Parent reviews for Missing Link

It's a lovely funny story, it does have violence( fights in a bar and shooting guns ) so if your kid is easily scared, you should wait until he is older.

Our family of four, including 7yo twins, enjoyed this movie. The boys giggled off and on and my husband noticed the visual references to Indiana Jones. We both enjoyed the many different and interesting camera angles. The story involves more violence, guns and drinking than many kids films do these days, but if you're comfortable with that for your kids then it should be ok. I would say the guns and drinking is on par with the Muppets but there is more violence in this film.

I didn’t do much research before bringing this home to watch, and my wife and I were both a little surprised at the amount of shooting and fighting. Nearly every conflict is resolved by violence. There are definitely stereotypes here, and not enough female characters, although the ending does soften that slightly. Zach Galifianakis is hilarious and perfectly restrained as Mr. Link.

BEAUTIFUL adventure film with a simplistic story about belonging. My 7 and 11 year olds loved it, as did many of their friends. They've seen plenty of movies like Star Wars and Marvel movies to not be bothered so much by violence, and there's very little of it in this film by comparison. It's all kind of slapstick; the villains are buffoons and you never actually see anyone get shot. The story takes the characters on a journey across the world, each region stunningly depicted. The craftsmanship in this film is of the same caliber as the other Laika films and the story is lighter fare compared to the darker stories they've been known to tell. I think it appeals to a much wider audience, but with that comes more criticism that it may not be exactly to any one person's taste. Laika is not using the same formula as Pixar or Dreamworks, or much of any formula at all as far as I can tell. If your kids have never seen a gun on screen and you don't think they're ready for that, then you may want to prepare to have a discussion with them or wait a little longer. Otherwise, I wouldn't consider there to be anything inappropriate about this film for any age. There are good lessons about acceptance and belonging, and beyond that it's a masterpiece of stop motion filmmaking. The story was a bit too linear and lulled a bit for me but at least it wasn't a constant flow of pop culture references and it held together ok overall, so I'd give that part 3.5 stars; it's the visuals that send it over the top and my kids enjoyed it so much that I have to add another couple of stars. Even if Laika's movies never appeal to mainstream audiences, we need more of them!

We rented this movie and I regret not checking the reviews here first. Our 4-year old asked us to fast forward several scenes that were scary. I should have turned it off the first time she asked. There were some settle dark messages throughout the movie. It is not kid friendly.

I was very impressed by the positive, funny story- animation or tech is excellent and my children liked the adventure. My favorite part was that the female lead didn't need romance to complete her life- she went off on her own adventure.

Tried watching with my children, very disturbed with the number of guns and violence. Did not finish.

I'm surprised people like this film. They must be wearing rose-colored glasses because 1. It's Laika 2. It has excellent animation 3. They want to support stop-motion films. If you give it to any other animation studio, it would get lower ratings. This film has no appeal to adults, only aiming at the under-10 demographic, it is full of cliches and even some lowbrow humor. Here, Laika substitutes heart, soul, whimsy, and darkness for characters with little chemistry, unoriginality, and the safeness of a Disney film. Sir Lionel is unlikeable and Adelina is annoying and has this weird character arc where she goes from hating the main character's guts to joining him on his adventure and eventually falling in love, why would anyone be so stupid to befriend a stranger who broke into their house?! None of the jokes are that funny, they either do lowbrow humor or gags that you probably seen in other children's cartoons. I can see why this film has bombed, it didn't look any good from the trailers and besides a few thrilling action sequences and beautiful animation, you're not missing anything special from not watching it. One of Laika's most disappointing films.