Film Review: "Hundreds of Beavers" Is A Delight

Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny, and The Origin of Green Bay

Hundreds of Beavers has charmed the film festival circuit and it’s easy to see why. It is a strikingly original, slapstick romp through a magical, snowy world.

Harlequin with slapstick. Photograph of 18th-century painting. Public domain, from the digital collection of the New York Public Library. http://digitalcollecitons.nypl.org

Slapstick

A “slapstick” is a hinged, wooden instrument originating in the commedia dell’arte of the Italian Renaissance that makes a slapping noise to emphasize staged, comedic violence. The sound accompanied the devious Harlequin spanking the posteriors of others and migrated to the comedies of Shakespeare (Comedy of Errors), and Victorian Punch and Judy.

Slapstick crossed the Atlantic in the form of Vaudeville theater and silent film with Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops.

In our time, the term "slapstick" has evolved to describe a style of comedy characterized by exaggerated physical actions and absurd situations.