Not an accurate depiction of the fur trade

May 30, 2024 4:31 PM

Hundreds of Beavers is an indie film made in six weeks for $150,000. It's like a modern combination of 20s and 30s slapstick films and live-action Looney Tunes. It's currently available on Apple and Amazon streaming platforms. A 19th century trapper battles nature and wildlife (depicted by people wearing mascot costumes) to win the hand of a furrier's daughter. It's filled with hundreds of gags. Here's the trailer, the opening, and a clip showing the costumes.
posted by JHarris (23 comments total)

For DeMille, young fur-henchmen can't be rowing!
posted by chavenet at 4:43 PM on May 30

Harold Innis wrote about the fur trade
posted by HearHere at 5:03 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]

Fanfare page, including a link to an AMA with the creators. Justwatch page.
posted by mediareport at 5:08 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]

(currently on Fandor, which has a free 7-day trial, and Hoopla, which I just realized I can access with my local library card.)
posted by mediareport at 5:10 PM on May 30 [2 favorites]

I watched this a few weeks ago and it is truly a ridiculous delight.

Also, do not let the 1hr 48min runtime scare you away. While it may look like a lengthy runtime for something like this, the clockwork plot machinations are all absolutely necessary for what follows. Chekhov's arsenal.
posted by neuracnu at 5:36 PM on May 30 [7 favorites]

Ooh, I've been wanting to see this since I heard about it. Thanks for the head's up!
posted by Navelgazer at 5:40 PM on May 30

I should shout out to bradsucks, whose blog is where I learned about this movie!
posted by JHarris at 6:13 PM on May 30 [3 favorites]

This movie flies by; full of great homages too. Highly recommended.
posted by nickggully at 8:00 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]

Much of this is more silent movie era with its visuals, even while it's using sound.

It's fascinating. I'm watching with delight. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 8:02 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]

Some weird echoes of but not rhymes with Lynch's Rabbits thing.
posted by hippybear at 8:13 PM on May 30

This movie is hilarious. You'd think it would get old after 10 minutes, but it's just so consistently inventive and clever. Constant joy and laughter. All killer, no filler. Like, seriously, they've edited out (or just never shot) anything that's not a gag.
posted by mrphancy at 9:31 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]

"continually inventive" is the only phrase I can come up with.
posted by hippybear at 9:47 PM on May 30

My small town has a tiny movie theater that showed this a few weeks ago and I had to go twice. The audience laughed harder than any in recent memory. It’s brilliant and weird in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. So many indelible images and “whoa, what did I just see?” moments. Great stuff.
posted by kinnakeet at 1:47 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]

I love how it unabashedly cribs so many bits of imagery from Looney Tunes. In recent years the classic Termite Terrace shorts have been in short supply on the air, enough that I began to despair that they would pass out of the cultural mindscape.

But just today I found out that MeTV is starting a cartoon spinoff, and Bugs Bunny and friends are getting two hours, six days a week!
posted by JHarris at 2:06 AM on May 31 [3 favorites]

I was in a mildly bad mood when I saw this movie, and let me tell you: bad moods do not survive this movie. I was laughing and clapping like a little kid almost immediately.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 3:05 AM on May 31 [3 favorites]

Wow, I watched this last night and it is FANTASTIC
posted by rebent at 8:45 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]

Love this so much, especially the combination of live action and animation, reminiscent of Karel Zeman.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 9:26 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]

How kid-appropriate is this?
posted by HeroZero at 9:53 AM on May 31

I don't remember anything terribly inappropriate, but I don't have kids of my own so my dial is set pretty tolerant.
posted by hippybear at 9:58 AM on May 31

How kid-appropriate is this?
There is a brief pole dance scene where the furrier strips down to a tank top panties and stockings.

Also some highly suggestive rabbit track imprints accompanied by appropriate noises.

Lots of violence, and dismemberment, not really gore but definately cute animals getting killed.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 11:19 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]

There is a little sexual innuendo. The trailer linked in the FPP shows an instance, where a rabbit mimes sexual activity. There's a couple of places where snow forms cartoon genitalia. It might go over the head of kids. There also is the pole dance Pink Fuzzy Bunny mentions. Other than that though, the whole thing is very cartoon like. Minor joke spoiler: The "gore" (usually the furrier disembowling mascot corpses) is plush! The opening (also linked in the FPP) also depicts drinking to excess and a couple of juvenile jokes. Oh, and there's a fair bit of coiled cartoon poop in the Japanese style.

You know your kids. If that's okay, then they may really enjoy it. I have to wonder if the few semi-adult moments (I hesitate to call them "mature") is just to ensure the movie got rated PG-13, and thus not relegated to the kiddie bin.
posted by JHarris at 1:54 PM on May 31 [2 favorites]

I saw this in a tiny indie theater (40 seats) a few months ago and laughed so hard I cried. The beginning felt a little long, but when the wackiness amped up I lost all sense of time and didn't want it to end. The movie is absurd and charming, and it felt wonderful to be part of a joyful little crowd.
posted by esoterrica at 2:59 PM on May 31 [3 favorites]

Yeah, that lingerie pole dance at 1:04:00 is not kid-friendly. I mean, the whole trite Goofy Man Wants Sexy Woman Whose Father Refuses plot is kind of not kid-friendly, either, but ymmv. And the violence can frequently be sad and unsettling, at least momentarily, before you laugh out loud at it. One of the climactic trapper/beaver fight scenes had me gasping from laughter when the trapper punched the head off a beaver revealing the skull underneath, but is that kid-appropriate? The answer will probably vary depending on how you feel about cartoon brutality.

I liked it and giggled a lot; it has some brilliantly hilarious bits, but it's definitely too long and drags in a number of places, so I split it up into a few watches. Try it in 10- or 20-minute excerpts and it may hold up better.
posted by mediareport at 7:23 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]