‘Emoji’ sends meh-sage
I give “The Emoji Movie” two poop emojis.
As someone who finds the use of emojis unwelcome, I was probably not the right person to review a film featuring waking, talking, anthropomorphic emojis and a protagonist who is a misfit “meh” emoji with the voice of T.J. Miller of “Silicon Valley.” Having confessed all that, the film, which is preceded by the short “Puppy!” featuring characters from the “Hotel Transylvania” series, is a complete bore.
I realize that “The Lego Movie” made a fortune and an “Angry Birds” movie I have never seen also made a lot of money. But I have my doubts about this secondrate emoji film’s chances.
At any rate, the film tells the tale of Gene (Miller), a young emoji who breaks the rules of emoji-land by being capable of making lots of other faces besides the one he was assigned.
If this sounds like a fable ready for the age of children who want to be whatever they want to be, all I can say in terms of this film is, “Yeah, whatever.” Gene almost destroys the “set” on which emojis stand in cubes (Is it “Emoji Hollywood Squares?”), waiting to be scanned and sent from the phone of a boy named Alex (Jake T. Austin) to the girl at school he likes named Addie (Tati Gabrielle),
Gene is labeled a “malfunction” by the scanning operation boss Smiler (Maya Rudolph, who sounds like a complete psycho and is the film’s only saving grace). Gene is also scheduled by the lunatic Smiler, who commands a platoon of armed, enforcer bots, to be “deleted.”
Among Gene’s fellow emojis are his “meh” parents, Mel (Steven Wright) and Mary (Jennifer Coolidge); Poop (Patrick Stewart, hamstrung by the lamest jokes imaginable such as the chant, “We’re number 2”); Akiko Glitter (Christina Aguilera); Flamenca (Sofia Vergara); Spam (a more-annoying-than-usual Rachael Ray); and Devil (Sean Hayes, also wasted).
In order to find a solution and not be deleted, Gene meets up with a mysterious unorthodox character named Jailbreak (Anna Faris, wasted). He also teams up with fellow misfit Hi-5 (James Corden, game but also restricted by the material). The three new friends then journey together through Alex’s phone (the firewall, the wallpaper, the trash, etc.).
Almost all the music in the film sounds like disco, and I don’t think the “Emoji Pop” dance is going to catch on.
I may not have been the right person to appreciate “The Emoji Movie,” but the parents and young children I saw it with were not very excited by it, either.
“The Emoji Movie” was directed by Tony Leondis (“Igor”) and written by Leondis and TV veteran Eric Siegel. All I can say is: unhappy face.
(“The Emoji Movie” contains rude humor, scary situations and scenes in which we are invited to laugh at a character being repeatedly burned.)