History Fridge / MissingLink

** Building on that, the movie began with Sir Lionel disparaging photography as being inadequate, much like how Lord Piggot-Dunceby looks down on electricity. This may unwittingly reflect that had Sir Lionel not gone on the very adventure that changed his perspective on what's important, he would've been well on his way to being just as obstinate as his adversary. The movie ending with a photo of Susan and Sir Lionel is meant to imply that the latter has come to embrace new technology rather than write it off as efficient, almost as though signifying that he's taken [[CharacterDevelopment a different path of openmindedness and humility]], unlike Lord Piggot-Dunceby.

* At one point, Link insults [[spoiler: the Elder Yeti that her accent is weird. While this could easily be interpreted that he's talking about her inexplicable British accent, the brilliance comes when one recognizes he's referring to her roaring the true name of Shangri-la.]]
* The Elder Yeti and her Yetis aren't simply [[IceQueen cold]], they're ''inhumanly'' cold and (as a certain [[WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings Monkey]] would bitterly put it) "perfect" because it's their nature as, well, Yetis. This acts to make them a foil for Mr. Link who is warm and humane, despite that he isn't a human being.
** Their color scheme is also symbolic. The yetis have blue skin and white fur to reflect their cold nature, whereas Mr. Link has pink skin and auburn fur matching his warm and kind personality.
* Given this movie came out roughly around Easter time, it shouldn't be a surprise Laika added [[WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls some]] [[WesternAnimation/ParaNorman Easter]] [[WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings Eggs]] in the movie somewhere.
* As the fifth film Laika has made, the movie appropriately visits (more-or-less) every continent the past four Laika movies have ever taken place. Lionel comes from [[WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls Britain]], finds the Missing Link in the [[WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}} Pacific Northwest]], they and Adelina take a cruise from the [[WesternAnimation/{{Paranorman}} East Coast]], and go to [[WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings Asia]] to find Shangri-La. (Bonus points being that Britain is also the setting for another joint-Laika film WesternAnimation/CorpseBride.)
* Mr. Link is pretty lucky that Adelina recognizes how wrong it is for Sir Lionel to treat him like a servant rather than a person. Part of the reason could be that, as a woman in the turn of the century, she understands what it means to be part of a discriminated demographic, not to mention she had a husband who treated her as a equal.

* Sir Lionel showing off to Stenk about the existence Mr. Link may be a [[IdiotBall stupid move]] (since it gives Stenk all the more reason to pursue them), but that just may be the point! It's meant to establish Sir Lionel's FatalFlaw, his need to share proof in order to validate his self-worth and feed his ego.

* During the climax, there's a notable RuleOfSymbolism [[spoiler: on the bridge to Shangri-la. At the stand off between good guys and bad guys, notice who is standing across from who. Susan is standing across from Stenk, the former being human despite being a sasquatch and the latter being inhuman despite taking a human shape. Adelina stands across from Mr. Collick. Her strong spirit and tendency to disagree with Sir Lionel's selfish behavior is contrasted with Mr. Collick's weak will and habit of playing sycophant to Piggot-Dunceby. The keystone to this symbolism is Sir Lionel vs. Piggot-Dunceby. Their conversation about shaping the world and acceptance is meant to represent that Sir Lionel is facing his [[ShadowArchetype reflection]] and is overcoming his selfishness. In short, everybody there is literal opposites.]]
* The movie opens by showing Sir Lionel failing to capture photographic evidence of a cryptid, the Loch Ness monster and ends with a photo of him and Susan (''another cryptid'').
* It shouldn't be much of a surprise that this movie's LighterAndSofter tone compared to previous Laika works also features a protagonist who ''isn't'' a KidHero. [[WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}} Coraline]], [[WesternAnimation/ParaNorman Norman]], [[WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls Eggs]], and [[WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings Kubo]] were all children with not that much worldly experience and weren't exactly prepared to deal with the perils they faced in their respective movies. Sir Lionel, on the other hand, has been in the adventuring game for quite some time by the start of his own movie, and is obviously more accustomed to the kind of danger he experiences in his line of work.

* [[spoiler: How exactly did the extremely isolationist Yeti's even know anything about the outside world, much less about their "red-neck cousins" from a world away, much less know enough to form that opinion of them? While they could have just kept exceptional records dating to a time before their isolation, its just as likely (and twice as horrifying) that the Sasquatch may have tried to send Ambassadors to their cousins over the years. Ambassadors that were treated just like any other outsider and kept prisoner for the rest of their lives, indirectly contributing to their shrinking numbers.]]

* Despite Sir Piggot-Dunceby trying to kill Susan and Sir Lionel Frost before they reach London in order to stop them from proving the missing link exists (proving Frost right and allowing him entry into their group), Frost never stops there despite arriving at least within the area on a row boat. While he did promise to bring Susan to his relatives, he could have done so after proving he was right as it is on the way...

* The movie opens by showing Sir Lionel failing to capture photographic evidence of a cryptid the Loch Ness monster and ends with a photo of him and Susan (''another cryptid'').