In today’s wired generation where smartphones have infiltrated every aspect of our daily lives, it is not at all surprising that an animated film about emojis- small pictorial icons used to express an emotion or idea in text messages- would eventually hit the market. That emojis have become synonymous with the way we communicate online, replacing our capacity for traditional words and evolving into a language of their own altogether, is the very basis for which The Emoji Movie was created on.

The Emoji Movie is set in Textopolis, a digital city contained within the smartphone of a teenage boy named Alex. Textopolis is home to all kinds of emojis, each who serve the purpose of conveying just a single expression, but this is a problem for Gene, a “meh” emoji who is unable to contain his multiple facial expressions. After he screws up on his first day at work, Gene embarks on a quest to fix himself and become “normal”, teaming up with once-popular emoji Hi-5, who now lies at the bottom of the emoji ranking, and a mysterious female hacker named Jailbreak.   

Audiences might inevitably compare The Emoji Movie to the critically and commercially acclaimed Pixar hit Inside Out, where emotions are similarly personified, but to do so would be asking for immediate disappointment. The Emoji Movie comes nowhere close to replicating Inside Out’s heartwarming complexity, though it tries to, and its messages on the importance of being yourself and not conforming to societal norms are superficially delivered.

But aside from the blatant product placement- Spotify, Dropbox, Candy Crush, to name a few- and The Emoji Movie does offer some genuinely witty gags for tech-savvy millennials, who would be sure to get the many ubiquitous technological references. For example, the computer malware virus Trojan Horse is amusingly reimagined as – you guessed it, a real walking wooden Trojan horse- while the dreaded firewall network emerges in the form of an actual blazing, menacing wall of flames.

Kids below the ages of 15 should be entertained by the film’s boisterous, colourful and stylised techno-landscape, with emojis taking on a life of their own- cue cute tiny shrimp emojis jumping into a bowl of sauce, or the literal toilet humour courtesy of walking poop emojis. Some of the best laugh-out-loud lines are delivered by the smooth-talking Hi-5, a chubby squealing hand. For a runtime of 90 minutes, The Emoji Movie does its job as a mindless, visually entertaining sugary treat for youngsters looking for a quick adrenaline rush.

2.5/5 stars

By Paige Lim

Photocredit @ Sony Pictures Entertainment