As the summer film season continues, we are barraged with more commercial films than we'd like to admit seeing. Remember, this is the season for big-budget, explosive, adventurous, action-packed films along with several animated flicks to sit back and escape into. So, with this recipe, we have "The Emoji Movie" to get to have fun with. This is the next animated film this summer for the younger crowd to hook into and can relate to considering all the smartphones there are out there.
This story unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone's user--in this case, it's Alex (Jake T. Austin). In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression--except for Gene (T.J. Miller), an exuberant emoji who was born without a filter and is bursting with multiple expressions. Determined to become 'normal' like the other emojis, Gene enlists the help of his handy best friend Hi-5 (James Corden) and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak (Anna Faris).
Together they embark on an epic 'app-venture' through the apps on the phone, each its own wild and fun world, to find the Code that will fix Gene. But when a greater danger threatens the phone, the fate of all emojis depends on these three unlikely friends who must save their world before it's deleted forever.
Others to round out the cast are Maya Rudolph as Smiler, Steven Wright as Mel Meh, Jennifer Coolidge as Mary Meh, Patrick Stewart as Poop, Christina Aguilera as Akiko Glitter, Sofia Vergara as Flamenca, Rachael Ray as Spam, Sean Hayes as 'Devil' Steven and Tati Gabrielle as Addie.
This was cleverly directed by Tony Leondis ("Igor" '08) plus video shorts. Even though his experience lies only in animated projects, this filmmaker is a consummate pro. His experience is limited, but he knows what he does best and I can certainly respect that. Since this is about emojis, which is about emotions, he was able to get his actors to dig deep to bring out that particular emotion they were responsible for and that's talent. It was effectively written by Leondis, Eric Siegel (TV) and Mike White ("The Good Girl" '02, "School of Rock" '03, "Nacho Libre" '06, "Beatriz at Dinner" '17) based on a story by Leondis and Siegel. As with most other animated films that cater to a wider audience--adults and kids, this is designed for the younger audience ranging averagely from 8-13 years old. It's a cutsie look at the 'life' on the emojis in a smartphone, replete with the typical good guys, bad guys and those in between. Also all younger kids have smartphones and with the bright, colorful format and the quick editing, this is a young kid's film. If there's anything adult about it, it would be the message--about being yourself and not necessarily following the 'normal'. If I was to akin this with any other film, it would be "Inside Out" '15, for this is about different emojis with different emotions vying for the attention of Alex, the owner of the smartphone, whereas "Inside Out" is about the different emotions inside a young girl vying to be the one that will appear depending the situation the girl gets caught in. Otherwise this is where the similarity ends. Clearly White has the lion's share of the experience here in the writing, but it was clearly a team effort, especially considering White doesn't typically write animated work. There was a bit of jumping around in script and there were places that were too loose, but the message that was eventually conveyed ultimately saved this script.
If you're a kid and your smartphone is your life, this film is definitely preaching to the choir, but if you're like me and you're much older and the phone isn't your life--hey, I only found out what an emoji was about a month ago, then this may be something you might want to Netflix.
Out of 4 Stars: 2.5 Rated: PG 91min--plus 5min short "Puppy"
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