is the titular deuteragonist of Laika's fith stop-motion animated film Missing Link. Within the film, Mr. Link is the mythical Bigfoot, Sasquach, and the supposedly missing link which onfirms that modern humans are descended from the great apes, and despite being an ape, he can communicate in English.
Mr. Link/Susan is voiced by Zack Galifianakis.
Biography
Background
Mr. Link became the last living specimen of the Sasquach branch of hominids several years prior to the events of the film. How the Sasquaches came to be extict is unknown, but somehow Mr. Link had survived and became a knwon as a modern myth of the 1800s, often being known as Big Foot. He survived mostly off of hunting, fishing and collecting wild fruit from the forests of the American State of Washington's wilderness. He displayed human level intelligence early on in life and self-educated himself how to speak American English after observing lumberjacks and prospectors speaking. More often then not his pressence frightened the wood cutters and miners, causing them to panick and run. One such person, woman by the name of Susan, gave the Sasquach a pleasent impression of humans since she was the first human who looked at him with interest rather then fear. A Native American shaman taught the ape-man how to play chess, although Mr. Link claims that the shaman was a poor player who often cheated. Mr. Link would also later teach himself how to read and write after having stolen a large collection of books and newspapers, which he hoarded in his cave, located deep in the forest. Some of these books were on the subject of mythical creatures, from which Mr. Link learned about the Yetis, the ape-men of Tibeten myth, who were said to live high-up in the Himalayas. From British newspapers he also learned about Sir Lional Frost, a crypto-zoologist who has dedicated his life to proving the existence of mythical creatures, including Mr. Link's species. Do to his sudden realization that there were no more like him in America, Mr. Link decides to leave for the Himalayas to search for the Yetis, in the hopes of living with them. To that end he wrote an anonymous letter of invitation to Sir Frost, asking the English adventurer to come to America in order to prove to Frost that there is at least on Sasquach still alive.
Meeting Sir Frost
Sir Frost followed through on the sasquach's letter and came to America in order to find him. The two met near the sasquach's lair, where the creature identified himself as being the author of the letter much to Sir Frost's surprise and further interest towards him. Frost is told by the creature his origin and more importantly his desire to travel to the Yeti's homeland in order to live among his own kind. Sir Lional Frost agrees to take the sasquach to the Himalayas, provided that he in turn provides Frost with proof of his existence, namely finger nails, hair strands and bodily fluids, in order to show back at the English Adventures' Club, so that Frost can be accepted into the club. The sasquach agrees to Frost's deal and as such the two begin their journey towards the Yeti's homeland, the mythical and hidden land of Shangri-La. Frost also provides the creature with the name "Mr. Link", in reference to the term "Missing Link" as well as from Frost's previous assistent "Mr. Lemuel Lint". Sir Frost and Mr. Link are met with complications along the way, some worse then others. After arriving at a local inn near the forest where Mr. Link had been living, the two are confronted by Willard Stenk, a ruthless hunter with a past shared with Sir. Frost. Stenk reveals that Lord Piggot-Dunceby, the leader of the adventurer's club, has hired him to prevent Sir. Frost from bringing back evidence of the sasquach's existence, thus stopping Frost from ever joining the club. As such, a fight ensues, with both Frost putting effort into stopping his assailants, while Mr. Link defeats them with little effort on account of his massive strenght. The two soon depart for Southern United States, searching for the map which leads to Shangri-La, which once belonged to Sir Forthnight, a late friend of Lional's. However, Fortnight's widow, Adelina, refuses to give them the map because she holds resentment towards Sir Frost for his obsession and his abscence at her husbans funeral. Sir Frost tries buying the map from her, but this only infuriates Adelina, causing her to kick him out of her residence.To that end, Sir Frost and Mr. Link break into Adelina's mansion at night in order to recover the map. Their break-in allerts Adelina to their presence, mostly do to Mr. Link's lack of suddelty that had caused too much noise. After a brief confrontation, Lional and Mr. Link manage to recover the map after the safe which storred the map got busted after falling from the window of the mansion's highest floor.
The following morning, Sir Frost and Mr. Link plan to bord a train for the East Coast, but they are discovered by Adelina Fortnight. She finally agrees to let the two use her former husband's map on the one condition that she accompanies them on their search. The newly formed trio are once again attacked by Willard Stenk, but they manage to allude him by tricking Stenk that they had boarded the train, causing Stenk to jump onboard. With Stenk now gone, the trio instead take a carriage to the East Coast. From there they board a ship for Asia. During their journey, Adelina notices Mr. Link's loonlines and realizes that it is partly do to Lional's aloofness. So she coaxes Lional into spending more quality time with the sasquach by reminding him of how important the journey ment for him. Sir Frost those indeed begin talking to Mr. Link and starts opening up to him. In return Mr. Link opens up more to Sir Frost and tells him that he isn't all to happy with the name he had given him. Frost tells Mr. Link to come up with his own name, to which the sasquach tells him of the prospector who fascinated him towards humans and from there decides to name himself after the prospector: Susan. Despite the obvious gender to which the name usually applies to, Lional agrees and continues to incourage Susan of their quest. However, their heartfelt moment is soon interrupted by the sudden appearance of Stenk, who had gotten onboard in secret. Yet another fight breaks out in the midst of a fierce storm and during massive waves on the ocean. During the fight, Sir Frost mostly tries running away from his persuers and Adelina is thrown off the ship, but manages to hold onto the ship's achor. At first, Susan tries helping her up by throwing a life preserver ring, but to his naivete hits her in the head with it. So instead, Susan runds down the ship's hull and instead grabs from the window nearby the anchor. In the fight's climax the trio lock Stenk and his goons inside one of the ship's boarding rooms and then leave the ship onboard a life boat.
They eventually make their way to India, where Susan was mostly asleep during the journey. After arriving at the foothills of the Himalayas, Frost tries asking the townsfolk for a guide up the mountains, but he does not speak their language. They do, however, come across a woman, Ama, who's elderly mother, Gamu, does know the way to Shangri-La. The old lady initially refuses them, accusing them of trying to find the land out of greed, but Susan stands up for them. Gamu faints at the sight of the large ape, and as a result Susan must give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After waking up, Gamu comes back to her senses and agrees to help them bring Susan to Shangri-La. She is to old to make the journey, so instead instructs her daughter how to lead them.
Arriving to Shangri-La
Lional, Adelina and Susan make their way up the mountains, crossing dangerous terrain and are ultimatelly caught in a snow-storm. But they soon come across the Yetis, who lead them pass a crevasse and over an ice bridge which leads to an impossing temple. Inside, the trio are met by the Yeti Queen, who tells them the Yeti's history of isolating themselves from the humans they had mistrusted for generations. They had made a home for themselves in the hidden, lush valley of Shangri-La (which in their native tongue meant "Get Oou! We Hate You!") in order to avoid humans at any cost. Despite Susan and Lional's relief of having found the valley, the Yetis reveal themselves as being cold and distant. They consider the trio as being a danger to their way of life and have them thrown into a deep pit, wherein they will eventually die. Susan tries to talk them out of their decision, but the Queen dismisses the sasquach for his love of humanity, clamming that he was just as bad as any other human and therefore refuse to accept Susan as their cousin. Susan falls into a depression after having been rejected, but is soon comforted by Lional, again thanks to Adelina, who convinces Lional to put aside his dreams in order to help his friend. Lional informs Susan that he understands his grief. After being rejected so many times in the past by the adventurers' club in England, he to understood the pain of rejection. But despite that pain, he continued to find purpose in life. He ends his speech by reminding Susan how greatful he was that the two of them had became friends during their travells together. His words reach Susan and manage to get him out of the doldrums. Having been brought back to high spirits, the trio resolve to escape captivity. Susan tries throwing Lional out of the pit, but instead throws him straight into the icy-walls. He then successfully throws Adelina out, who then proceeded to beat up some of the Yeti's and stole a rope with which she helped Susan and Lional climb out.
After fighting their way down the temple's stairs, the trio are stopped on the bridge by Stenk, alongside Lord Piggoty-Dunceby. Dunceby had personally travelled to Shangri-La in order to ensure that Sir Frost faills in his quest. He reveals that he had never intended to agree to their wagger of allowing Sir Frost to join the club, reason why he had hired Stenk to stop them. This makes Frost come to grips with reality and renounces his interest in joining the club, realizing that Susan was his real comrad and that he waw more honorable then Sir Piggot-Duncy could ever hope to be. As an act of protest towards Lionel's words, Sir Piggot-Duncy blows a hole in the bridge, causing it to fall apart. Sir Frost, Susan and Adelina manage to escape by the skin of their teeth by hanging onto ice spikes, while Lord Piggot-Duncy, his assitent and Willard Stenk all fall to their death. Back at the temple, the Yetis silently express their anger that the bridge had fallen, although this now meant that no outsiders will ever attempt entrance into their valley. Susan, now having seen the Yetis's true colors, curses them for their rudeness and xenophobia, telling them that Shangri-La was terrible, much to their horror. But Lional stops Susan from further insulting them, by encourging him not to stoop to their level. And with that, the trio make their leave off the mountain. After making their way to a port, Adelina, who at that point rekindled a friendship with Lional, decides to leave on her own adventures in order to live a free and exciting life, and thus leaves Lional and Susan to continue their own great exploits. Lional and Susan make their way back to London and develop into a team of explorers, as both equals and friends. One day, Sir Frost arrives with a desiccated body of a mermaid, which leads him and Susan to prepare for a journey to discovering the lost land of Atlantis.
Personality
Mr. Link is shown to be very friendly and helpful, the result of his long years living alone. He wishis to explore his surroundings and will go to great lenghts to accomplish this goal, but oftenly walks blithely and without any forthought. Do to his limited knowledge of humans Mr. Link is often ignorant and naive of langueage fluidity, and as such did not understand metaphors or understand certain actions. When Sir Frost gives his word to Mr. Link that he will assist him on his travels to the Hymalayas Mr. Link took this literraly, believing that words are physical objects. Likewise, when Adelina told him to frow her a life preserver, as she was about to fall off of a ship's hull, Mr. Link almost caused her to drop into the Ocean after hitting her in the head with the object. Although unaware at first Mr. Link was treated rather poorly by Sir Frost, until Adelina coaxes Lional to be more friendly with him. Only after Lional shows genuine affection towards him thus Mr Link begin acting more assertive, going so far as asking Lional to call him "Susan" from then on. Overtime, Susan begins exhibiting more nuances to his behavior. He briefly fell into a depression after being rejected by the Yetis for his attachment to human culture, but after escaping from Shangri-La he curses the Yetis for their rudeness and openly mocked their home, thus solidifying his disillusionment of them. By the film's ending, Susan and Lional have grown into colleagues and equals, with Sir Frost still acting as the leader but treating Susan with dignity, respect and friendship.
Trivia
- According to Laika animators, Mr. Link's body is shaped after an avocado.
- Designing and animating Mr. Link took the Laika animators a full year to finish do to the doll being one of the most complex puppets they had ever had to animate. His rounded body and several hair pieces made moving his arms and legs very challenging for them.
- He is the second Laika character to be an ape. The first character was Monkey from Kubo and the Two Strings, although Monkey had previously been a human and before that a goddess, while Mr. Link had always been a Sasquach.
- The character's early years, as in his time spent in the wilderness, learning by himself how to read, write and speak, is very similar to the Frankenstein's Monster's own life in the original novel, The Modern Prometheus. Much like the character of Frankenstein's Monster from the novel, and most adaptations of the story, Mr. Link is driven by his need for companionship.
- One of Sir Frost's names for the Sasquach was rougarou, a mythical creature from the region of Laurentides, Quebec, Canada. A rougarou is a variation of werewolf that was popularized in French Laouisiana which later spread into French Canada.
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