Missing Link (Review)
Missing Link Proves Laika Studios is the Best at What it Does.
Laika Studios has made a name for itself in recent years producing some of the best stop motion animated films of all time and their newest film Missing Link proves they haven’t lost their magic. It’s a wonderful family film and the first great animated feature of 2019. It gathers together an impressive cast of actors that bring to life whimsical characters is a beautiful and vibrant world. It’s a bit early in the year to start talking about the Oscars, but I’m willing to bet that Missing Link is a shoo-in for a Best Animated Feature nomination.
The film takes place during the early 1900s, a time when wealthy men sought out adventure and discovery to prove their greatness. Thus the film begins with Hugh Jackman’s character Sir Lionel Frost seeking out evidence of mythological beasts without much luck. Fortunately, fate soon answers his quest to document the unknown and brings him face to face with a Sasquatch (Zach Galifianakis). Surprisingly enough, the cryptid is capable of speech and seeks to be reunited with his long lost cousins in Tibet. Frost leaps at the chance and with the help of a fellow adventurer, Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), they set off on a perilous globe-trotting adventure.
To say that Missing Link is absolutely beautiful would be an understatement. The meticulous attention to detail is beyond compare, especially when it comes to the characters and their expressions. Laika has always been a studio that has gone above and beyond when it comes to the worlds they create and Missing Link is no exception. You only have to glance at Galifianakis’ to see that. After all, he’s a beast covered in clumps of hair and the film takes care to ensure that it all moves and sways constantly with him. The amount of effort that must have gone into the animation alone is mind-boggling and pays off in spades. After all, stop motion is a painstaking animation style that requires 12 double shots for every second of film time. Laika though has never been a studio to shy away from hard work and it shows once again.
The themes in Missing Link are a bit cliched but done in such a way that they don’t feel that way. Frost is a man desperate to prove himself a great man, which means he has to justify it to other “great men” in order to feel acknowledged. However, the men he so desperately seeks validation from are the kinds of men stuck in the old world and resent the direction the new one is heading in. The kind of men who scoff at the ideas of equality, evolution, and philanthropy. Frost doesn’t take after them in their philosophies but still seeks to be considered equal to those that came before him and is so wrapped up in his personal quest that he’s blind to the world around him. In other words, Missing Link seeks to tackle the old world incarnation of what eventually became modern toxic masculinity. It’s a bit on the nose in many cases but still manages to deliver a potent message about finding one’s place in the world outside of what tradition might dictate.
Jackman is magnificent as always as the self-assured and equally self-centered Lionel Frost. The part calls for charm and charisma which he is none to short on and pairing him with a warm-hearted, yet awkward comedian like Galifianakis makes for quite the dynamic duo. Best of all Galifianakis abandons his typical mumbling demeanor and speaks loud and clear to the point where he is nearly unrecognizable. Still, he brings his special brand of social ineptitude to a character that has no understanding of sarcasm or colloquialism, which makes for plenty of uproarious moments in Missing Link. The characters seem at first to be almost opposites of each other, but their wide-eyed marveling at the world around them proves to be a common ground that they bond over. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Saldana is there to push the two together as the only character with half a brain.
Missing Link is a film the whole family can enjoy. It offers plenty of opportunities for both kids and adult to find joy and humor in, and is a heartwarming tale about finding your place in the world. It’s a well told and absolutely beautiful film from a studio that has managed to prove itself a force to be reckoned with in the world of animation. Missing Link might not be the best film in Laika’s catalog, but with how exceptional their films have been over the years, that’s hardly an insult. Either way, it’s a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and one you will too.
