Not a flop after all

The Emoji Movie brings up important life lessons

The Emoji Movie recently won the Razzies for Worst Picture of 2018. That’s unjustified. Fifty Shades Freed lost to this?

Whoever nominated this film for worst picture doesn’t realize the important life lessons it gives the younger audience, and how culturally relevant it is to 2018.

This movie was released in theaters last July, and now is available for everyone to watch on Netflix. It’s gotten mixed reviews, but ever since I watched the film it has found a special place in my heart. It is far from the worst picture of 2018.

The Emoji Movie takes users into the life of a smartphone, and makes them think about how everything really works. The story takes place in Textopolis, where all the emojis live, and they all act like the emoji they were designed to be. The main character Gene is a “meh” emoji who has always wanted to work as an emoji for the user, Alex.

Gene isn’t programmed correctly and doesn’t blend into society because he can’t control his emotions of just being “meh” all the time. It’s his first day on the job and Gene’s actions get him into trouble when he messes up Alex’s text, ruins ­­the text center completely, and has Alex considering erasing his phone.

This leaves Textopolis on edge. Smiler, the very first emoji, decides to send out bots to delete Gene from the phone completely. Wanting to be like everyone else, Gene runs away with his friend Highfive and they travel outside of Textopolis into the smartphone to get reprogrammed correctly by a hacker named Jailbreak.

The smartphone adventure is a crazy one, taking the audience into the apps of Candy Crush, YouTube, Just Dance, Spotify, Instagram and many others. They are brought to life with the animation and appropriate humor for entertainment purposes.

The film did a great job picking popular apps among phone users in this day and age, especially for the younger age demographic the film leaned toward.

The film also has certain themes that resonate with viewers. One specific theme I noticed while watching this movie is that it addresses how society now relies on cell phones for communication, which have taken over our lives.

Alex, the phone’s user, keeps trying to impress his crush, Adie, at school through texting. The film rarely shows face to face interactions between these two characters. The way the film cleverly addresses this problem in society is genius.

The Emoji Movie also proves it’s okay to be yourself. It’s okay to be different. It’s important for a younger audience to watch this film because it teaches them being different is okay.

Not only that, I love myself a good poop joke. The poop emoji characters are hilarious. The audience can’t help but giggle when the emojis leave the restroom and laugh, saying “Should we wash our hands?” These jokes may be corny, but they work and make the movie more lighthearted.

So, log on to Netflix and turn on this animated film — you’re promised some poop jokes and great entertainment.

Lindsay Trombly can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ lindsay_trombly

Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.