Laika's Newest Adventure 'Missing Link' is a Humor-Filled Beauty

Laika continues to make a name for itself, joining the likes of Pixar and Studio Ghibli as one of the most distinctive animated companies in the world. From Coraline to Kubo and the Two Strings and now Missing Link, it maintains its insignia as one of the best working stop motion animation studios there is, and from the looks of it, they're just getting started.

Missing Link is a humor-filled stop motion adventure about identity and acceptance between two eminently opposite characters who met by kooky circumstance. It's hilarious all throughout while boasting an epic animation.

Set in a highly stylized Victorian era patterning European wallpapers and textiles, Sir Lionel Frost, a confident and persevering myths and monsters investigator wants to prove himself as one of the world's most famous. When an unexpected mythical beast aka the 'missing link' named Mr. Link sought his help to find his distant relatives on the other side of the world, he sees this as an opportunity to headline himself as the world's foremost explorer.

Sir Lionel Frost and Mr. Link are the opposites and their dynamic duo, as familiar as it may be, is nothing short of wit and heart. Sir Lionel is brave and dashing while Mr. Link is naive but instinctive. Pairs with completely different personalities have been done countless times but this one still feels refreshingly blended. Thanks to writer-director Chris Butler's head-scratchingly surprising but hilarious humor, the laugh-out-loud moments come in almost every sequence of the film. It doesn't hurt that one would feel a bit warm and fuzzy by the end of it.

Also noteworthy are the unmistakably animated voices of Hugh Jackman as Frost and Zach Galifianakis as Mr. Link who are both foolproof in the characters they are portraying. Zoe Saldana as Adelina Fortnight, who possesses the only known map to Sir Lionel and Mr. Link's destination, is also fun even with her uniquely strange voice shtick. Emma Thompson as a primitive Elder is also distinctively delightful.

Then again, as fun and as heartwarming Missing Link's story may be, it doesn't go beyond limits and the film's strength truly lies on its incredible stop motion animation with stunning production and costume design. It helps a lot that it showcases several landscapes all over the world--boasting the eternal details of European roofs, to the wondrous leafy elements of old Washington and Northern India, and to the tiled and snowy mountains of the Himalayas--that it's magnificent in every bit of its structure.

The combination of humor and artistry is what makes this film one of my favorite Laikas. Kubo and the Two Strings may be heartfelt and Coraline might be more imaginative, but Missing Link provides more afterthoughts or rather, afterlaughs, even if its low-key in plot.