The Emoji Movie

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About

The Emoji Movie is a 2017 computer-animated film centering around anthropomorphic Emoji characters. The movie, released on July 28, 2017, is directed by Tony Leondis, animated by Sony Pictures Animation and starring T. J. Miller as Gene, Anna Faris as Jailbreak, James Corden as Hi-5, and Patrick Stewart as Poop.^[1]^[2] Before and upon its release, the movie was roundly panned by both critics and moviegoers alike for its perceived bland characters, blatant product placement, banal humor (or lack thereof), and overall laziness.

Origin

On July 21st, 2015, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation had won a bidding war against Warner Bros and Paramount Pictures to produce an animated emoji film based on the script by Eric Siegel and Tony Leondis. At the 2016 CinemaCon, the film was officially announced, revealing that it would be set in the digital world of a smartphone. In July 2016, T. J. Miller was announced as protagonist Emoji Gene in a tweet by Sony Pictures Animation on World Emoji Day. In October 2016, it was announced that Ilana Glazer and James Corden will be joining the cast. In December 2016, the film's title was renamed from Emojimovie: Express Yourself to The Emoji Movie. On December 20, 2016, a teaser trailer for the film was released (shown below).

On January 18th, 2017, @SonyPictures^[6] tweeted that Patrick Stewart had been cast as the voice of the Poop Emoji (shown below).

On May 5th, 2017, four trailers with the characters from the film Gene (shown below right), Poop (shown below left), Hi-5 and Smiler were uploaded on YouTube by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

On May 16th, 2017, an official trailer was uploaded on YouTube by Sony Pictures Entertainment as it received +70k thumbs-down ratings (shown below).

On July 10th, 2017, an sneak-peak of the scene opening was uploaded on YouTube by Sony Pictures Entertainment (shown below).

Online Presence

On September 9th, a Facebook^[10] page titled "The Emoji Movie" was created, garnering more than 11,800 likes over the next year. On October 10th, the /r/theemojimovie^[4] subreddit was launched for discussions about the upcoming film. On January 1st, 2017, promotional copy for the film was posted to the /r/copypasta^[5] subreddit.

Reception

Since the film's announcement, many have mocked the premise for being cheesy and contrived. On October 10th, 2016, Redditor ArmVanDam submitted a post mocking a promotional image for the film to /r/FellowKids,^[7] which gained more than 7,500 votes (93% upvoted) and 730 comments within four months. On December 21st, Redditor zzzackk posted a two-pane image of an Emoji Movie poster above a picture of a man hanging himself to /r/dankmemes (shown below, left). Two days later, a the Sadchan Facebook page posted another two-pane image of the movie poster with the caption "There's no way 2017 can be any wor-" (shown below, right).

Also on December 23rd, YouTuber LeafyIsHere uploaded a video titled "The Emoji Movie… (Yes Its Really That Bad)", which accused the film of being "cancerous" (shown right below). Over the next two months, the video gained upwards of 1.4 million views and 15,100 comments. On January 1st, 2017, The Inquisitr^[11] reporter that the trailer for the upcoming film had received more than 57,900 thumbs-down ratings. After in May 21st, 2017, UltimatePeaceWalker upload a video on YouTube of Vinny reaction to the trailer (shown left below).

Release

On July 21st, 2017, YouTuber Jacksfilms uploaded a video in which he unboxes an invitation to The Emoji Movie world premiere (shown below). Within one week, the video gained over 2.01 million views and 16,800 comments. That day, the video reached the front page of /r/videos.^[12]

On July 27th, one day prior to its release, the film held a rating of 0% on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes (shown below).^[13] Meanwhile, a "Review Megathread" for the film was created on the /r/movies^[14] subreddit, cataloging many of the negative reviews directed toward the film. Additionally, Vox^[15] released a review titled "Do not see The Emoji Movie." The following day, the film was released in theaters, leading the review score on Rotten Tomatoes to climb up to 3%; it is currently at 9%.

That day, Jacksfilms released his review of the film, in which he sarcastically praised the film as if it were a PC game running at 120 fps (shown below).

Saudi Arabia Lifts Cinema Ban

In December of 2017, the country of Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year ban on commercial cinema by screening The Emoji Movie and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.^[16] The films were screened in a makeshift theater at the state-run cultural hall in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with a red carpet and popcorn machine. Reuters reports the first permanent theaters in Saudi Arabia could be open as early as March of 2018. Reuters did not receive commentary reviewing the film, but did note that the attendants were very happy to be seeing films in a theater.

The story was covered by The Verge.^[17] On Reddit, a thread about the news posted to /r/Movies gained over 84,000 upvotes.^[18] Tweets about the news posted to /r/dankmemes^[19] and /r/memes^[20] gained over 4,100 upvotes and 72 upvotes, respectively.

38th Razzie Award

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The Wrong Face

The Wrong Face is a memorable line and joke from the computer generated animated feature film The Emoji Movie trailer. In the film, an emoji character named Gene is selected by a user, but he does not create the correct face, which confuses the user and sends him to the unused emoji holding area. The moment has since become a popular catchphrase, inspiring a series of YouTube remixes.