Missing Link
Detailed parental analysis
Mr Link is an animated adventure film with a light and colourful atmosphere, tinged with humour and tenderness. The plot follows a vain explorer who discovers a creature that is part man, part ape, seeking to find others like himself, and who accompanies him on a journey across the world. The film is aimed primarily at children from 7-8 years old, with enough pace and humour to hold the attention of the adults accompanying them.
Violence
Violence is present recurrently and constitutes a genuine point of concern for younger viewers. A bar brawl involves punches, kicks, headbutts, broken bottles and a character thrown through a window. Scenes of gunfire and armed pursuit punctuate the narrative, and several characters are threatened with death explicitly, including Mr Link himself, with the threat of being killed and stuffed. A woman receives an elbow to the face and is struck on the head during a rescue scene. This violence remains within the codes of the family adventure film, without gore or realistic consequences, but its accumulation may surprise or worry the most sensitive children under 7 years old.
Underlying Values
The film builds its central argument around a strong and well-executed idea: belonging is found among those who accept you as you are, not among those whose approval you seek. The human protagonist follows a convincing redemption arc, moving from social ambition and vanity to a form of genuine friendship. The value of friendship and partnership is explicitly placed above individual success and social status, which gives the narrative a solid and accessible moral backbone for children.
Discrimination
The main female character, Adelina Fortnight, suffers from stereotypical writing that deserves to be noted. She is constructed on the model of the passionate and impetuous Latin woman, whose primary narrative function is to correct the behaviour of the male protagonist rather than pursue her own objectives. This treatment is not questioned by the film itself, which makes it a useful angle for discussion with older children, particularly to identify how certain female characters are reduced to a role of moral mirror for the hero.
Parental and Family Portrayals
The family theme is at the heart of the film, but approached from the angle of chosen rather than biological family. Mr Link has no family in the traditional sense and seeks to find one. The film values affective bonds built through choice and mutual acceptance, which can open a natural conversation with children about what it means to belong to a family or a group.
Strengths
The film distinguishes itself through careful artistic direction and attention paid to sets and textures that makes every frame visually rich. The humour works on multiple levels, with physical gags for younger viewers and more subtle irony about the vanity and colonialism of the Victorian explorer that speaks to adults. The character of Mr Link himself is written with touching naivety and genuine emotional intelligence, making him an endearing and memorable protagonist. The film manages to address the theme of belonging without reducing it to a slogan, allowing characters to experience real disappointments before achieving it.
Age recommendation and discussion points
The film is suitable from 7-8 years old for relaxed viewing, with parental presence recommended for younger or more sensitive children regarding scenes of violence and threat. Two angles of discussion are worth exploring after viewing: ask the child why Mr Link is happier at the end than at the beginning, despite not having obtained what he was looking for initially, and ask him what he thinks of Adelina's role in the story, to prompt reflection on how female characters are sometimes written.
Synopsis
The charismatic Sir Lionel Frost considers himself to be the world's foremost investigator of myths and monsters. Trouble is, none of his small-minded, high-society peers seems to recognize this. Hoping to finally gain acceptance from these fellow adventurers, Sir Lionel travels to the Pacific Northwest to prove the existence of a legendary creature known as the missing link.
About this title
- Format
- Feature film
- Year
- 2019
- Runtime
- 1h 34m
- Countries
- United States of America
- Original language
- EN
- Directed by
- Chris Butler
- Main cast
- Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldaña, Zach Galifianakis, Stephen Fry, Timothy Olyphant, Emma Thompson, Amrita Acharia, Matt Lucas, Ching Valdes-Aran, David Walliams
- Studios
- LAIKA, Annapurna Pictures
Content barometer
- Violence3/5Notable
- Fear2/5A few scenes
- Sexuality0/5None
- Language0/5None
- Narrative complexity1/5Accessible
- Adult themes0/5None
Watch-outs
- Death
- Gender stereotypes
Values conveyed
- Courage
- Friendship
- Acceptance of difference
- acceptance
- teamwork