Missing Link

Writer/director Chris Butler’s new stop-motion animation movie is visually dazzling. From a technical (and even a casual) perspective it’s a tight/fun watch from beginning to end. It’s also (well, for an animated feature at least) quite star-studded: Zoe Saldana, Timothy Olyphant, Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, and Zach Galifianakis (as the lead, Mr. Link) all star as the voice talent. Mr. Link recruits explorer Sir Lionel Frost (Jackman) along with another adventurer, Adelina Fortnight (Saldana) to help him find his long-lost relatives in the fabled land of Shangri-La. Sure, the story is rather simple, but come on, it’s a kid’s movie after all, so we can give it a pass, right? It’s a cute movie with lots of laughs throughout, but what’s really cool about it is that 1) it’s set around the Victorian time period and 2) it’s about a Sasquatch-like creature from the Pacific Northwest – that rules!

[PG]