In cinemas this week: Creature feature quest for fabled Missing Link

There’s no shortage of well-known English accents in new animated comedy Missing Link.

And even the man who created it is proving once again that all the skills required to make something this good can be gained at English universities, with no need to cross the Atlantic.

Liverpool-born director Chris Butler, who has already got an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – for 2012 hit ParaNorman – studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts.

To be found at various locations including Canterbury and Rochester, Kent, and Epsom and Farnham, Surrey, they clearly teach ’em well.

Missing Link is the tale of Sir Lionel Frost, so-called myths and monsters investigator, as he embarks on a trek to the Pacific Northwest, keen to prove that a legendary creature really does exist.

This is Mr Link, of course, and Frost takes Adelina Fortnight, an independent adventurer who happens to have the one and only map showing the likeliest place to find the fabled behemoth.

Aussie superstar Hugh Jackman is the voice of Frost, US actress-dancer Zoe Saldana plays Fortnight, while The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis is Mr Link.

Much of the remaining voice stars are household names on our shores, with Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Matt Lucas all involved.

It’s Butler, however, who makes it what it is, and he also wrote it as well as directing it. Butler relies on Laika, a stop-motion studio in the US.

Stop-motion, which is always wonderful to see on the big screen when complete and when done well, is a technique in which objects are moved around in tiny increments, each frame being photographed.

They often use dolls and models with moveable joints, or even clay figures, because these are easy to manipulate and move around.

When you see Missing Link, you’ll realise that when someone as skilled as Chris Butler does it, viewers can forget they’re not looking at real, breathing beings after a while.

As star man Jackman says: “The definition of being good is being able to make it look easy.”

The 50-year-old Sydney-born Jackman happily admits that the acting game didn’t at first look like his future career.

“I always loved acting, but when I started at drama school I was like the dunce of the class,” he says ruefully.

“It just wasn’t coming right to me. Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it and in retrospect I think that is good. I think it is good to come from behind as an actor.

“I think it is good to go into an audition thinking: ‘Man, I’ve got to be at my best to get this gig.’”

As for Butler himself, he reckons there was a bit of him in ParaNorman, so perhaps there’s a bit of Missing Link in him, too.

“A lot of people have said Norman is like me and that is definitely true,” he agrees.

“Norman is the kind of kid who likes to write stories. I was a quiet kid and I loved to sit in my room and make up stories about monsters and zombies.”

Missing Link is in cinemas from Friday April 5.