Type : 3D computer-animated comedy film
Release date: July 28, 2017 (USA)
Director: Tony Leondis
Budget: 50 million USD
Production company: Sony Pictures Animation
Producer: Michelle Raimo
The Emoji Movie is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy film directed by Tony Leondis and written by Leondis, Eric Siegel and Mike White, based on the emoji symbols. It stars the voices of T. J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Rob Riggle, Jennifer Coolidge, Christina Aguilera, Sofía Vergara, Sean Hayes, and Patrick Stewart. The film centers on Gene, a multi-expressional emoji who lives in a teenager's phone, and 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 theatrically released in the United States on July 28, 2017. The film has grossed $25 million and was panned by critics, who called it "unfunny and a waste of time", with several comparing it unfavorably to The Lego Movie, Inside Out and Wreck-It Ralph.
Production
The film 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, Leondis received a text message with an emoji, which helped him 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 the world inside a phone was much more interesting, 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 to make the film, with the official announcement occurring at the 2016 CinemaCon
On World Emoji Day on June 17, 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 join the cast as well. Glazer was later replaced by Anna Faris
Singer Ricky Reed recorded the song "Good Vibrations" for the film.
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 previous date In late March 2017, the film was 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 called the event "slightly awkward",and The Hollywood Reporter described it as "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 was shown on 4,069 screens in its opening weekend. The film made $900,000 from Thursday night previews and $10.1 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $25.6 million, finishing 2nd at the box office behind Dunkirk.
Critical response
The Emoji Movie was panned by critics, with several unfavorably comparing it to The Lego Movie, Inside Out and Wreck-It Ralph. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 7% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 2.1/10. The site's critical consensus simply displays a no symbol in place of text. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 10 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
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". Owen Gleiberman of Variety lambasted the film as "hectic situational overkill" and "lazy" while viciously criticizing the film, writing: "There have been worse ideas, but in this case the execution isn't good enough to bring the notion of an emoji movie to funky, surprising life. Writing in for The Guardian, Charles Bramesco called the film "insidious evil" and wrote that it was a little more than an exercise in advertising smartphone downloads to children.
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.
- Patrick Stewart as Poop, a poop emoji.
- Christina Aguilera as Akiko Glitter, a "super cool" dancer that lives inside the Just Dance app.
- Sofía Vergara as Flamenca, a flamenco dancer emoji.
- Sean Hayes as Steven, a devil emoji.
- Rachel Ray as Spam, a spam message.
- Jeff Ross as an Internet troll.
- Jake T. Austin as Alex, a human teenager who owns the phone where Gene and his emoji friends live.
- Tati Gabrielle as Addie, Alex's crush.
- Rob Riggle as an ice cream emoji (uncredited).
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