OVP: Missing Link (2019)

Film: Missing Link (2019)
Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Fry, Timothy Olyphant, Emma Thompson
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

We don't normally do double reviews on the same day, but considering that tomorrow is Oscar nominations morning, I figured it made sense to get a second review out for one of the films that seems likely to be competing for a trophy in a few weeks (and should get its first round of good news tomorrow).  Missing Link is an odd film to be going for Oscar's good graces, though its pedigree is high.  Laika has made four feature-length films, and to date all of them have competed for the Academy Award, though none of them have actually won.  Missing Link, though, was a box office disaster earlier this year, not coming close to taking back the movie's $100 million budget, and this is a category that values its hits.  Still, in a year that is brimming with sequels (and to date only Toy Story 3 has won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature as a sequel), this is one of the few critically-celebrated movies to be in contention for Oscar, not to mention its recent Golden Globe victory, and so I suspect Missing Link will continue Laika's tradition of Oscar nominations.  But the question remained for me as I finally caught it on DVD (I was part of the box office problem)-was it any good?

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers on Sir Lionel Frost (Jackman), a man who wants desperately join an adventurers' club headed by Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Fry).  However, unlike most of the adventurers who hunt big game in Africa, Frost is more interested in proving the existence of mythical creatures.  In the hilarious opening scene, we see him and his over-his-head assistant try to capture the Loch Ness Monster with little success.  He makes a bet to finally gain acceptance into the club if he can provide proof of the Sasquatch, which Frost has received inside information on how to discover.  Turns out the creature actually wrote the letter and goes by the name Susan (Galifianakis).  Frost makes a second deal to Susan that if Frost finds Susan's cousins, the Yeti, in the Himalayas, Susan will provide proof of his existence to get Frost into the club.  As they adventure to the Himalayas, they come across Adelina (Saldana), a beautiful former flame/rival of Frost's.  When they get to the Himalayas, but they find the Yeti to be hostile and not welcoming of Susan, and he then realizes that Frost is the family he always wanted.  In the end, they become an adventuring duo, and both don't care about creating an identity when the one they already have is worthy enough.

It's pretty easy after seeing this movie to understand why the film was a box office bomb.  While Missing Link has at its center a cute, adorable sidekick, it doesn't have an entry point with a child protagonist for younger audiences like some of its past pictures (Coraline, ParaNorman, Kubo) that often countered some of the more mature and grotesque (beautifully so) imagery that the characters are bringing out.  In many ways this feels like something from Aardman, but even then it'd be filled with cuddly sheep and not old men dressed like a Robert Louis Stevenson character.  The movie has a rather traditional animated plot (unlikely friends, valuing your true self, etc), but its motif is unusual for such an audience, and really has only succeeded in recent years with a movie like Up (which is Pixar, and which also has a child as the sidekick, not to mention two adorable animals to latch onto).

But if we live in a world where animation isn't just for children, Missing Link has a lot to offers.  I loved the color palette (green & orange is a good combination), and Galifianakis' act works better in animation than it does in some real-life pictures (for that matter, so does Jackman's).  The movie is repetitive and occasionally drives home the same message over-and-over again (and the Adelina role feels too rife with cliche, a pity as it's the only major female character in the movie), but it's funny and has some solid sight gags (particularly the opening Loch Ness sequence).  Oscar has done worse than this with Animated Feature, and if this is what it finally takes to get Laika its long overdue trophy, so be it.