LAIKA's 'Missing Link' Romps Home At Golden Globes
This year's award was interesting because the HFPA saw fit to nominate the remake of The Lion King alongside fellow Disney nominees Frozen 2 and Toy Story 4. The reason this is unexpected is because Disney has been trying (and largely succeeding) to convince everyone that Jon Favreau's adaptation is in fact live-action. To support this the mouse house has not submitted the highest-grossing animated film of all time into the animation category at the Oscars or anything at The Annies. So for the HFPA to completely ignore this is and nominate it anyway is- you have to admit- pretty funny considering.
What would have been REALLY funny would if it had actually won. That wasn't to be, as it happened. Instead, come the night of January 5, the Golden Globe went to LAIKA for Missing Link (one of two non-Disney family nominees, alongside How To Train Your Dragon 3).
Not only that, but Disney failed to score a win in Best Original Song, with Frozen 2's Into The Unknown and Lion King's Spirit both losing out to (I'm Gonna) Love Me Again from Rocketman.
You can speculate about the Disney vote being split three ways, but we shouldn't let this overshadow LAIKA's first win. It's doubly pleasing as it was the only nominee in the category that wasn't a sequel or remake.
Chris Butler's film opened in the spring of 2019 to middling reviews and the worst box office returns for the studio to date, so it didn't make the impact it might have. Hopefully, this win will convince more people to check it out so it can find its audience- the film is now available to stream on Hulu in the US and Netflix in the UK. It's a fun and charming globetrotting adventure, and the most ambitious stop-motion feature ever made (although it does also feature considerable use of CG). Congratulations to everyone at LAIKA!
[source: Golden Globes]
