‘Missing Link’ is a fun movie with a solid premise but a bit weak in story

Posted on April 26, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Laika is the only major domestic studio still working in the field of stop-motion animation, delivering one quality film after another, including “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” “The Box Trolls” and “Kubo and the Two Strings.”

Although using the latest technology, including 3D printers, the filmmakers are still taking photos of model and puppets, meticulously manipulating them for each and every frame of the film. The results are as mind-blowing as they are beautiful.

The studio’s latest film is “Missing Link,” which is another solid entry in Laika’s portfolio, but one that doesn’t quite live up to the inventiveness (from a story perspective) as its predecessors.

I would compare it to the early days of Pixar when the studio followed up “Monsters Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles” with “Cars.” While that last film had an interesting premise — talking cars living in their own society — the story they decided to tell within that world was basically the plot of “Doc Hollywood.”

Likewise, in “Missing Link,” we have an interesting premise — a Bigfoot-type creature who is actually quite civilized — and a basic plot we’ve seen many times before — a self-centered character pledges to help someone else but is really doing it for his own gain (and will learn the folly of his ways before the end).

To put it another way, “Missing Link” feels a little lightweight compared to the previous Laika films, but the movie still provides a lot of fun and, of course, the animation is once again stunning. Really, if a film’s only problem is that it doesn’t quite live up to its studio’s incredibly high storytelling standards, it still has a lot still going for it.

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