I just got back from seeing this, and it is (in my opinion) the worst Laika film so far.
Spoilers ahead if you care.
Firstly, I feel like one of Laika's consistent weaknesses is their writing, but they tend to make up for it with really fantastic visuals. Originally, Boxtrolls was my least favorite because I didn't like the designs of the trolls and didn't enjoy the story very much, but that movie at least still had some visual appeal. With Missing Link I didn't find any of the characters to be visually appealing aside from the Yeti people, at least not up to par with the rest of Laika's films. The fight scenes went on for way too long and made me bored after a while, and whenever they attempted to inject humor into a situation it just plain sucked. They did that awful trope with Mr. Link way too much where he's super literal and does stupid shit because he doesn't know any better. This was used throughout the entire film, and got old as soon as it started. None of the characters were likeable, I didn't believe their motivations at all. Laika films definitely still look good, but I feel like the technology has gotten so advanced that the movies have lost some of their charm along the way. I dunno, I still appreciate the amount of work that goes into these films, but it gets hard to still appreciate it when they put out something as boring and uninspired as this.
No dateon my country has been confirmed and I'm frustrated
Colton Garcia
Fuuuuuck. Worse than Kubo?
Aaron Jenkins
Were there hawt chix
Carter Sullivan
Personally, Kubo is my favorite Laika film so I'm biased towards it, but yeah, way worse than Kubo. Kubo's writing may not have been the best, but at least it's visuals made up for it, and they made up for it in a really great way.
Gavin Richardson
The trailers I've seen for it don't look too great.
Christian Carter
Just got out of the theater as well. Very dissapointing, not as good as I wanted it to be. The problem is they tried to jam waaaaay too much into this movie. Like half the side plots could have been cut entirely.
Hugh Jackmans character being a dick was a terrible move. The weird awkward romantic subplot made me physically uncomfortable. Which is a shame because the female character was my favorite other than Link himself. Dialogue was either incredibly hamfisted or characters didnt explain anything at all (the female character just being like "I changed my mind I'm coming with you now :)". Plus the final fight scene was AWFUL. Good god it went on too long and the ending was trash.
All in I'm really dissapointed. Kubo was a masterpeice so this feels like a letdown.
Justin Hill
Wait this is a Laika film? I saw it on tv commercials and thought it was made by some typical big name studio that doesn't give a shit about art. It looks pretty crappy.
Yess, that final fight scene dragged on and on, and when it finally ended and they were acting like they defeated the big bad I couldn't believe that that was supposed to be the big end fight considering how terrible it was. Completely agree on all your points, especially with the girls sudden change of heart.
The way they left it open for a sequel made me very worried, there's no way I want anymore from this storyline of all storylines that Laika has to offer.
Landon Gutierrez
Following Kubo, it's pretty disappointing. Though it's obviously Laika making a much safer movie that'll probably make at least a bit more money then Kubo did.
Hunter Campbell
Yeah, the light at the end of the tunnel is the hope that this can at least help laika financially so they can get back to making actually good movies.
I saw the trailer and it looked like the most bland and uninspired thing. I had literally no interest in seeing this and this just confirms what I thought.
Gavin Foster
Strange how Laika hows been steadily getting worse with their writing/story telling, any ideas on what's causing this?
Chase Cruz
I’m still disappointed at how they dropped the ball by making their female lead (voiced by ZOE SALDANA) look this manly and weird, especially when every previous LAIKA film had at least one hot babe.
I wouldnt agree with that at all. For me the Laika teir goes: Kubo>Paranorman>Coraline>Box Trolls=Missing link
Missing Link is definitely a rough patch for Laika but I hope they can get out of it.
Matthew Garcia
Shyamalan syndrome.
Connor Martinez
I liked her design but I thought from the trailers/her appearence that she was going to be some kind of native guide on their journey in Nepal/Tibet/whatever
The whole bit with her being the widow of his best friend from which he needs the map but I wont give you the map oh you stole the map oh now I'm coming with you even though I hate your guts but also kind of want to fuck you at the same time was ridiculous. Honestly the more I dwell on it the more I realize that this movies biggest crime is that it has absolutely no idea what it wants to be.
The characters change motivations constantly, there are jarring out of character moments, tone shifts, and mixed messages everywhere. The trailers gave just about everything away. And what they didnt give away was pretty predictable.
Sebastian Parker
My ranking is Kubo>Coraline>Paranorman>Boxtrolls>Missing Link
Boxtrolls had a cool looking environment that meshed well with its characters (excluding the trolls themselves), and while it didn't have a good story similarly to Missing Link, it at least had some visuals going for it.
I thought they had nike money so they could do whatever they want, why are they trying to appeal to people? They should just make interesting shit instead of putting out the 50th bigfoot/yeti movie
Kayden Nelson
Honestly, I never saw boxtrolls so I just stick it at the bottom. From everything I've heard I didnt miss much.
I actually really liked a lot of the visuals for Missing Link. The forrest scenes were really nice and cozy, the Shangrila palace was beautiful, and the opener with Nessie was great. The character designs were 6/10 at best and left some to be desired though.
Kevin Edwards
I genuinely thought this was an Aardman joint, not realizing they'd been busy with their own flop, Early Man. I what a horrible follow up from the makers of something like Kubo.
Noah Thompson
A very sad cycle they probably wont come out of >stuck making kids movies >kids dont really appreciate stop motion, would care just as much if it was in badly done CGI, so their work is overtaken by made for TV movies even in terms of money making potential and effort input >takes serious hard work and know how to finish a project >few people can be hired to even work on it who know what they are doing, its a very specialized medium they are using >they dont have a budget to support a high concept script with lots of edits, so settle for shit scripts that play it safe as fuck and can easily be adapted >cannot as easily do "reshoots" to fix or improve their movies if there is a problem
Its something of a problem with 2d western animation. They have to play safe and get it right as they are making it because there really isnt room for setting up the props and animating something mundane needed for a a few months after shooting it the first time, so everything is played fairly safe and made to just work. Anything that is made to "just work" will be boring and seem uninspired, its why well never get a high concept production from them. Imagine something like Lord of the Rings done by Laika, they can never do this because its not a safe concept to follow through on, because animated media is still considers a medium aimed at children in the west it means that it wont do well unless its pixar, which is full of color and funny characters and has the DISNEY logo orbitting around it signing it as quality assured with a ton of money involved, they NEED to guarantee a return of investment.
TLDR; Stuck with shitty scripts that play it as safe as possible because they are using a medium that is not lucrative unless you are Disney.
Adam Wilson
Where can I watch this? It says this shit actually came out in 2015 but I cannot find any torrents or anything of that sort.
Ryder Anderson
It’s real easy to tell Coraline’s Mom is the hottest out of all of them here.
William Foster
It's what every creative medium fears.
Connor Ross
And just like Early Man, I don’t think Missing Link will get any Oscar noms.
Michael Bell
From what I saw in the trailers, the sets for Missing Link look pretty excellent, so I'll happily give it that.
Luis Clark
They need to find a auteur director/writer/producer or whatever to take the helm of their next movie. They need to do what Pixar did when they hired Brad Bird to make The Incredibles in fears that their films were getting stale. Hire someone Lord & Miller, Lee Unkrich, Del Toro, or anyone who has a prominent voice in filmmaking.
Also im not sure how much this affects production but they are a private company/studio that is based in Oregon. Presumably, they may not have talented staff to hire writers for their films since it's outside Hollywood.
I guess i'm one of the few that actually liked Boxtrolls, while the story was entirely predictable I found Richard Ayoade's and Nick Frost's characters, two of the henchmen, really fun. Coraline>Boxtrolls>Paranorman=Kubo?Missing Link
Adrian Allen
This possibly deserves another thread but has anyone think Laika's visuals has gotten worse overtime?. It's weird to say but their stop-motion is getting so good that it looks too animated to be distinguishable from stop-motion. At least in their early films you could tell it was stop motion from subtle motions. But now it reaches to the point that I cant tell if it's CGI or Stop-motion and at that point would've be better off making CGI films?
>Del Toro Laika film My penis can only get so erect
Isaac Sanders
They reached that point with Kubo. Some people actually mistook it for CGI.
It's weird too because there is CGI software that can emulate the feel of stop motion, so it really does beg the question of why even bother. Personally I find Aardman films more impressive since they have to deal with a fuckton of clay, Laika cheats with 3D printers.
Henry Hernandez
Yeah, they've definitely over done it. Paranorman was probably their best and most competent film visually, where the Stop Motion is still evident, but very well done. At this point, they're just wasting their time doing in real life what could more easily be done on computer.
>The weird awkward romantic subplot made me physically uncomfortable
fug
Lucas Rivera
Honestly, I thought the movie was alright. Nowhere near as good as Kubo, nowhere near as “okay” as Boxtrolls, but still having a bit of an identity crisis despite its core conceit. Still better than a lot of what’s playing at the moment, though.
I do wholly agree with Laika needing to tone down the polish, though. As much as I applaud them for trying to advance the medium, part of what makes stop-motion work (for me, at least) is the fact that you know it’s not real, yet still wholly grounded in reality.
CG looks real, feels fake. Stop-motion looks fake, feels real. What Laika’s doing- trying to blend stop-motion and CG to the point where you can barely discern between the two- almost defeats the point. For all the talk and behind the scenes footage of animators toiling to make these worlds feel real, I’d kill to see them do something as simple as doing a movie with all matte paintings for backgrounds, or even just not removing the face-plate line on characters in post.
It may be jarring at first, but when the audience is grabbed by the story, they’ll look past the fact they’re watching a puppet imitate life and see life in its’ place.
Juan Richardson
>It may be jarring at first, but when the audience is grabbed by the story, they’ll look past the fact they’re watching a puppet imitate life and see life in its’ place.
That's me with a lot of things like BH6 the series or Spiderverse where at first glance the animation is jarring, but you can get used to it pretty quickly and can even start to appreciate the >stylization
Justin Sullivan
Bullshit Saraitu is the hottest
This guy gets it
Grayson Wood
>Presumably, they may not have talented staff to hire writers for their films since it's outside Hollywood. There are loads of talented writers around the US; the ones who actually live & work in Hollywood are successful at the business end, not necessarily any better at writing a story.
Isaiah Russell
They're in talks with Terry Gilliam right now
Sebastian Sullivan
Just the premise alone makes me not care enough to see this which kills me because I love Laika and want them to succeed and utterly adored Kubo, flaws and all.
Nolan Flores
Do I want giant robots or some heavy high fantasy?
Decisions decisions.
Evan Barnes
>giant robots
Literally how can you pick any other option
Tyler Wright
The one director whose movies always have production problems.
Jonathan King
I saw it just because it was laika, and because I want to give them money.
I think Beetle Dad is named Hanzo and the Moon King Raiden
Liam Thomas
Bump
Ryan Allen
It still doesn’t have a distributor in America. Hopefully it gets one for awards season.
Chase Perez
Did u even see that Victorian cutie
Mason Gutierrez
Hoffmaniada’s creators have been working on it forever, and releasing segments of it randomly all over the place. I think it was “officially finished” in 2018.
I, too, have no idea how to actually watch it, with or without subs. I’ve been looking forward to it for years now.
Samuel Jones
Out of curiosity: did you mistake the ads for a CG film, or could you tell it was stopmotion and just thought it was from some other studio doing a stopmotion?
Bentley Powell
I hope it at least gets nominated for an Oscar. Sōyuzmultfilm deserves it.
Jace Allen
Imagine the S U C C
Jackson Bailey
I wholeheartedly think they should try making a full-length 2D film. I assume there are more potential hires out there who can do hand-drawn rather than stop motion, so they could have a team full of Disney/DreamWorks veterans working on one film, while the usual team could work on the standard stop motion fare. That way, LAIKA can produce two movies at the same time AND bring back hand-drawn animation to the big screen.
I went out of my way to see Kubo despite it looking only so/so purely because I wanted to support them. I don’t regret that because I liked Kubo well enough, but I don’t think I’ll be treating Missing Link the same way. Its trailers looked worse than Kubo’s, even maybe worse than Box Troll’s. I was counting on you guys this time to give me that extra push I sometimes need with movies with bad trailers, like, “No, it’s not like the trailer. It’s actually really good, you should give it a shot!” But that doesn’t seem to be the case this time. I want to support Laika because I want them to make more good movies like Coraline and ParaNorman. I don’t want to give them the idea that I want them to make more movies like Missing Link. My take on it is, if they stop making movies I like, I have to stop supporting them, or I’m just gonna continue to get shit I don’t like.
Elijah Watson
Definitely this. The reason Coraline was so fresh and intriguing was because it had the creative force of both Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick behind it. Kubo was also the product of a years long vision by Shannon Tindle (I believe), though Travis Knight might not have been the best choice to direct it.
All of Laika's amazing visuals don't mean much if you aren't engaged with what you're looking at.
