When the trailers originally came out, the world wasn’t too impressed with Missing Link. From production company Laika, this movie didn’t seem to grab people the same way its other movies like Coraline and Paranorman did from their first impressions. With its goofier tone, comedic centred adult actors, and a really lack of dark themes and creativity, it didn’t do so well in the cinema space. Against all odds, critics were fairly entertained by the movie, enough to get it an Oscar nod and even winning the Golden Globe for best animated picture. Though the movie was heavily split in how people viewed it, the movie itself proves to be incredibly safe, run-of-the-mile and pretty generic for Laika, but also completely harmless at the same time. In the time of myths and discoveries, an explorer named Sir Lionel Frost (voiced by Hugh Jackman) is given an anonymous letter asking for him to journey to the apparent location of the sasquatch. Upon arriving, he meets the creature later called Mr Link (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) who pleads with him to take him across the world to find the Yetis, the last remnant of his lost family. Along with an ex-flame named Adelina (voiced by Zoe Saldana), the trio travel to get to the Himalayas to find the yetis, all the while being tracked by a gunman hired by a foe of Frost’s. With not a lot to grab people with, Missing Link was a film that many were confused on how to perceive it; despite looking pretty awkward and humourless, it was receiving decent reviews from critics, it didn’t look like Laika’s top game, but maybe it was a secret gem hidden behind poor advertising. Unfortunately, the trailers weren’t entirely false as the movie suffers from a lot of glaring faults that put it far below the ranks of Laika’s other movies, but as a generic kid’s film goes, it’s perfectly passable.

Laika has always been very good at creating ideas and story concepts that look simplistic and boring on the outset than suddenly surprising everyone with their own flair of madness and spontaneity.  They never produced entirely what was shown from their trailers and instead creating their own story through use of usual clichés. This movie, despite having the same team behind it, seems to be perfectly fine with sticking with its formulaic set-up and not outreaching itself beyond that. This movie is incredibly predictable; the story doesn’t offer any unique twists or turns, every character has an obvious end goal upon its conclusion that can be predicted from their first scene, the message isn’t devolved upon at all and not trying to be subtle at all, and it creates a pretty forgettable experience overall, a massive downgrade from the usually amazingly stand-out Laika. The movie, despite its blandness, tells its story perfectly well in a structured and even pacing sense, but there’s never any sense of depth, uniqueness or even surprise, what is seen is what is gotten. The clichés used, both character and story wise, are very overused, the directing isn’t as dramatic or off-the-walls as usual, and instead of being dark and creatively complex, it’s very safe and fails in making anything feel above a Saturday morning cartoon level.

Not to say that any of the actors in this movie are going on autopilot, but their scripts and characters makes it feel like one of the only options they can take. To the film’s credit, the cast of the movie are good people and know how to work in kids’ film. Despite the trailers going on and on about how these roles are incredibly diverse from their usual work, it’s hard to see how when they feel like the complete epitome of themselves; Hugh Jackman as the charming upper class fast-talker, Zoe Saldana as the rough no nonsense action chick, Zach Galifianakis as the stuttering awkward jokester, it doesn’t feel that different. While these actors have good timing, it’s not matched with any good writing or distinct character traits, so their talent is incredibly wasted. The motivations of some of them, particularly with Jackman’s role, feels incredibly dumb and out of nowhere, like the movie needs a motivation to follow through with its cliché, NOT for any logical or creditable reasoning. The villain is also incredibly cartoony and hoaky; not even being subtle with what he represents and not doing anything substantial with him. Also, Zach Galifianakis can get a little annoying as the film goes on as the Missing Link, though it’s hard to gage whether its because of the poor script or his own improv. Not too distracting, but it’s always possible it can alienate people.

For what this movie lacks in substance and uniqueness, it still manages to produce some wonderful looking visuals and environments. With every other Laika products, the environments would be much more unique-looking and focused on a central theme or atmosphere so it can get more creative and imaginative looking, so the film would have definitely struggled with making these real-life locations feel lively and literally animated. Thankfully, each environment seems to brim with various different colors with such bright palettes that every location has such a distinct personality and matched atmosphere. With colors straight out of an old-fashioned painting but with the clean and freshness of modern technology, it allows for some great-looking locations. Outside of a single line from a pretty well acted Emma Thompson cameo, the film isn’t home to that many good laughs. Outside of a few pity laughs, the humor is incredibly wordy; seemingly sticking to these actors’ talents and hoping that it will pay-off in the end, and it hurts to say that it didn’t. None of the jokes from the Missing Link ever work, none of the other characters have any form of humor outside of their one trope, and the world is bizarrely bland in its own craziness, it doesn’t offer anything that original or anything at all.

Despite all its shortcomings, Missing Link is honestly not that terrible a movie, for young children or incredibly forgiving adults, the movie is a simple travelling story that won’t offer anything interesting or different, but nothing that harmful for any viewers either. Coming from a company known for its great animated kids’ movies that elevate themselves from simple kiddish films to wildly creative and dark 80s-style animated movies, a change of tone into a lighter more straightforward direction was a risky move and one that didn’t entirely pay-off, but at least didn’t leave that much of a stain on their incredible record. Not worth watching outside of some very nice visuals and a few good actors, Missing Link is surprisingly not as unique as he was made out to be. Definitely one that was probably better left a mystery.