Hundreds of Beavers (2022) review

There's some ol' timey tomfoolery goin' about in the 19th century American Midwest as applejack manufacturer Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) has his livelihood ruined by him drinking too much and a beaver destroying his whole operation - he then has to (unsuccessfully) hunt for food (the rabbits outsmart him), receives tutelage from a master trapper (Wes Tank), and then becomes enamored with the daughter (Olivia Graves) of a fur trader (Doug Mancheski), who demands over a hundred pelts to marry her.  For director Cheslik (and his entire crew), this is a true indie labor of love that's inspired by not only the silents, but also cartoons (Looney Tunes) and video games (I like the little question marks and exclamation points that appear): yes, it should have been quite a bit shorter considering the concept (sections do seem needlessly drawn out), but the go-for-broke inventiveness is commendable, and there are multiple visual gags - including dogs playing cards, the beavers having their own equivalent of Sherlock Holmes and Watson and a straight-out-of-Frogger race inside of a log factory - that provide plenty of chuckles.  Mercifully, no animals were harmed during the production ... on the other hand, the actors in the animal costumes might have suffered a bonk or three upside their thinkin' machines.