★★★★
Mr Link recruits explorer Sir Lionel Frost to help find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. Along with adventurer Adelina Fortnight, this trio of explorers travel the world to help their new friend.
Classification: PG
A quirky visual spectacle that could only have wandered out of Laika’s wonderland of creativity, Missing Link is a humorous adventure that will keep you enthralled from beginning to end. With an all-star voice cast led by Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis, this reimagining of the Bigfoot myth is a mix of stellar action, jaw-dropping animation and laugh out loud comedy.
Missing Link begins in Victorian England where Sir Lionel Frost (Jackman) is an avid explorer yearning to discover and prove the existence of the most elusive myths and monsters. After a delightful opening sequence featuring Frost’s expedition to find the Loch Ness Monster, he receives a letter claiming that a town in America is the home of the fabled Sasquatch. Frost’s desire is to prove one of these myths as fact so he may be accepted into the restrictive and privileged explorer’s club of London. After setting foot in the new world, Frost meets the Sasquatch whom he names Mr Link, they make a deal, Frost will escort Mr Link to the Himalayas so he can be reunited with the Yeti’s and Mr Link will provide Frost with evidence of his existence.
Galifianakis is the eponymous missing link who brings a charming comedy to juxtapose Jackman’s more serious and suave performance. They are the most unlikely duo who encounter a variety of characters including Zoe Saldana’s Adelina, a widowed associate of frost who holds the map to the Yeti kingdom of Shangri-La and Timothy Olyphant’s Willard Stenk, a hired gun hunting Frost and Link. Every character is developed enough that every player organically works in the story and heightens the stakes when the action kicks in. The performances are enhanced by the extraordinary animation, moments when Frost reflects on his growing friendship with Mr Link and his transformation from selfish explorer to caring hero you forget that it’s a puppet acting before you and not Jackman himself. Galifianakis’s naivety and innocence in his performance also allow the vulnerability of the character to come through for the film’s more dramatic moments.
On a technical level, Laika once again proves that in our modern age of filmmaking that movie magic is still possible to bewitch an audience. While most spectacle in films can be explained away with computer-generated effects, Laika’s expert techniques in stop motion animation create a sense of wonder that can not be dismissed easily. Not just with it’s beautiful attention to detail in the character’s clothing or the striking set designs but with the combination of impressive cinematography and magnificent vistas that Missing Link brings to the screen. Like with 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika creates visually striking moments that will have you questioning what pact with the devil they made to deliver such flawless beauty.
The beauty of animation is that anything is possible, every aspect of the world is under the filmmaker’s control and Missing Link benefits from that meticulous detail in every frame. Laika has crafted a narratively satisfying adventure with strong characters with amazing visual spectacle. Overall, Missing Link is weird but it doesn’t shy away from this for a second and charms its audience in its execution.
Director: #ChrisButler
Cast: #HughJackman, #ZoeSaldana, #EmmaThompson, #StephenFry, #DavidWalliams, #TimothyOlyphant, #MattLucas, #AmritaAcharia, #ZachGalifianakis
Release Date: April 5th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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