Movie: Missing Link (2019) #Oscars Animated Feature

IMDb synopsis: Mr. Link recruits explorer Sir Lionel Frost to help find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. Along with adventurer Adelina Fortnight, this trio of explorers travel the world to help their new friend.

I loved this movie. Great for kids and good for adults. It teaches that friendship is more than outward appearances, it’s acceptance of those we love. It teaches that to think of others before ourselves is an important thing. It instills a sense of adventure and the ability to look beyond the silly to search out the truth.

I really enjoyed this movie. The voices were perfectly paired to the character they portrayed. And, oh my, what a cast! (See below for a roster.) This feature length animated movie deserved it’s Oscar nom.

The bar sequence has more shots than any sequence ever produced in stop motion.

At the end of the film, Lionel Frost has found the Fiji mermaid, a creature with the body of a monkey and the tail of a fish. This creature is a famous hoax, originally displayed in PT Barnum’s New York museum. Hugh Jackman, who plays Lionel, also played PT Barnum in 2017’s The Greatest Showman.

Favorite quote from the movie:

Adelina Fortnight: Lionel is wearing a nun outfit. I don’t even want to know where you got that outfit.

Mr. Link: We mugged a nun.

Subject links for the stop motion and animation in this film:

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/missing-link-stop-motion-chris-butler-69855/

IMDb Plot Summaries:

• Mr. Link recruits explorer Sir Lionel Frost to help find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. Along with adventurer Adelina Fortnight, this trio of explorers travel the world to help their new friend.—Annapurna Pictures
• The charismatic Sir Lionel Frost considers himself to be the world’s foremost investigator of myths and monsters. The trouble is none of his small-minded high-society peers seems to recognize this. Sir Lionel’s last chance for acceptance by the adventuring elite rests on traveling to America’s Pacific Northwest to prove the existence of a legendary creature. A living remnant of Man’s primitive ancestry. The Missing Link.—LAIKA

Wiki Plot Breakdown:

In 1886, Sir Lionel Frost, a struggling investigator of mythical creatures, has continuously searched for different creatures to study and announce their presence in the world, which would allow him to be accepted into the “Society of Great Men,” which is led by Sir Lionel’s rival Lord Piggot-Dunceby. Lionel receives a letter acknowledging the presence of a Sasquatch, making a deal with Piggot-Dunceby that would allow him to join the society if he proved that the creature was real.

Lionel travels to the Pacific Northwest, eventually stumbling upon the Sasquatch in a forest. After dubbing him “Mr. Link,” Lionel is told by the Sasquatch that he was, in fact, the one who sent the letter. Mr. Link requests Lionel’s help in finding his relatives, the Yetis, in the Himalayas. Lionel agrees to help him but is unaware of the fact that Piggot-Dunceby has hired a bounty hunter named Willard Stenk to track Lionel and kill him, ensuring that the pro-imperialist conservative views of the society remain unchallenged.

Lionel’s old lover Adelina Fortnight has a map to the Himalayas locked in a safe that belonged to her late husband, one of Lionel’s past partners, so the two visit her mansion to acquire it. However, Adelina harbors resentment for Lionel missing her husband’s funeral and kicks him out when he offers to pay her for the map. Lionel and Mr. Link come back later at night and break-in, but Mr. Link’s noise-making awakens Adelina, and the safe eventually falls out of the top floor window, cracking open in the aftermath. Mr. Link and Lionel grab the map and escape, but are discovered the next day by Adelina who allows them to search for the Yetis as long as she is there to accompany them. Stenk arrives and a shootout ensues, but the trio tricks their pursuer into hopping on the train to search for them.

The trio makes their journey via boat, and Adelina pressures Lionel into reaching out to Mr. Link to prove his sincerity. Lionel enjoys a heartwarming talk with Mr. Link on the boat’s deck where Mr. Link gives himself the name “Susan” after a friendly prospector he once encountered. However, they are once again ambushed by Stenk. After various scuffles across different parts of the ship, the trio eventually locks Stenk in the boat’s boarding rooms while they make another escape.

The trio eventually makes their way to the Himalayas and is pointed in the direction of the Yeti temple, and led to their Queen, who reveals their secluded valley to the group. She then reveals their disdain for mankind extends to Susan, who’s interacted closely with them. They throw the trio in a pit for them to stay until they die. Susan gives Adelina a boost and she knocks down a few Yeti guards, allowing them to stack them and escape. They run across the ice bridge, where an armed Piggot-Dunceby and Stenk are waiting at the center of the bridge. Lionel denounces his rival’s pride and defends Susan as more human than the society ever will be. As a result, the insane Piggot-Dunceby starts firing his rifle at the ice bridge to kill the trio, until Susan stops Piggot-Dunceby from getting any further, still causing it to crack and break. Piggot-Dunceby and his assistant Mr. Collick fall to their deaths while the trio and Stenk make a run for it. They are too late and are left hanging on the edge of the destroyed ice bridge. Stenk, who has made it all the way across, taunts Lionel, which leads to the two engaging in a slapping fight while hanging on the bridge. The trio works together to rid themselves of Stenk, who falls to his death after an icicle breaks and falls on him. Lionel appoints Susan as his new partner in investigations, who blows a raspberry at the Yeti leader.

After arriving home, Adelina tells Lionel that she will be adventuring on her own for a while and departs, but not before the pair share a brief mutual acceptance of their feelings for each other. Susan and Lionel arrive back at the latter’s work-space and begin their next case to find Atlantis. After they leave, the end credits reveal maps and souvenirs of their subsequent adventures.