Review of Missing Link (2019) by Ajzeg01 — 15 Sep 2019

So, I’m a pretty big fan of the animation studio Laika. They have crafted some of the most beautifully animated stop-motion films of all time and I really admire them. They are one of the few studios in Hollywood that only makes films for the art, not the money (as the box office clearly shows).

So, what did I think of their latest film, Missing Link? It was alright. This is less Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo, more Boxtrolls. The story and characters are very simple, but the animation is still spectacular and it makes the movie.

It’s so detailed, colourful, and there are full hand-to-hand fight scenes in this movie that are really well-choreographed and I can’t imagine how hard they were to animate. It’s well-written as well, the dialogue was very good and fit the voice actors perfectly.

Now, chances are you haven’t seen this movie, or you may have never even heard of it, so let me just give a short plot synopsis. It’s about a cryptozoologist in the 1800s who goes looking for Sasquatch in the wilds of America so he can join an elite club of explorers.

This movie doesn’t avoid the theme of colonialism that is so often left out of adventure stories like this and I really commend the movie for that. There’s also a gender nonconforming character and the romantic subplot does not go the typical route.

It’s actually one of the more progressive animated films out there. Overall, this movie has a lot of interesting ideas but they aren’t really fleshed out very well, making this one of Laika’s weakest movies.

However, the movie is still pretty good! I’d watch this over Wonder Park or Uglydolls any day! I’d say it’s worth checking out at least once. Not enough people have seen it and I just don’t think that’s fair.