Anthomation Assesses The Emoji Movie

Howdy guys, Anthomaton here. Today, I shall review what is currently one of the most hated films of the past decade: The Emoji Movie.

The Emoji Movie is a 2017 film produced by Sony Animation, the company who has only created one great film (looking at you Spider-Verse (2018)). The film grossed $217 million worldwide but was universally lambasted by critics, who criticized the script, jokes, product placement, voice performances, lack of originality. And let me tell you, they were right!

Hidden inside a smartphone, the bustling city of Textopolis is home to all emojis. Each emoji has only one facial expression, except for Gene, an exuberant emoji with multiple expressions. Determined to become “normal” like the other emojis, Gene enlists the help of his best friend Hi-5 and a notorious code breaker called Jailbreak. During their travels through the other apps, the three emojis discover a great danger that could threaten their phone’s very existence.

The story absolutely SUCKS! Not only was their no sense of originality, but there was little to no sense of creativity. The film takes place in a world of emojis and it’s called Textopolis. Wow, did anyone even try?! And apparently, all of the emojis are functioned for one purpose that aligns to what emoji they use. But poor old Meh does not want a meh. Big bleeping deal. I mean, this is the most cooker-cutter, basic kids story that you could hash up. And it does not seem like the film is even ashamed of that. But that is not even the worst part. Oh no, the worst part in the climax, which there will be spoilers but y’all will not care since the film is terrible. Alex (the owner of the film) is about to replace his phone, though it is stopped when he sends an emoji to his love interest, Addie. She thinks that Alex is bursting with personality because he sent an EMOJI. Meaning that it was a button on a Sony phone that saved the day. God, is that corporate or is that CORPORATE?! I have never seen a film with a more soul less and forced message than this piece of who-hash.

The animation is not God-awful, though I would not consider it as good either. The characters’ designs are extremely basic. So basic that the animators literally just stuck a pair of arms and legs on a yellow dot for the main character. This can be considered as not terrible since it is a world full of living emojis. But really, you were too lazy to add any sort of artistic depth to the characters or the backgrounds for that matter? Just like everything else in this film, the visuals are as phoned in as can be, barely even reaching the bare minimum. The character movements are fine and not too degrading, but nothing worth watching. Overall, it is nothing that will make the audience hold on to their seats. 

The characters are not only products in the movie, but are products of their own stereotypes. Tell me if you have not heard of any of these cliched characters before. There is Gene Meh (voiced by TJ Miller), an outsider “meh” emoji who can show multiple expressions. There’s Hi-5 (voiced by James Corden), a hand emoji representing a high five signal. Also, he has a butt which I wanted to point for just how disturbing it is. There’s Jailbreak (voiced by Anna Faris), a hacker emoji who is later revealed to be a princess emoji named Linda. There’s Smiler (voiced by Maya Rudolph), a smiley emoji and the villain of the film. As the original emoji, she is the systems supervisor of the text center. Steven Wright and Jennifer Coolidge voice Gene’s father and mother respectively. And then there is Alex (voiced by Jake T Austin), a human teenager who owns the phone where Gene and his emoji friends live. He is desperately trying to be like Riley from Inside Out (2015), but he is not Riley because she was an ACTUAL character with a REAL personality and emotions. The most I know about this personality-deprived kid is that he has a favorite Grandma. Odd. It does not help that the voice actors are not putting that much into their performances and thinking about their paycheck more than conveying an emotion. Which makes sense since the creators are caring even less than the actors and actresses, giving them no incentive to give a hoot about this film.

The one character I forgot to mention was Patrick Stewart voicing a poop emoji. That is the representation of this movie. The story is a complete joke, stealing from other films rather than giving the audience anything new, the animation is lackluster at best, and the characters are so lazily written and acted that it’s tough to even consider them as characters. This movie is worthy of the reputation it has received. It is only recommendable to those who want to brag to their friends how they watched one of the WORST animated films of this past decade.

Score:

2/10