Missing Link
Short description
Sir Lionel Frost is a British explorer who studies myths and monsters but cannot convince the stuffy adventurers of his own society to take him seriously. To prove himself, he travels to the Pacific Northwest in search of a creature said to be the evolutionary missing link. He finds Mr. Link, a large, hairy and surprisingly gentle being who is the last of his kind, and who asks for help in locating his distant relatives. The adventurer Adelina Fortnight, who holds the only map to their destination, joins the journey.
The animated film was directed and written by Chris Butler, following his earlier feature ParaNorman. Hugh Jackman voices Frost, with Zach Galifianakis as Mr. Link, Zoe Saldaña as Adelina Fortnight, and Stephen Fry, Timothy Olyphant and Emma Thompson in supporting roles. It was produced by Laika Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures, with Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner producing.
Missing Link was released in 2019 and runs 94 minutes. Its budget of 100 million US dollars was far larger than its worldwide box office of about 26 million, a substantial shortfall for a stop-motion production. Audiences rate it 6.7 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 31,000 votes and 6.9 out of 10 on TMDB from around 960 votes, while a film critics' rating of 7.2 out of 10 from 171 reviews places it somewhat above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The animators were inspired by Victorian ornaments, which can be seen on the elegant wallpapers and fabrics of that era. These ornaments appear throughout the film – in the arrangement of tiled roofs and even in the crowns of trees.
- This is Laika's first film featuring only adult actors. The previous four films starred children in the leading roles.
- From the outside, the train in the cartoon was a fully functioning train on rails, driven by a motorized winch. It rode too smoothly along the rails, so tape painted to look like rust had to be applied to them so that the wheels would bounce over the bumps, creating a more realistic movement.
- The film features more than 110 sets and 65 locations.
- The scene with the collapsing ice bridge used 64 pieces of ice, each of which could be controlled independently.
- The puppets for stop-motion animation were made to a scale of 1/5 or 1/6 of human height, approximately 20% smaller in size compared to the puppets for previous LAIKA studio films. This allowed for a sufficiently strong internal armature to withstand the two-year shooting period, and large enough external details to be easy to work with. The Mr. Link puppet (the largest character) is 40 centimeters tall.
- Jack Blessing's final role, as he passed away at the age of 66 in 2017. The film is dedicated to his memory.
- At the peak of production, 91 cameras were used in filming – approximately twice as many as were used in the filming of other LAIKA studio films.
- Each puppet was equipped with a unique electronic system that allowed animators to remotely provide the necessary movements.
- The action takes place in 1886 – this is evident from the near completion of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
