Category: Adventure

Playmobil The Movie

Rated: GPlaymobil The Movie

Directed by: Lino DiSalvo

Screenplay by: Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland

Story by: Lino DiSalvo

Produced by: Aton Soumache, Dimitri Rassam, Moritz Borman, Alexis Vonarb, Axel Von Maydell, Timothy Burrill and Bing Wu

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe.

‘I’ll be the girl I used to be.’

Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) has her whole life in front of her and expresses this enthusiasm to explore the world by singing with her little brother, Charlie (Gabriel Bateman).

Oh yeah, Playmobil The Movie, is a musical (see the score by musician Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me trilogy, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Smurfs movies, Minions, Smallfoot, Angry Birds Movie 2 and original songs, co-written by Anne Preven).

Then the film takes a dark turn when tragedy strikes the brother and sister.

Fast forward four years later and Marla no longer has her fresh, wide-eyed view of the world, her little brother accusing her of not knowing how to have fun.

It’s all a bit cringe-worthy until the duo fall into the Playmobil world where the characters turn into live-action Playmobil figurines.

Finding themselves in an action-adventure with car chases and villains and dinosaurs, all the Playmobil® toys that have been around since 1974 come to life as brother and sister fight alongside Vikings and a suave James Bond.  So the film’s about finding the excitement and zest for life they both lost when Marla had to become sister and parent.

The animation from ON Animation Montreal (Julien Bocabeille (How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Penguins of Madagascar and The Boss Baby)) is well put together using the stiff toys then adding movement and life with materials like cloth, and there were moments of fun with villain, Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert) sitting behind a buff body painted on one side of his chariot.

But this is a film directed at a young audience so there wasn’t much for me to enjoy except some fun changes in genre along the way.

Violence Voyager

Rated: Unclassified (18+)Violence Voyager

Written and Directed by: Ujicha

Produced by: Yoshimoto Kogyo, Reo Anzai / Kimitsugu Ueno

Executive Producer: Hidesuke Kataoka

Music by: Jean-Paul Takahashi

Theme Song “Violence Voyager” by Boby (Aoi Yuki)

English Voice Director: Strathford Hamilton

Production: Hiroshi Fujiwara

Key Cast: Aoi Yûki, Naoki Tanaka, Saki Fujita, Shigeo Takahashi.

‘That one extra bit of summer fun was going to take Bobby through hell.’

Violence Voyager had its Australian Premiere at the recent MIFF – I thought it would be a good idea to review something different for upcoming Halloween.  And yes, Violence Voyager is certainly something a bit different.

Set-up like a childhood adventure story, Bobby (the foreign American kid) tells his sick mother he’s going out to find flowers for her empty valse sitting on the windowsill.  But really, he’s going to the mountain with his best buddy, his blood brother (sporting stitched cuts on their hands to prove it) Akkun – who also, strangely has what looks like scars on his forehead.

Added to the childlike voice-overs and the adventure aspect that includes Bobby’s cat, Derrick who tags along, the whole film is painted cardboard cut-outs with static facial expressions, the movement made by hand like kids playing with a shadowbox filled with toys.

But when the trio, Bobby, Akkun and Derrick-the-cat find a run-down Fun Park, the film becomes a nightmarish hell where kids never escape: they either become modified with all their nerve endings on the outside and their eyes pulled out of their sockets and placed on horizontal sides of their now square face, or they get dissolved to become food for half-robot hybrid human monsters under the command of park-owner but really scientist, Dr Binobo and daughter and navigator, Siori.

There’s a deceiving simplistic feel about this film, the voice-over slow and deliberate, the timing of the dialogue giving the most affect.

But there’s plenty of splattered blood and vomit and naked kids hung like hocks – the theme horrific and the images of those cardboard cut-outs bizarre.

Definitely not one for the kids to watch this Halloween.  I wouldn’t classify Violence Voyager as ‘Family’.

Yet, for all its horror, the film was palatable because I was always delighted to see another clever technique giving texture to this bizarre tale like blue vapour rising around the cardboard Dr. Binobo making him look evil, a rising shadow over the cardboard Bobby to depict a pending doom and the kids armed with a super-soaker and dolphin water pistol squirting real water onto those monster robots giving the scene another dimension like those pop-up books I read in primary school.

And that juxtaposition lent another layer to the bizarreness of this simply, horrifically clever film.

With a bat, monkey and cat on your team, you can’t lose – well you can still become a deformed robot, humanoid monster, but in the world of Violence Voyager, that’s a win.

Dora And The Lost City Of Gold

Rated: PGDora And The Lost City Of Gold

Directed by: James Bobin

Story by: Tom Wheeler and Nicholas Stoller

Screenplay by: Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson

Produced by: Kristin Burr p. g. a.

Executive Produced by: Julia Pistor, Eugenio Derbez, John G. Scotti

Starring: Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, Adriana Barraza, Temuera Morrison, Jeff Wahlberg, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, and Danny Trejo.

A good fun peppy adventure teen-movie.

It’s hard not to at least have come across Dora the Explorer at some stage – I remember waking up with a self-inflicted sore head on Boxing Day or Christmas morning to a painfully cheery voice as a young nephew watched an excited Dora exclaiming Spanish words on TV.

So, I wondered what a movie adaptation would make of a little girl teaching Spanish – can you say, Dora The Explorer not the cartoon version but human?

Yet the film immediately charms by referencing Dora’s teaching behaviour with Dora’s parents (Michael Peña and Eva Longoria) looking around confused, trying to figure out who Dora is actually speaking to – ‘She’ll grow out of it.’ Says archaeologist, professor dad (Michael Peña hilarious in this role).

So I felt the adaptation had something going for it if the writers have turned the film into a meta conversation while having at laugh at itself.

And Isabela Moner as Dora was well-cast as the warm-hearted teen who has learnt everything she knows about life from the jungle.

But it’s time for Dora to find friends her own age (and species); it’s time, for Dora to move to the city and start High School.

This is a film aimed at a younger audience as peppy Dora fights to be herself while also trying to fit in.

But it’s a kid movie made with sophistication, with montages of polaroids depicting Dora’s journey as a cut-out aeroplane moves across a map, the film reverting from live people to cartoon characters, the continued self-referencing – ‘Let’s make a song out of it!’.  And the soundtrack was pretty cool as well.

What I really liked about the film is how the teen-learning-life-lessons turns into an adventure movie.

It took a while to get going, my nephew telling it how it is asking, ‘Why is she called Dora The Explorer if she’s not exploring?”

Then, the search for Parapatas (The Lost City Of Gold) heats up.

So instead of trying too hard with the jokes (that didn’t always hit the mark, for me, anyway), there’s more clever and adventure while solving ‘jungle puzzles’ and making friends, flipping the film from teen, to cute (see Mr Boots, so obviously an animated puppet, yet still very entertaining), to cartoon Dora, to full action adventure – mind altering spores included.

So the film brings the adults on-side while keeping the kids entertained with the rest of it.

I’m not saying the film was mind blowing, but in the end, I had some fun watching this one.

Abominable

Rated: GAbominable

Written and Directed by: Jill Culton

Produced by: Suzanne Buirgy

Producer: Peilin Chou

Executive Producers: Tim Johnson, Frank Zhu, Li Ruigang

Starring: Chloe Bennet, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Michelle Wong.

Yi (Chloe Bennet) lives in an apartment in a busy Chinese city with her mum and grandma.

She keeps herself busy; too busy to play with her neighbour, all braces and squeaky-voiced, Peng (Albert Tsai), and Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) who is typically teen self-obsessed.

Because if she stops for a moment, then she’ll remember her dad is gone.

The only time Yi allows herself to remember her dad is when playing violin.  And that’s when she meets Everest – up on the rooftop where the yeti is hiding from the people who had captured him and kept him in a cage.

On the run from the bug-eyed and rich explorer Burnish (Eddie Izzard) and zoologist Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson), the trio decide to take Everest back home.  Back to the Himalayas.  And so the adventure begins.

The DreamWorks Animation team have outdone themselves, the trailer for Abominable not translating just how majestic the film is on the big screen.  There were so many times I said, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Wow’ from watching the trio of kids and yeti ride a wave of yellow blossoms to see raindrops fall to the earth to unfurl into flowers.  And not just a few times, the film is just one wonderful moment after another.

It’s the detail and captured behaviour in those details of even the small characters that delights – ‘You just darted Dave!’ from a gun-for-hire; and the grandmother captured so well with her constant, ‘that’s what I say’.

And there’s an intricate story here about family and grief but also about the magic of nature where, ‘It’s amazing how small you feel, just looking up.’

Where there are those who appreciate nature and those who want to cut it down and take it home.

‘I own that yeti,’ says the brutish Burnish.

And the yeti, Everest was not abominable but adorable with his underbite and puppy-like behaviour.

I love that furry critter!

And so did my nephews who enjoyed the film just as much as I did; one asking if I was OK at one point because I was a little teary with the sweetness of it all.  I even got a hug.

Funny and sweet and beautifully realised, Abominable is a real treat.

Heavy Water

Rated: MHeavy Water

Directed by: Michael Oblowitz

Produced by: Red Bull Media House and All Edge Entertainment

Distributed by: Adventure Entertainment

Best Surfing Film in the 2017 Byron Bay International Film Festival 

Winner of the 2018 Wavescape Category in the Durban International Film Festival

‘Either the water lets you go.  Or it doesn’t.’

Watching surfing guru, Nathan Fletcher tell the story of his life, I can see how bad the drive to find that edge can be.  And how rewarding.

Heavy Water is a documentary driven by Nathan’s dream to surf a big-wave by dropping from a helicopter: A Helicopter Acid Drop.

I can’t imagine the coordination, balance, strength and shear will/balls/tenacity it took to successfully pull-off this feat – the first of its kind.  But on the 21st of April, 2017 – Nathan succeeds.

For fellow surfers and adrenaline fans that understand the skill involved, this is an exciting feat to watch.

But it’s the story leading up to The Drop that makes this documentary an absorbing film.

Director, Michael Oblowitz states, ‘I’m a surfing anthropologist and my baseline is good storytelling.’

A Hollywood director who surfs to escape the pressures of his career, Oblowitz decided it was time to combine his two passions, ‘To make surf movies that are unlike any other surf movie ever made’.

The documentary flows along the timeline of Nathan’s life, from growing up in San Clemente, California, where he learned to walk and talk and surf all at the same time.

There are voice-overs and interviews and footage giving insight into the Fletcher family, pioneers in surfing, from: Herbie Fletcher starting the motorised wave-ski tow-line drop, to Nathan’s brother Christian who started the aerial surfing trend and even his grandfather, big-wave original Walter Hoffman.

Riding a wave that can kill you is a family tradition.

Heavy Water is a biography showing the tight-knit circle Nathan ran with growing up, with mates like Darrick “Double D” Doerner, Danny Fuller and legendary Jay Adams (the original DogTown Z-Boy) talking skateboarding over footage of the guys skating in an empty swimming pool, the grimace of tough coolness hard-won and admired – the punk-rock style changing the face of skateboarding forever.

Nathan adopted the style, using the skate moves on the water, wanting to jump higher and higher.  Eventually leading to his pursuit of big-waves.

Nathan and mates like Bruce Irons would be constantly checking satellite weather patterns searching for ‘Code Red’ swells and then travel to places like Fiji, Indonesia and Tahiti to ride waves called the Himalayas, Jaws, the Mavericks – massive, dangerous waves that can crash you into a 60-foot crevice and hold you under, never knowing if you’ll get to the surface in time, or drown.

Seeing how big those wave are from the perspective of the ones riding them; to see the awesome power of the pull of water literally gave me goose bumps.

The film has footage of guys like Andy Irons and his brother Bruce, and Sion Milosky pushing their limits, all dancing with death – some making it through, some not.

Christian Fletcher states that those lost in the water are immortal, forever at the age they died doing what they love.  It’s the ones left that miss them.

The intensity and risk creates a spiritual bond, the documentary giving insight into what it takes to get to such a high level – some of the guys ending up in jail after pushing the limits too far.

Nathan leaves his entire life behind to compete in a comp in Tahiti, scoring 10, then another 10, going home a professional surfer.  Only to arrive to nothing – no home and no wife.

He lived in a van for two years, chasing waves.

The film takes away the glamour of the glossy magazine shots and shows the reality of what it takes to get those photos.

The footage of Nathan and Bruce back in Tahiti, leading to that famous shot of Nathan awarding him the XXL 2012 Ride of the Year shows the motivation and spiritual mindset needed to get to that headspace.

This isn’t a stylised promo for surfing or any branding, Heavy Water is the story of a guy who wants to continue the family legacy with all the risk and reward that goes with it.

The Secret Life Of Pets 2

Rated: PGThe Secret Life Of Pets 2

Directed by: Chris Renaud

Co-Directed by: Jonathan Del Val

Written by: Brian Lynch

Produced by: Chris Meledadri, p.g.a., Janet Healy, p.g.a

Voices by: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Lake Bell with Harrison Ford.

‘If you pee on it, you own it’:  The wisdom of Terrier Max.

We all love our pets and their shenanigans.  My cat Cloud, AKA Cheeky brat, AKA Ching-Chong-Chunk is a constant source of entertainment and companionship.

The Secret Life Of Pets (2016)) managed to tap into that delight of humans and what we imagine our pets get up to when we’re not around.

Here, in The Secret Life Of Pets 2, we get Terrier Max (Patton Oswalt) returning with the loveable house-mate and mutt, Duke (Eric Stonestreet), along with pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) taking a steam in the dishwasher and Chloe (Lake Bell) teaching Gidget the way of the cat.

The characteristics of animals we know and love are captured in detail making me smile in recognition, cat-meowing-in-sleeping-human-face included.

So starting out, all I could think was, Adorable.

In this next instalment, Max is coping with the introduction of another member of the family, baby Liam.

With Max stress-scratching we see the running theme of fear and rising to the challenge of life and facing fear, all cumulating when the family visit a farm.

Here we meet a wise farm dog and crazy stalker turkey.

All the birds are crazy-eyed and brainless, managing to always get me giggling.

Then there’s this side-story with an evil circus and lion and rescue mission from wolves I didn’t really get.

The humour was more slapstick as well, moving away from the cheeky pet behaviour that makes The Secret Life Of Pets so good.

Sure, this side-mission added adventure and was perhaps aimed at the youngsters in the audience; but I didn’t really sense a positive response from the kids either.

The super-hero bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) with Daisy-the-brave (Tiffany Haddish) felt like another story from another movie.  And it didn’t really gel because the attachment to Max and Co. was already made.

I just wanted to keep watching Max at the farm and Gidget and the cat Chloe back at the city apartment block – that’s what I was interested in.  That’s what I found funny: the behaviour of the characters as pets, not as super-hero adventurers.

So, some of the film I adored; the rest, not so much.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

Rated: MGodzilla: King Of The Monsters

Directed by: Michael Dougherty

Written by: Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields

Produced by: Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Brian Rogers, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni

Executive Producers: Zach Shields, Barry H. Waldman, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Aisha Hinds and Zhang Ziyi.

Moving on from 2014, when the world realised that gigantic monsters exist, that the titans who once ruled the world could rise again, the Russell family has been blown apart after the loss of their young son, Sam.

Emma (Vera Farmiga) has thrown herself into research, continuing the synchronising of bio-acoustics that her ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) abandoned.  He’s left civilisation behind to study wild animals in the wilderness.  Mark emails his daughter, Emma (Millie Bobby Brown) to keep in touch, but really, he’s run away from the family, to hide his grief.

Family drama aside, this next instalment in the Monsterverse is all about the titans, the 500-foot-tall monsters that are awoken to wipe out the human race, to bring about Armageddon.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters reveals the secret crypto-zoological agency Monarch, that continues to study and protect the titans.  New titans are discovered and kept hidden from the world as the government fights Monarch in court, to force the agency to reveal everything about these monsters and once and for all destroy the threat.

I don’t want to reveal too much of the story (if you haven’t already seen the film) because there’s a few surprises here and new monsters added to the universe.  Those who know the creators, Toho (who released a series of films featuring these giant monsters creating the kaiju eiga genre) will recognise the awesome creatures: Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah; monsters never seen on screen outside of Japan, until now.

I’ve got to say I couldn’t help but grin with the reintroduction of Godzilla.  The build of suspense with the soundtrack giving the familiar gigantic monster something like magnificence.

Again, Godzilla rises when the future of humanity is at stake, as other titans are awoken, destroying the disease that has been killing the planet for thousands of years: humans.

It’s becoming a common theme in cinema these days: humans killing the planet. Seems the best excuse to kill off cities and people because humans are destroying the environment.   But it gives the story here a good foundation for destruction.

There’s more about Godzilla and his origins, his role in living alongside humanity giving the monster something like a personality so I really wanted to cheer him on.

It was the humans I found to be insincere with a lot of standing around looking up with shock plastered on their faces.

Not that all the characters were bad – Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton was a cracker.

And thankfully the delivery of some pretty ordinary dialogue improved as the effects ramped up.  Probably because the human relationships weren’t as much of a focus when buildings started to get flattened and monsters started screeching at each other during epic battles for domination.

The tremendous sound of these monsters was deafening, making the floor in the cinema vibrate.

As director Michael Dougherty states, ‘These are popcorn movies,’ yet there’s a little more to Godzilla II with some unexpected twists in the storyline to keep it interesting and the monsters really come to life on the big screen.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu

Rated: PGPOKÉMON Detective Pikachu

Directed by: Rob Letterman

Story by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Nicole Perlman

Screenplay by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Rob Letterman and Derek Connolly

Based on: the “Detective Pikachu” video game developed by Creatures Inc.

Produced by: Mary Parent and Cale Boyter

Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Rita Ora, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy.

Based on the worldwide phenomenon of, Pokémon and video game, “Detective Pikachu”, this film literally features the beloved Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) wearing a detective hat.

Tim Goodman (Justice Smith, whom you’ll remember from, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)) lost his ambition to become a Pokémon Trainer when his mother died and his father, Detective Harry Goodman, moved away to Ryme City; a place where Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) has created a city, not just with Pokémon living in it, but with humans and Pokémon working and living, side-by-side.

After finding out his father has gone missing, Tim travels to Ryme City to discover there’s more to his father’s past than he realised.

Junior journalist, Lucy (Kathryn Newton), with a nose for a good story, seeks the answers to Detective Goodman’s disappearance, only to find Tim without a Pokémon partner – ‘Why does everyone keep asking me that!’.

When a Pikachu appears in his father’s apartment, instead of the characteristic Pokémon stating their own name, like, “Psy-Duck.  PSY-Duck?”  Or in this case, “Pika Pika” – Tim can understand this mysterious Pikachu: this  little guy is talkative, coffee addicted and a self-proclaimed detective.

So the somewhat lonely 21-year-old (not so much with Pikachu dancing on this shoulder), nosey journalist and talkative Pokémon investigate the mystery surrounding Tim’s father.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu is a combination of animated puppets and live actors – the Pokémon critters brought to life so you just want to reach out and give Pikachu’s fur a scratch, setting his back-leg twitching.

The kids in the audience, ooo’d and ahh’d, particularly at the beginning and introduction into the world of Pokémon (and before the action ramped up): this is a kid movie.

I don’t know why I expected the humour to be more adult.  Probably because Ryan Reynolds does the voice-over of Pikachu.  And although the script doesn’t have that edgy satire I’ve grown used to from Reynold’s characters, this is brilliant casting as he voices some genuinely funny moments like Pikachu making decisions based on ‘feeling it in his jellies.’

There are many amusing moments like the Cubone baby with the bad temper reminding Tim’s best mate Jake (Karan Soni) – would have like more of this character in the film – of his mother.  But the jokes were more of the PG variety: cute and sweet.

The action and effects ramp-up as the story progresses, giving the film some suspense and creating some drama with the hope Pikachu and his human, Tim, make it out of yet another scape.  And we get the conflict between Tim and his father with the breakdown of their relationship after his mother died, and of course the romance between the two human investigators.

So, not the edgy clever I was hoping for, but we get the expected cuteness with some good laughs and action along the way.

Avengers: Endgame

Rated: MAvengers: Endgame

Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Screenplay by: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

Based on: ‘The Avengers’ by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Produced by: Kevin Feige

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper and Josh Brolin.

Running time: 181 minutes.

Now we can talk about the ending of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), we’re left with half of all living creatures still here, and the other half disintegrated into ash and gone… With the snap of Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) fingers.

Thanos believed the ones left would thrive.  The ones left did not.  They could remember.  They could grieve.

Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo returning to direct this final instalment) is a last stand.  Again.

Like the fans walking out of the cinema after watching Infinity War, the Avengers left refuse to accept that the ones they love have gone.

It’s an emotive adaptation.

And one that cuts close with the recent loss of creator, Stan Lee.

So the final instalment and conclusion has an added echo, almost from the man himself (cameo included – peace to you too, Stan).

There are so many characters here, that without a bit of background, the final instalment wouldn’t pack the same punch without some prior knowledge.  Particularly the previous film (part-one), Infinity War.

I admit I haven’t gotten around to seeing Captain Marvel (2019), but I was able to take this new character, Carol Danvers (Lee Pace) along with the rest of the Avengers story.

But yeah, it’s emotional with Natalie AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) telling Captain America (Chris Evans), ‘This’ll work Steve.’

The Cap replying, ‘I know it will because I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.’

Even though I’m not a huge fan it’s hard not to get attached to at least some of the characters – hey, there’s enough of them.

Yet the number of characters is handled well – like all the Avenger films.

It’s a long journey (181 minutes), but it’s worthwhile with the action ramping up later in the film to match the emotion of the drama.

I was more impressed with the risk and shock of part-one, Infinity War – the franchise needing a good shake-up.

Here, it’s more about tying off the threads of lines that were left to unravel, to come full circle giving the audience a life-affirming conclusion, a softer landing, I guess: a little like landing on Thors’ new, well-padded belly.

Missing Link

Rated: PGMissing Link

Directed by: Chris Butler.

Screenplay by: Chris Butler

Produced by: Arianne Sutner, p.g.a., Travis Knight, p.g.a.

Voices by: Hugh Jackman, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Zach Galifianakis, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldana, Amrita Acharia, Ching Valdes-Aran, Emma Thompson.

Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is a seeker of mythical beasts.  All he wants in life is to be accepted into the Optimates Club – a society where he feels he belongs, working alongside those who discover and shape the world.

But really, it’s the ‘world that shapes us,’ Sir Lionel discovers, going on to say, ‘Someone should write that down.’  Ha-ha, I laugh, while writing the quote in my trusty notebook.

This is an amusing tale, from a giant footprint to a man-sized shoeprint, Sir Frost’s quest takes him on a journey to find the one who made that giant footprint, making a wager with Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry) that he’ll prove the existence of the sasquatch (Zach Galifianakis), to find the missing link of the evolution of ape to man.

If Sir Frost wins the wager and can prove the existence of the sasquatch, Lord Piggot-Dunceby agrees to apologise for his disbelief and Sir Frost would finally be accepted into the club of Most Notable Men.

The film is made using stop-animation, explained in the production notes as, ‘The manipulation of physical objects in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they appear to exhibit independent motion when played back in sequence. In practice, the animator moves the object, takes a picture, moves the object, takes a picture, and so on.’

The characters, puppets made from 3D printers and foam and any number of techniques, are exaggerated to give the puppets’ faces personality like the hooked nose of villain, Stenk (Timothy Olyphant) hired to take Sir Frost out of the exploring game and the apelike countenance of Mr Link used to off-set the human characteristics of being able to write and speak English.

The LAIKA animators photographed the stop-motion puppets 24 frames per second, turning the inanimate into characters with emotion – the exasperation of side-kick Mr. Lemuel Lint (David Walliams) shown in the half-lidded blink of an eye before getting, ‘mauled by a lake-monster’; Nessie coaxed out of hiding by a blast of bagpipes.

The humour of the taking-everything-literally, Mr Link didn’t always hit the mark for me.  But as the film continued, the story and setting of the journey of Mr Link and Sir Frost, seeking others of the sasquatch kind – like the Yeti – evolved (ha-ha) with the addition of widow and once close acquaintance of Sir Frost, the fiery Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana).

On the journey to Tibet to find Mr. Link’s distant cousins (the Yetis) we get Mr. Link naming himself Susan and mimicking a chicken who cannot be acknowledged, tickling as a granny Tibetan gesticulates with the demented chook perched on her head: hilarious.

Being a family film, I took my nephew along to enjoy together and to see if he liked the film – my nephew claiming the film deserved a 4.1/5.

Watching as an adult, I found plenty of humour to enjoy as well, thinking more 3.5, so I’m a splitting the difference and giving Missing Link, 3.7/5.

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