Granted, it’s ultimately a few too many balls for Missing Link to juggle - there are some pacing hiccups as the characters jump around the globe - but the film is, first and foremost, a visual marvel. Further afield is the film’s particular back-story when it comes to the yetis, i.e., that the Bigfoots were so persecuted that they fled to the Himalayas and closed themselves off from the rest of the world. Then there’s the aptly named Sir Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry), the Optimates Club bigwig who boasts about having brought manners to “savages,” while behaving boorishly himself. That awareness carries throughout the film, particularly with characters like Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), whose adventuring days have been cut short by the death of her husband, and whose past history with Lionel miraculously defies the usual romcom tropes.
Though the action may more closely ape the Indiana Jones movies, the film is set in the Victorian era, necessitating a certain reckoning with the imperialist impulses of the time.
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Though it’s the search for family that anchors the movie - Frost’s purpose in finding Bigfoot is to prove his worthiness and win membership to the (overwhelmingly old, white, and male) “Optimates Club” - writer and director Chris Butler has more on his mind. After getting over his initial disbelief, Frost dubs him “Mr. The letter’s sender turns out to be the Bigfoot himself (Zach Galifianakis), who has written to Lionel in the hopes that the explorer will help him make contact with yetis, to whom he believes he may be related. Though Sir Lionel Frost’s (Hugh Jackman) sights are initially set upon the Loch Ness Monster, he makes the trip to the Pacific Northwest when he receives a tip as to the location of another creature: the Bigfoot. Missing Link is undeniably gorgeous - and also surprisingly bright, substituting cryptids for the ghosts and ghouls that have generally populated Laika’s films.
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They’re constantly pushing the bounds of the medium ( Missing Link takes full advantage of 3D printing for its facial models), matching developments in computer animation frame-for-frame when it comes to bringing dreams to life. Laika has managed to survive for this long as a company thanks to its amazing growth, specializing in an art form that has largely been superseded by 3D animation, and movies that are invariably just weird enough not to be considered mainstream. Its latest story covers more ground both literally and figuratively, sending its characters all over the globe, featuring thousands of distinct facial expressions, and touching upon surprisingly sharp themes of colonialism and prejudice. The stop-motion animation studio’s work has always been impressive - its first film, Coraline, is still stunning a decade later - and yet the studio manages to keep pushing the boundaries. Missing Link is Laika’s most ambitious film yet, and that fact is visible in every frame.
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