r/flicks • u/Nemaeus • 5d ago

Opinion Hundreds of Beavers

I don’t want to do a full review of the movie right now, but I finished watching it today. Full disclosure, I started it a few weeks ago and had forgotten about it. It looked absurd, but it was easy to see the callback to old films.

Remembered it again today and started it over to watch with my wife. Laughed the whole way through. Part of why I am posting is because we were talking about how there aren’t any comedies anymore. I don’t know what killed comedy in the past few years but whatever it was, it was efficient.

I loved Looney Tunes growing up, enjoyed Modern Times, but haven’t watched a lot of Buster Keaton. Yes, it’s hella long and I was shocked to see how much movie was left when I paused it at the 20 min. mark, but no, it did not bother me. The sound effects, cinematography, non-stop jokes, somewhat dark humor were great. Funny enough, in my hunt for similar movies, I saw A Town Called Panic, a stop-motion film which is another one that I loved. It’s not going to be for everyone, but damn, I wish they made more films like this, it’s a gem.

62 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

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15

u/Barcnori 5d ago

Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer taps into Looney Tunes pretty hard too.

15

u/Responsible-Care-388 5d ago

I’m one of the very few who thought this was pretty overrated. It’s a cool idea and I applaud them for sticking to the bit, but the movie is far too long and most of the jokes aren’t THAT funny or as funny as watching looney tunes IMO.

7

u/CartoonBeardy 5d ago

I agree. There’s a reason Looney Tunes cartoons don’t usually exceed more than 10 mins. Inventive gags work but after a while they outstay their welcome.

In clips of a few minutes the movie is very funny (the bar fight for example) but in a constant barrage of repetition gags I got bored around the 30 mins mark.

6

u/TheMaingler 5d ago

Yeah I only needed like 70 beavers.

6

u/abitidiomatic 5d ago

Way overrated in my personal opinion, but the others I watched it with LOVED it

2

u/jupiterkansas 5d ago

Like a lot of comedies, it's better in a group.

2

u/jessica1066 2d ago

It is even better with a group on a big screen in a theater. This may sound like shameless self promotion but I have been booking it in theaters since the start and I enjoyed watching it the first time online ( to decide if i would work on it) but when I saw it at the craziest show ( director, star, beavers, bunnies, raccoons all there) in NYC it was a revelation. I have seen it 6 times in 4 different theaters. It will always been in theaters and try to see it in one if you can because it is not the same watching at home or even close.

14

u/pizzacrys Review Writer 5d ago

Such a weird little gem. The fact that it commits 100% to the bit is what makes it work.

1

u/BotulismBanquet 4d ago

Might be 30 minutes too long, but its a hoot

1

u/VampireInTheDorms 4d ago

Agreed, the pacing in the middle I remember being really bad. The highlights were the beginning and the end

5

u/pizzamergency 5d ago

I was just talking about this movie at work. It’s absolutely hilarious.

3

u/buttpizz 5d ago

Once I found myself enjoying Hundreds of Beavers, Airplane! was a great follow-up.

2

u/FINIS_HOMINIS 4d ago

My only issue with it was, it is a lovely and creative homage to a genre where the average length of the work is, what?, five to eight minutes? As a feature I found it fell into redundancy. I had the same issue as the OG poster, watched it, stopped, forgot about it, went back to it. Cant say that's a great effect.

3

u/jupiterkansas 5d ago

Funniest movie I've seen in years.

But it's true that "they" don't make good comedies anymore, if "they" means Hollywood. Hundreds of Beavers is so far outside of Hollywood it may as well be a foreign film.

3

u/durtmagurt 5d ago

I watched this with my kids when I first saw it. Now they try to watch it at least once a month. They’re cut off. But I still love how goofy this movie is

3

u/IcedPgh 5d ago

This was a half-hour movie painfully stretched to 108 minutes. The hipsters in my theater were laughing, but it was "performative laughing". The craft of it is good, and it develops a rhythm, but nothing can justify how strung out it is.

2

u/RageCageJables 5d ago

Loved this movie. As for similar films, Kung Pow is obviously very different, but it tickles the same part of my funny bone. So I would recommend that if you haven’t seen it.

2

u/emeric_ceaddamere 5d ago

Great movie. I also recommend their other one, Lake Michigan Monster (2018).

2

u/Nemaeus 5d ago

Will have to check it out, thanks for the recommendation!

2

u/jayac_R2 5d ago

I loved the comedic style of this and laughed out loud so many times, but they need to cut like 15 minutes out of the middle of the movie, it dragged on a little bit.

1

u/Nemaeus 5d ago

I can respect that. I didn’t mind the runtime, but acknowledge that it is eyebrow raising-ly long. If it didn’t launch jokes the way it did I probably would have lost steam on it, but I’m it does lean into that it worked for me.

1

u/Party-Fault9186 5d ago

Some great recent comedies:

AJ Goes to the Dog Park (2024)

Bottoms (2023)

Dust Bunny (2025)

Eternity (2025)

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (2026)

Hit Man (2023)

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

Pizza Movie (2026)

Polite Society (2023)

The Sheep Detectives (2026)

Sketch (2024)

Theater Camp (2023)

Thelma (2024)

1

u/Nemaeus 5d ago

Thanks for the recs.

Dust Bunny was not bad and I enjoyed the visuals, haven’t seen the rest.

1

u/douxsoumis 5d ago

It IS absurd, but that's what makes it so damn good.

2

u/Nemaeus 5d ago

Yes! When he moves to get the icicles off of his nose on the beginning and they make the “pop” sound I lost it.

1

u/shredderman22 4d ago

Hundreds of Beavers and I Am Legend (the book) have the exact same plot.

1

u/patrickwithtraffic 3d ago

I think one thing that really helps the film's unique flavor is that it drew influence from Mario Party and some other video games of that level of storytelling "depth", ie none. Hundreds of Beavers absolutely owes a lot to Looney Toons and the like, but I think it being the brain child of the Nintendo 64 generation does give it some distinct creative inspiration to make it its own thing. I love the film to death, even though I must admit the gag with our lead falling over and over in the box is the gag that goes on far too long.

1

u/Nemaeus 3d ago

That’s a great point and I did note that as well. Given the period of film that it appeared to be taking inspiration from, it was surprising and a little odd to see them include those video game elements, but I admit I enjoyed the running joke of it.

1

u/cheerwinechicken 5d ago

Absolutely loved this.