Laika has been redefining our expectations of stop motion animation since the stunning Coraline, continuing to surprise and entertain us with lovely films like Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and the ultimately spoopy ParaNorman. Well, the director of that cute kids horror flick is back with the studio’s newest movie, Missing Link, a sprawling fantasy focused around the legend of the Yeti. Today Laika released the trailer for the gorgeous film which director Chris Butler describes as “so ambitious in its scope and scale.”
Missing Link looks to be an epic adventure which will once again delve into the weird and wonderful world of the mysterious. “I think the supernatural world is filled with so many cool stories that you can tell. As a lonely little kid who loved to draw and write, that was a world I loved to escape into. ParaNorman was one side of that, but there’s also the kind of creature side, the Harryhausen-esque mythical creature side and so I very much wanted to do something with that,” Butler told us.
The film centers around Mr. Link—voiced by Zach Galifianakis—a hairy and enigmatic creature who lives alone in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and whom Butler describes as “the beating heart of the movie.” The trailer introduces us to a story about finding your place in the world and a monster who just wants to find others like himself. “He wants to find a family, and he realizes that the person most likely to help him on this quest is this adventurer Lionel–voiced by Hugh Jackman–so he invites him to the Pacific Northwest where he asks him to take on this challenge of finding his long lost relatives.”
When we chatted to Butler he mentioned that he saw the film as a “really vibrant, kaleidoscopic travelog” which the trailer definitely showcases as the characters journey across the globe. Butler saw the project as a chance to pay homage to one of his all time favorite films, Raiders of the Lost Arc, as well as celebrating the brilliance of one of the stop motion greats, Ray Harryhausen. It was also a way for him to explore the sweeter side of the supernatural stuff he loves so much. “For me, the creature feature side of things is very different because it’s not so much about playing in the shadows, it’s more about swashbuckling adventure. I basically wanted to do an Indiana Jones movie for kids in stop motion!”
This fun-packed first trailer looks like Butler is well on his way to achieving that wish, and we’re really excited to see the vast story unfold when the film is released on April 12th next year!
