The trio of Missing Link (Laika Studios/Annapurna Pictures

Zany adventure and comic hijinks ensue in the adorable but substance lacking Missing Link. Set in a quirky and highly stylized Victorian era, the stop-motion animated movie follows Sir Lionel Frost (voiced by an enthusiastic Hugh Jackman), a Seinfeld–esque J. Peterman and cartoonist Robert Ripley hybrid who considers himself to be the world’s foremost investigator of myths and monsters. Setting out to prove his reputation for a skeptical society of 19th-century explorers, he travels to America’s Pacific Northwest to discover the world’s most legendary creature, the missing link of man’s primitive ancestry.

Once he encounters the ironic Mr. Link, a silly, hilarious, and surprisingly smart sasquatch (brought to life by Zach Galifianakis), the conservative Frost learns of the friendly beast’s desire to overcome loneliness; Mr. Link needs the adventurer’s help to reconnect with his distant relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. They join forces with the independent and resourceful Adelina Fortnight, voiced with heart by Zoe Saldana, who possesses the only known map to the secret destination. She longs to go on an adventure as she used to do with her late husband, and so the unlikely trio sets out on a quest around the world to fulfill the fuzzy creature’s mission. Perils and obstacles pop up as well, and a surprise twist at the end will teach the odd couple of Lionel and Mr. Link what the real missing link in their lives is.

As director and writer Chris Butler has stated, this is basically an animated Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) in the setting of Around the World in 80 Days (1956), as well as a movie for the whole family. (I’ll let you guess who plays John Candy.) It’s a buddy comedy and a coming-of-age story for children. That being said, the wonderfully inspirational, colorful animation and attention to historical detail are quite impressive. However, the movie left me with mixed feelings and frustration for having the potential to be better.

Its central message is so relevant to these times, but it sadly gets buried under forced jokes and an unsettling tone pace; the story starts very slow and when it picks up, the gags have bad timing. The relationship between Lionel and Adelina is painfully undefined for a kids’ film, and even though the movie teaches young ones that real life is not always supposed to have a happy ending, it somehow left me confused, torn between “Don’t take this too seriously” and “Shouldn’t Adelina evolve or have a change of heart as well?”

Nowadays, animated films seems so eager to please kids and adults at the same time that they end up being all over the place and running out of steam. Instead of gags that come about naturally as the story progresses, random humor is the dish of the day here.