-and-white and- arguably- more cartoonish violence. There’s nothing wrong with a classic short like “Rabbit Seasoning” (1952), where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are trying to get Elmer Fudd to shoot the other- and always finds Daffy on the short end of the gun, but you don’t need dialogue to tell the story of the Coyote’s perpetual inability to capture the Roadrunner; his eyes, his facial expressions, and the Roadrunner’s beeps, and tongue flicks (a taunting jab at the Coyote’s incompetence) tell the whole story. The same is true for “Hundreds of Beavers,” where the comically-large heads, and very human movements, of the animal characters help set up the stakes for this film, and what our hero is up against. Unlike the Coyote, though, the main character in this film wins his battle against nature, though his trials- including a literal one, in the film’s surreal third act- are a wonderful bit of madness to behold.

If Warner Bros. Discovery does not want to give us actual Looney Tunes to revel in, God bless the makers of this film for giving us the next best thing.

Read Brian’s review of “Hundreds of Beavers” at Sonic Cinema here.