Missing Link [Laika Studios]

It’s not a bad little film - it’s obviously an impressive feat of stop motion craft, and it has a lovely old-school adventure film vibe to it that’s hard to get right. Jackman’s character is more complex than you’d usually expect in this sort of thing.

It does, though, fall victim to ‘modern American family film’ syndrome when there’s a layer of goofiness running though it. When Mr Link shows up the film gains this bumbling, wacky element that feels jarring and misjudged. It’s not that the film shouldn’t be funny - I think it does a nice job of having a more understated silliness about it. But like every major studio animation this feels like it needs a sort of wacky character, and in this case it makes what’s otherwise a likeable and distinctive film blend into the crowd a bit.