Missing Link

I've now seen all five of the nominations for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and they all have their charms, including Missing Link, which surprisingly nabbed the trophy at the Golden Globes for the same category, acing out the far superior Toy Story 4. Directed by Chris Butler and from the Laika studio, Missing Link is an amiable story about how and where we belong, but is most notable for being a flop of historic proportions.

When it opened in April 2019, it earned 5.9 million its first weekend, which doesn't sound terrible until one realizes how many theaters it was in. According to Wikipedia, it was the lowest opening ever for a film that was in 3,150 theaters or more.

Some of the reasons attributed to this are that Missing Link is stop-motion, which may be going out of style, that it was marketed to a younger audience than it should have been (it's major appeal, I would think, would be to tweens) and the title is not exactly a winner.

But the film itself earned strong reviews. It concerns an explorer and cryptozoologist, Sir Lionel Frost, who is something of a laughing stock among the Royal Society, whom he longs to be a member of. The opening scene has him finding the Loch Ness monster, but his camera gets smashed. He is then off to the Pacific Northwest to find Sasquatch, and finds him rather easily. You see, Sasquatch wanted to be found.

The central conceit of Missing Link is that the creature, whom is subsequently called Mr. Link and then Susan (a pretty funny gag) is able to speak, and is something of a nebbish. He is lonely, and has heard of a place in the Himalayas where there are yetis, whom he considers his family. In exchange for making a name for Frost, the two head off to find Shangri-La. They are chased by a criminal element, though, hired by the head of the Royal Society, who not only doesn't want to be proven wrong, but also has a problem with the theory of evolution.

Zach Galifianakis voices Mr. Link, and he is the best thing about the film, as he gives it a light comic touch. Much of the humor comes from his need for approval, and his taking everything literally. One such moment is when they are breaking into a house and Frost gives him a rope and tells him to throw it over the wall. Mr. Link does, but throws the whole rope over the wall.

Frost is voiced with stoic intensity by Hugh Jackman, while Zoe Saldana voices the third of the adventurers, the widow of a former partner of Frost's. Stephen Fry and Timothy Olyphant both are gung-ho villains.

Thinking about the five films nominated for this award, Toy Story 4 was clearly the best film, but I Lost My Body was the most original. The other three, Missing Link, Klaus, and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World were fine but nothing to write home about.