The Emoji Movie

It’s time for me to tackle one of the most hated films from the 2010s. I watched the animated comedy family movie The Emoji Movie, released on July 28, 2017. Directed by Tony Leondis, it takes place both in America and in a world called Textopolis in cell phones. Starring T.J. Miller, James Corden, and Anna Faris, it is rated PG.

Inside of cell phones is a secret world called Textopolis where emojis live. An emoji named Gene Meh is meant to be a meh emoji, but he suffers from a malfunction that causes him to make many emoji faces and have a hard time controlling them. After he accidentally makes the wrong emoji face and causes damage to the text center, their leader Smiler decides that, as a malfunction, he must be deleted. Gene teams up with a high five emoji named Hi-5 and a hacker emoji named Jailbreak so he can get to the Cloud and be reprogrammed. Can Gene become an important part of Textopolis?

While this movie is close to being 9 years old, I admit I’ve never seen it before. However, the large amount of hate it got did make me interested. Considering that this movie was despised the moment the idea was announced, I did have to wonder if people just decided to hate on it for no reason. I’ll start by talking about the story. I will say that the idea of this world with supposedly non-sentient things living and thriving has been done in other movies. This movie has often been compared to Wreck-It Ralph, The LEGO Movie, and Inside Out. All of these are 2010s animated kids films that came out before this one, and if you ask me, are all masterpieces you should see if you have not already. With that said, an idea being done before isn’t an immediate failure. While people did hate the idea of a world of living emojis inside a cell phone, I think the premise is acceptable for a kids movie. The problem is they don’t do much with the idea. You’d think there’d be some great commentary on how people use cell phones way too much. But instead the movie portrays this as completely fine. It’s more of a basic be yourself plot that comes across as weird since emojis are supposed to do what the owner of a cell phone wants. It doesn’t help that when you think about it, the plot has many problematic things that were likely not intentional. It’s kind of hard to root for our three heroes when they all come across as selfish. Smiler ironically is easier to root for. The fact they could all easily be deleted makes her want to delete a malfunction actually seem justified considering it’s a lesser of two evils situation. For all the flaws, there could still be some merit with this plot. Gene’s journey is clearly meant to be a metaphor for disabled people. While I think it could have been executed better, we still need more stories like that today. I do also admit that I think the animation and visuals are good, making this world fun to explore through. I will even admit that, despite some forced unfunny jokes, most of the comedy did please me. So the story is kind of half and half.

I will talk about the characters. Gene Meh, Hi-5, and Jailbreak are voiced by T.J. Miller, James Corden, and Anna Farris, respectively. I have already talked about how these characters come across as selfish. However, they can still be enjoyable to watch. They all have unique personalities. Gene may have been meant to be emotionless, but the variety of emotions he has, along with wanting to fit in, do make you remember him. Hi-5 has an excitable personality, which can be fun. Jailbreak starts out cold, but does warm up. Again, these characters still don’t feel like good guys, but they can still hold your attention. Smiler, voiced by Maya Rudolph, is entertaining as her being a smiley emoji means she can show no emotion besides happiness, even when she’s furious. Gene’s parents Mel Meh and Mary Meh, voiced by Steven Wright and Jennifer Coolidge, get some laughs too from them being emotionless with everything they say. Steven Wright’s casting may have been the most perfect in the movie with his deadpan way of talking. Poop is a poop emoji that exists to do nothing except make poop jokes, and he’s voiced by Patrick Stewart. This is the worst part of the movie in my opinion. The fact that they got such a great actor to voice such a horrible idea is taking being insulting to a whole new level.

Overall, I actually thought this movie was okay. It’s not a great movie or even a good one, but I can’t say it’s bad when there are as many enjoyable elements as there are. It’s not a movie I would strongly recommend, but I think it’s fine to watch if it came on TV. I really do think the extreme hatred it got is more so due to people finding the idea insulting. Sony Pictures Animation does have other much better movies, and they bounced back the following year with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Honestly, I don’t even think this movie was worth all the hate it got.

I mentioned that this movie didn’t do much with addressing how people spend too much time on their cell phones and social media. This is a problem in our world today. I don’t think they are bad on their own. Cell phones are important in this day and age. It’s the overuse part of it that’s a problem. If you find you are spending too much time on these things, do things to take breaks from them. While it is ironic given I mentioned overuse of it, social media can be used to send the trend. Talking to people about this in general can do good. All of this also goes for the issue of people using their cell phones when driving. Cars are at least putting in more features to safely use the phones without touching them. We can help people to do the right thing if we all spread awareness and by modeling healthy cell phone and social media use ourselves.