Missing Link (Dir Chris Butler, 1h 39m)

Studio Laika are, for my money, yet to make a bad film. From their first, the creepy classic, Coraline, to the spooky but charming Paranorman and Boxtrolls, to their last masterpiece, Kubo and the Two Strings, so Laika have cut a distinctive path through the world of stop-start animation in which, alongside England's Aardmann Animation, they have become one of the leading forces in. Their fifth film, Missing Link, stepping out from the gothic hinterland in which they made their name, in which a Sasquatch searches for his home together with an explorer seeking fame and glory, is nothing short of a masterpiece, a globe-trotting grand adventure on a scale rarely seen in animation, but with enough heart and charm to keep the story focused and intimate.

The star of the show, the reason for the adventure, and the film's emotional heart, is the eponymous "Mister" Link, an eight-foot tall, hairy, but surprisingly cultured, and talking (voiced by Zack Galifianakis, as a sweet, if rather unsure) Sasquatch, a missing link between ape and man. Mister Link, as adventurer Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman), soon dubs him, is lonely, the last of his kind in a forested Washington State, and wishes to meet his cousins the yeti,  and find a new home alongside them in the mountains of Nepal.

Recruting Frost, a frustrated adventurer, whose exploits Link has learned about in newspapers, via letter, and who seeks irrefutable proof of the existence of monsters in order to join hunting and adventuring club, The Optimates Club, Mister Link and Frost set out across the world on an adventure that will take them from the Wild West to the high seas to India, Nepal, and the Yetis' home, the legendary Shangri-la, with Frost's former flame and associate, Adelina Fortnight, (Zoe Saldana) in tow, and with a veritable army of thugs employed by the head of the Optimates Club, Lord Piggot-Dunceb (Stephen Fry), hot on their trail.

In its trio, Missing Link sets up some perfect comedic and emotional scenes-the bickering relationship between Frost and Fortnight, in the aftermath of the death of Fortnight's husband and Frost's friend, is not only hilarious, as she goes from guntoting spitfire to independent free spirit, as Frost himself grows from selfish to selfless, and Mister Link learns his place in the world.. Rarely has Laika been this funny, and much of the film's humour comes either from simply allowing Frost, Link and Fortnight to run through a scene, from Link's fish out of water, politely curious hero, and from some of the best animated slapstick I've ever seen in an animated period, its fightscenes inventive and perfectly shot.

It is the budding friendship, the growing trust between Frost and Mister Link, as their relationship grows from merely business-like, and in the case of Frost, essentially selfish, using Link as a means to an end in getting into a club largely filled of cruel hunters, to something more equal, more holistic between the two of them, from Frost giving Link a proper name, to protecting him from the multitude of hunters, headed by the unscrupulous Willard Stenk (Timothy Olliphant) eventually taking his side when the Yeti are less than accommodating towards their cousin, and proving their friendship is more important, and indeed their adventure together is more important than the fame and glory his find could bring him.

What an adventure it is. If Kubo and the Two Strings pushed puppet making to new heights, them Missing Link pushes stop-start animation onto the grandest of scales, complete with an entire steamship, colossal vistas and mountainscapes, not to mention complex action scenes, from seascapes, including raging waves, to a saloon bar fight, a chase through an everturning ship in one of the most visually complex shots ever put to animation, and a nailbiting, quite literally cliffhanging finale.  But, if Missing Link is a step forward technologically and visually for Studio Laika, it shares much in common in terms of its tale of acceptance, of its protagonist realising that the true family he has is the family around him is part of the heart that runs through all of Laika's films. It is a warm, sweet, beautifully made and evocative film.

It is this warmth, together with their mastery of animation, pushing the medium firmly into the 21st century with 3D printing and CGI accentuating the tried and tested style of stop-start animation, that makes all of Laika's films, from Coraline to now, classics of animation. Missing Link is no exception. It is a ripping yarn as only Laika can tell them, a story of man and creature on a nigh perfectly told globe trotting adventure on the biggest scale.

Rating: Highly Recommended