Susan Granger’s review of “Missing Link” (Annapurna Pictures)
Hugh Jackman voices eccentric, egotistical explorer Sir Lionel Frost in Laika animation studio’s comedy-adventure. Plus there’s Zach Galifianakis as a charming, 8-foot tall, 630-pound Sasquatch named Susan, perhaps a distant cousin of Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.”
The prologue involves a hilarious sequence in which Frost fails to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster because of a broken camera. Undaunted, he’s soon summoned to the woods of America’s Pacific Northwest in search of the titular “missing link” – a.k.a. Sasquatch, otherwise known as Bigfoot.
Snobbish, social-climbing Frost is determined to make a pivotal discovery that will qualify him for membership in London’s Victorian-era Optimates Club, an exclusive society of adventurers.
As it happens, he was contacted by Mr. Link himself, a lonely simian who hopes Frost will accompany him and, later, edgy Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana) on an arduous journey to find his long-lost relatives, the Yetis, in the legendary Himalayan valley of Shangri-La, where they encounter an acerbic Elder (Emma Thompson).
What the trio of travelers don’t realize is that pompous Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry), a stubborn anti-evolutionary, has hired an assassin, Willard Stenk (Timothy Olyphant), to stop them.
While this story lacks the quirky depth of Laika’s “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” “Boxtrolls,” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” and is far too talky, the bright, bold stop-motion animation is stunning.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Laika has developed high-speed, 3D-printing technology, allowing them to move models and puppets to incorporate 106,000 expressions.
This arduous process involves a computer animator, utilizing Maya software, building a customized facial performance for each character, while repeatedly consulting with writer/director Chris Butler. So stick around for a memorable mid-credits moment.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Missing Link” is a silly, sweet 7. Sasquatch lives at the multiplex!
