YMMV / Missing Link

• Award Snub: In regards to the Academy Awards, where it lost to Toy Story 4; combined with the fact that said movie also beat out Klaus (2019) (widely regarded as one of the best animated films of the year), and the Academy was once again accused of pandering to Disney/Pixar films regardless of their actual quality.
• Awesome Art: As par for the course with Laika, the visuals are absolutely stunning. The stop motion character animation is done so fluidly, you’d swear this was a CGI movie!
• Awesome Music: The end credits song ''Do-Dilly-Do (Friend Like You)'' is a sweet and whimsical song about adventure and friendship that puts the perfect cap on the movie.
• Moral Event Horizon: Lord Piggot-Dunceby is snobby, racist, misogynistic, imperialistic, and just all around unlikable, but the moment he proves to be utterly irredeemable is when he casually threatens to murder an infant to get information out of the baby's great-grandmother.
• Popular with Furries: A major character is a talking Sasquatch, so this was to be expected.
• Uncertain Audience: Laika's past four films had a consistent tone of mysticism infused with fantasy and horror elements, which built a dedicated audience of adult animation fans. Missing Link, however, decided to go for a more comedic route, seemingly in an attempt to better appeal to children. However, the film is still adult-oriented in its premise and its humor, which can be distracting, and it does not strike the same balance something like Shrek achieved. Plus, the main character design of Mr. Link was ugly and off-putting to families. What made matters worse is that the trailers greatly exaggerated the comedic elements as if they were the entirety of the film, therefore turning off a lot of Laika's fanbase (i.e. the one group most likely to see the film) as well. This resulted in the film being a massive Box Office Bomb, to the point where the monetary gap between this film and Laika's previous lowest opening film domestically, Kubo and the Two Strings, was nearly double Missing Link's total gross.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Lord Piggot-Dunceby's assistant Mr. Collick, who dies with the other villains. He wasn't as malicious as his boss, and he was kinda bullied into joining the expedition. Chris Butler even noted this in his Director's Commentary.
• The Woobie: Mr. Link, natch. The poor guy was all alone, being the last of his kind for years, with little to no friends, and was counting on Sir Lionel Frost to reunite him with others of his kind. Then, when he finally encounters others like him, they turn out to be paranoid and xenophobic, throwing Mr. Link and his companions in a pit to die. To top it all off, his one and only friend on this trip (initially) cared more about fame and fortune than actually trying to help him. It makes you really want to give the guy a hug.

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