Emoji – Der Film

The Emoji Movie is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy film written and directed by Tony Leondis and co-written by Eric Siegel and Mike White, based on the ideograms of the same name. It stars the voices of T.J. Miller, Anna Faris, James Corden, Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Rob Riggle, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin, Sofia Vergara and Christina Aguilera. The film centers on Gene, a multi-expressional emoji who lives in a teenager's phone, who sets out on a journey to become a normal meh emoji like his parents.

Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures, The Emoji Movie premiered on July 23, 2017 at the Regency Village Theatre and was released in the United States on July 28, 2017. The film was panned by critics, who called it "unfunny and a waste of time", with several comparing it unfavorably to Inside Out.

Plot

Gene is an emoji that lives in Textopolis, a digital city inside the phone of his user Alex. He is the son of two meh emoji named Mel and Mary who, despite his upbringing, is able to make multiple expressions. His parents are hesitant of him going to work, but Gene insists so that he can feel useful. Upon receiving a text from his crush Addie, Alex decides to send her an emoji. When Gene is selected, he panics, makes a confusing expression, and wrecks the text center. Gene is called in by Smiler, a smiley emoji and leader of the text center, who concludes that Gene is a "malfunction" and therefore must be deleted. Gene is chased by bots, but is rescued by Hi-5, a once popular emoji who has since lost his fame due to lack of use. He tells Gene that he can be fixed if they find a hacker, and Hi-5 accompanies him so that he can reclaim his fame.

Smiler sends more bots to look for Gene when she finds out that he has left Textopolis, as his actions have caused Alex to think that his phone needs to be fixed. Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet the hacker emoji Jailbreak, who wants to reach the Dropbox so that she can live in The Cloud. The trio are attacked by Smiler's bots, but manage to escape into the game Candy Crush. Jailbreak reveals that they need to get to The Cloud if Gene wants to get fixed, and the group go off into the Just Dance app. While there, Jailbreak is revealed to be a princess emoji who fled home to after tiring of being stereotyped. They are once again attacked by bots, and their actions cause Alex to delete the Just Dance app. Gene and Jailbreak escape, but Hi-5 is taken along with the app and ends up in the trash.

Mel and Mary go searching for Gene and have a very lethargic argument. They make up in the Instagram app when Mel reveals that he, too, is a malfunction, explaining Gene's behavior. While traveling through Spotify, Jailbreak admits that she likes Gene just the way he is, and that he should not be ashamed of his malfunction. They make it to the trash and rescue Hi-5, but are soon attacked by an upgraded bot. They evade it and reach Dropbox where they encounter a firewall. The gang get past it with a password being Addie's name and make it to The Cloud, where Jailbreak prepares to reprogram Gene. Gene admits his feelings for Jailbreak, but she wishes to stick to her plan of venturing into The Cloud, saddening Gene. The upgraded bot takes Gene, and Hi-5 and Jailbreak race after them.

As Smiler prepares to delete Gene, Mel and Mary arrive and are also threatened. Jailbreak and Hi-5 arrive and disable the bot, which falls on top of Smiler. Alex has since taken his phone to the store and asks its employee to have his phone erased to fix the problem. Out of desperation, Gene prepares to have himself texted to Addie, making numerous faces to express himself. Realizing that Addie received a text from him, Alex stops his phone from getting deleted, saving the emoji and finally getting to speak with her. Gene accepts himself for who he is and is celebrated by all of the emoji.

In a mid-credits scene, Smiler is seen wearing numerous braces due to her teeth cracked by the bot, playing and losing a game of cards in the "loser lounge" with the other forgotten and unused emoji.

Cast

• T. J. Miller as Gene, an outsider "meh" emoji who can show multiple expressions.
• James Corden as Hi-5, a hand emoji.
• Anna Faris as Jailbreak, a codebreaker emoji.
• Maya Rudolph as Smiler, a smiley emoji and leader of the text center.
• Steven Wright as Mel Meh, Gene's emoji father.
• Jennifer Coolidge as Mary Meh, Gene's emoji mother.
• Jake T. Austin as Alex, a human teenager who owns a phone where Gene and his emoji friends live.
• Christina Aguilera as Akiko Glitter, a "super cool" dancer that lives inside the Just Dance app.
• Sofía Vergara as Flamenca, a flamenco dancer emoji.
• Patrick Stewart as Poop, a poop emoji.
• Rob Riggle as an ice cream emoji (uncredited).
• Sean Hayes as Steven, a devil emoji.
• Tati Gabrielle as Addie, Alex's crush.
• Jude Koyaute as Poop Jr., the son of Poop.
• Rachael Ray as Spam
• Jeffrey Ross as Internet Troll
• Melissa Sturm as Angel, Phone Store Employee
• Tony Leondis as Laughter, Broom, Pizza
• Sean Giambrone as Travis
• Timothy Durkin as Mr. Schnoebelen
• Liam Aiken as Ronnie Ram Tech
• Wendell Brooks as Ram Tech Bouncer
• Thom Bishops as Fist Bump, Thumbs Up
• Kevin Chamberlin as Gavel
• William Townsend as Rocket
• Adam Brown as Flashlight, Trojan Soldier
• Joe Whyte as Red Wagon
• Conrad Vernon as Trojan Horse
• William J. Caparella as Alien
• Kate Miller as Heart Eyes
• Rich Dietl as Nerd Emoji
• Derek Mio as Elephant
• Paige Eileen Caparella as Cat Heart Eyes

Production

The movie was inspired by director Tony Leondis' love of Toy Story. Wanting to make a new take on the concept, he began asking himself "What is the new toy out there that hasn't been explored?" At the same time, he received a text message with an emoji, which helped Leondis to realize that this was the world he wanted to explore. In fleshing out the story, Leondis considered having the emojis visit the real world. However, his producer felt that it was a much more interesting concept to explore the world inside a phone, which inspired Leondis to create the story of where and how the emojis lived. As Leondis is gay, he connected to Gene's plight of "being different in a world that expects you to be one thing" and in eventually realizing that the feeling held true for most people, Leondis has said the film "was very personal".

In July 2015, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation had won the bidding war against Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures over production rights of an animated film centered on emoji. With the official announcement occurring at the 2016 CinemaCon.

On World Emoji Day (July 27) 2016, Miller was announced as the lead. Leondis created the part with Miller in mind, although the actor was initially hesitant to play the role, only accepting after Leondis briefed him on the story. Leondis chose Miller because "when you think of irrepressible, you think of TJ. But he also has this surprising ability to break your heart". In October 2016, it was announced that Ilana Glazer and Corden would be joining the cast as well. Glazer was later replaced by Anna Faris.

For the movie singer Ricky Reed recorded the song "Good Vibrations".

Release

In November 2015, Sony scheduled the film to be released on August 11, 2017. A year later, it was moved to August 4, 2017, with Baby Driver taking its date. In late March 2017, the film moved one week earlier to July 28, 2017, switching places with Sony Pictures' The Dark Tower.

On December 20, 2016, a teaser trailer for the film was released. A second trailer was later released on May 16, 2017. Sony promoted the latter release of the trailer by hosting a press conference in Cannes the day before the 2017 Cannes Film Festival which featured T. J. Miller parasailing in. Variety would go on to call the event "slightly awkward", with the Hollywood Reporter calling it "promotional ridiculousness".

Days prior the film's release, Sony was criticized after the film's official Twitter account posted a promotional picture of a parody of The Handmaid's Tale featuring Smiler. The parody was considered to be "tasteless" due to the overall themes of the work, and the image was deleted afterward.

The film's theatrical release is preceded by Puppy!, a Hotel Transylvania short directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.

Reception

Box office

The Emoji Movie was released alongside Atomic Blonde and is projected to gross around $20 million from 4,069 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $900,000 from Thursday night previews at 2,205 theaters.

Critical response

The Emoji Movie was panned by critics, with several unfavorably comparing it to Inside Out. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 6% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 2.2/10. The critical consensus for the film simply reads, "🚫" On Metacritic, the film has a score of 9 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a D, writing: "Make no mistake, The Emoji Movie is very, very, very bad (we're talking about a hyperactive piece of corporate propaganda in which Spotify saves the world and Sir Patrick Stewart voices a living turd), but real life is just too hard to compete with right now". Alonso Duralde of TheWrap was also critical of the film, calling it "a soul-crushing disaster because it lacks humor, wit, ideas, visual style, compelling performances, a point of view or any other distinguishing characteristic that would make it anything but a complete waste of your time".

Glen Kenny of The New York Times described the film as "nakedly idiotic", stating that the film plays off a Hollywood idea that the "panderingly, trendily idiotic can be made to seem less so".

External links

• Vorlage:Official website
• Vorlage:IMDb title
• The Emoji Movie on Rotten Tomatoes