Missing Link (2019) - Movie Review

I’m starting to get worried about Laika’s foreseeable future in mainstream cinema. Not out of a fear that their work is going to start taking a serious decline any time soon, but out of a worry that there might not be enough people willing to see it. This film came out roughly a month ago, but because of an embarrassingly sparse release schedule over here, I’ve only just now gotten around to it. I know that Kubo And The Two Strings didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, but the reputation the company has garnered as doing far better with critics than general audiences could mean trouble. At any rate, we’re here to look at their latest, and needless to say, it’s another fine entry into their healthy artistic canon.

Kubo And The Two Strings (2016) - Movie Review

I find it a tad strange that I would say the following as any kind of positive, but animation studio Laika is basically the hipster haven for animation junkies of late. I say this for two key reasons. The first one being rather obvious, in that their focus on stop-motion animation makes them a healthy alternative to the largely-CGI movie scene when it comes to family-friendly entertainment. The second one is that they stand out alongside industry titans Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks as somewhat of a lesser-known third-party alternative, giving film geeks such as myself an opportunity to introduce others to quality films that they might have otherwise missed.

Prior to this, Laika has released three feature films in their lifetime but they have managed to carry an astounding level of quality control between them. From the surreal horror film Coraline to the poignant love letter to all things considered beyond the norm with Paranorman to the screwball journey of personal belonging with The Boxtrolls, you’re almost guaranteed quality when it comes to this studio. With all that in mind, you better friggin’ believe that I was hyped for today’s film knowing who was behind it. But how does it actually hold up?