Missing Link

 

As a fan of stop-motion animation studio Laika, I was initially excited about their then-upcoming fifth feature, Missing Link, during the initial teasing from the studio, only to be turned off from seeing it in the theater because of how different the trailers made it look from their previous works. In the years since, however, I became increasingly curious about giving it a fair chance to complete my experience with their output, more so in the run-up to their latest film, Wildwood. After finally giving Missing Link its due, I ended up liking it far better than I thought I would, but still thought it fell short from Laika’s first four films in terms of storytelling.

Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) travels the world in search of evidence of mythological creatures in a desperate attempt to be accepted by the Society of Great Men. When all hope seems lost, and having driven away his assistant Mr. Lint (David Walliams), Lionel receives a hand-written letter with a lead on a Sasquatch sighting. Before following said lead, he makes a bet with Society leader Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry) that would give Lionel member ship if he can prove the Sasquatch’s existence. Not wanting to take any chances, Piggot-Dunceby hires a hitman to stop Lionel from achieving his goal.

If there’s anything about Missing Link that deserves praise, it’s the animation. It’s $100 million budget definitely shows, as every second of animation is filled with very subtle details and incredible artistry, especially when you know the great lengths the animators went to achieve an even higher level of detail than before. Forest and jungle scenes are particularly drop-dead gorgeous and the animation is so fluid that it’s easy to forget at times that it was all created with stop-motion and minimal CG, making even extended map-drawing scenes a delight to look at. If nothing else, the animators deserve all the recognition they can get for their incredible work and talent.

The animation quality and attention to detail are nothing short of immaculate.

The voice cast consists primarily of big-name actors better known for their on-camera work, but it’s stacked and well-cast regardless. Hugh Jackman is a good fit for Sir Lionel Frost and Zach Galifianakis’ sillier performance as Mr. Link bounces off of Jackman’s more serious demeanor pretty well. Stephen Fry, best known for his more comedic work, delivers a great performance as the more serious Lord Piggot-Dunceby, who opposes Lionel Frost at every turn. While the movie is more comedic than prior Laika features, it’s not as overblown as the trailers made it appear, and in fact has some really good comedic timing, perhaps owed partly to the casting of professional comedians in some of the lead roles.

Where Missing Link falls short, however, is the story. It does have an interesting premise, especially when Mr. Link first appears, and it does have some compelling characters and arcs. However, Lionel Frost is not quite as compelling a lead as those of Laika’s past works and there isn’t quite as much nuance or subtlety in the storytelling and character arcs (and even spells some of it out in the final act). Piggot-Dunceby is not quite as compelling or memorable a villain either, but he still works as an antagonistic force for this type of plot and part of that is seeing how low he is willing to sink to maintain what he believes to be the natural order.

Missing Link may not be Laika’s best effort in terms of plot, but it’s far from terrible since it executes its interesting premise pretty decently. The beautiful animation, on the other hand, represents the studio at its best at the time and this alone is enough of a reason to give it a watch.