Wondercon 2019: LAIKA x Missing Link

Joining the ever growing LAIKA family of characters will be a dapper yeti named Mr. Link in Missing Link. 

 

LAIKA studios has created memorable stories and characters through their engineering with stop motion animation movies.  With every LAIKA movie, the expectation of entertainment grows more with each story and visual masterpiece. Stop motion animation is one of the slowest media entertainments as each movement is captured painstakingly with each frame.  Although it means it takes years for a LAIKA movie and we are sitting firmly on our patience, we know that each frame is cared for and worth every moment. For it truly is a work of love and art to spend almost every moment in time with it.

 

 

This love for the art is made possible from the unflappable love of Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. A love that writer/driver, Chris Butler, carried through life with random Yeti drawings. How does a Yeti tie into a movie with Harrison Ford skulking through ruins and whipping bad guys? Mix that archaeologist hero with a healthy dash of Sherlock Holmes, and  here comes the dashing Sir Lionel Frost  (voiced by Hugh Jackman) out to solve the ultimate mystery: a yeti. The yeti he does discover it the dapper and curious, Mr. Link (voiced by Zach Galifianakis), or as he calls himself, Susan.  As lovable as Mr. Link is, he is also very Lonely. With Sir Lionel Frost’s help, they travel across the world to Shangri-La to find the rest of his kind. If they have any hope of getting there, they need the help Adelina Fortnight (voiced by Zoe Saldana) as she holds the map.  The movie is a adventurous and a beautiful visual feast as the trio travel across lands during the Victorian era to get to Shangri-LA.

Zach Galifianakis and the puppet he voices “Mr. Link”, in Chris Butler’s MISSING LINK, a Laika Studios Production and Annapurna Pictures release.
Credit : Eric Charbonneau / Laika Studios / Annapurna Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During Wondercon, we were able to sit with a fraction of the 400 plus team that bring these stories seamlessly onto the screen. We spoke to Chris Butler who shared the long journey from ideas filling up pages of his notes to designing the Yeti itself.  Nelson Lowry (Production Designer) downplayed his contribution to the film but could not disguise the pride and happiness of it all. Arianne Sutner  (Producer/ Head of Production) brought her giddy energy and big visions for the companies future project. It was John Craney (Puppet Fabrication Supervisor) that really impressed us all with all of the engineering creativity that went with creating these puppets and scenes.

 

Here are more interesting information about MISSING LINK

• Chris Butler not only wrote and directed the movie, he also designed the characters.  Deborah Cook designed the costumes.
• Deborah Cook (Costume Designer): “All fabrics for LAIKA costumes are created in-house. Nothing is bought off the shelf. Not only do we need to create costumes on a miniature scale, they need to withstand the puppet performances. And they also need to look
  good on camera. A lot of experimentation in textile creation happens here, to produce these intricately detailed costumes.”
• One of the engineerring LAIKA developed for MISSING LINK was the Animation Tracker software and controller. The controller use a series of knobs which are linked to encoders on motors. An animator can use the controller to remotely move elements on sets. One such scene of when this was used was during the Elephant scene.  The software provided a visual graph, mapping of the position,  and allowed the animator to compare that position to prior frames.

 

 

• Mr. Link is the heaviest character created, so far, for a LAIKA film.
• In the movie, Mr. Link has his pants split. This cue moment was achieved by a special rig to support a large scale version of Mr. Links rear end. This was done to provide tension as the fabric seam apart and the hair to the exterior.
• Mr. Link’s inside has: a mechanical belly mover, a chest breather, squash and stretch devices.

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Missing Link is out now in theaters! For more info, check out the social media below:

Official Site: MissingLink.Movie

Facebook: /MissingLinkFilm

Instagram: @MissingLinkFilm

Twitter: @LAIKAStudios