Peter Viney's Blog

Missing Link

2019
Laika Studio

Directed by Chris Butler
Written by Chris Butler

VOICES
Hugh Jackman – Sir Lionel Frost, explorer
David Walliams – Mr Lemuel Lint, his valet
Stephen Fry – Lord Piggot-Dunceby
Matt Lucas – Mr Collick
Zach Galifianakis – Mr Link (aka Susan)
Timothy Oliphant – Willard Stenk
Zoe Saldana – Adelina Fortnight
Amrit Acharia – Ama Llahmu
Ching Valdes-Aran – Gamu
Emma Thompson – The Elder

Easter Holidays. Why do I review kids films? Oddly, over the years the kids reviews get the most hits online. We went with a five year old and an eight year old. I had a kid kicking the back of my seat for 90 minutes, and the kid in front kept shooting his seat back down into my knees. Along the row a dad texted with his phone screen lighting up a large area until he eventually fell asleep. And yet I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The central figure is Sir Lionel Frost, an archtype Victorian gentleman explorer. The greatest achievement of the storyline is it feels like a classic tale. The animation is the 3D long thin legs sharp features template, and all the scenic backgrounds are rendered in great detail.

It opens with Sir Lionel and his valet on a row boat seeking the Loch Ness monster, and it’s virtually a pre-film short in its own right.

One of the reasons it feels classic is that it borrows elements from the classic stories. We see Sir Lionel go to the Explorers or Adventurers club in London, just like Phineas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around The World in 80 Days, or Professor Challenger in Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. Sir Lionel has had a letter stating that the Sasquatch (Bigfoot) can be found in Washington state, USA. The evil Lord Piggot-Dunceby sees rare creatures as something to shoot and mount on the wall. They don’t want Sir Lionel in their club.

Sir Lionel meets The Missing Link

Briefly Sir Lionel finds the Sasquatch who speaks English and wrote the letter. There is a lot of humour for the accompanying adults. As Sir Lionel rides into the cowboy town, a sexy girl beckons to him from the upper windows of the saloon, swiftly followed by a beefy male prisoner beckoning him in the same manner from the town jail. The Sasquatch, named Mr Link by Sir Lionel, has collected newspaper headlines about Sir Lionel … the third one reads  Frost caught in flagrante with Russian ballerina.

The saloon before the fight breaks out

Nasty Lord Piggot has set out to frustrate the mission and kill Mr Link, using a short vicious cowboy called Willard Skenk. Though he has no moustaches, the height and attitude are from Looney Tunes’ Yosemite Sam. The saloon fight is elaborate, hilarious and one of the best bits I’ve seen in an animated film since the days when they were actually drawn.

Stagecoach across the desert, Sir Lionel & Mr Link

Mr Link (who chooses to be called Susan because he once met someone he liked called Susan) needs a friend. He is the last lonely Sasquatch. They determine to travel to the Himalayas and find his cousins, the Yetis. The widow of Sir Lionel’s old friend lives in Santa Ana California, and he knew where the secret valley of Shangri-La was, so off they go to steal the map from her (the map is in a heavy safe, recalling the 60s film Deadfall). She catches them and joins the venture, thus adding the feisty Hispanic Adelina to their team of three.

Sir Lionel, Mr Link (aka Susan), Adelina

A great sea crossing with storms, is followed by a trip on an elephant which REALLY references Around The World in 80 Days again. They reach the Himalayas, find a woman and a grandmother with a chicken on her head who knows the way. By now they’re being pursued by Lord Piggott, Willard Skenk and an assistant (Mr Collick?). The yetis are a snotty lot ruled over by a nasty queen. They don’t take to Mr Link, who is brown (auburn, he says). They’re white with blue faces. I’m not investigating their rejection of Mr Link as an immigrant into Shangri-La too far here!

Approaching Shangri-La

All is resolved, and I laughed at Lord Piggot’s final line, so British and downbeat … “Oh, bugger!”

We took grandkids #3 and #4 (we have six). We could have taken #1 and #2 who are teenaged – I reckon they’d have found it as funny as I did. It’s visually stunning.

The little one, aged five, got bored in the “talking bits” with Adelina – adult humour, but hey, that two level effect is the stuff of every pantomime, and he loved the Loch Ness bit, the cowboy fight, the vigorous business on the steamship and the confrontation with the yeti, especially when they slipped over.

On my usual rating for the future, (1) forget, (2) stream, (3) buy DVD (4) buy blu-ray (5) buy 4K, it gets the rating blu-ray.

The next day is Peppa Pig- The Movie with the aforesaid five year old and his two year old brother. I won’t review!