The Emoji Movie | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tony Leondis |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Based on | Emojis |
Produced by | Michelle Raimo Kouyate |
Starring | |
Edited by | William J. Caparella |
Music by | Patrick Doyle |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 86 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $50 million [2] |
Box office | $217.8 million [3] |
The Emoji Movie is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Tony Leondis from a screenplay he co-wrote with Eric Siegel and Mike White, based on a story by Leondis and Siegel. It stars the voices of T.J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin, Christina Aguilera, Sofía Vergara, Sean Hayes, and Sir Patrick Stewart. Based on emojis, the film centers on a multi-expressional emoji, Gene (Miller), who exists in a digital city called Textopolis, for a smartphone owned by Alex (Austin), embarking on a journey to become a normal emoji capable of only a single expression, accompanied by his friends, Hi-5 (Corden) and Jailbreak (Faris). During their travels through the other apps, the trio must save their world from total destruction before it is reset for functionality.
Inspired by Leondis' love of Toy Story (1995), the film was fast tracked into production in July 2015 after the bidding war and the project was officially announced in April 2016, originally titled EmojiMovie: Express Yourself. Most of the lead cast members were hired throughout the rest of the year. The Emoji Movie had a production time of two years, shorter than most other animated films. The marketing of the film drew a negative response from the public and an internet backlash, before the film's release.
The Emoji Movie premiered on July 23, 2017, at the Regency Village Theatre and was theatrically released in the United States on July 28. It was a commercial success, grossing over $217 million worldwide against a $50 million production budget. However, the film was panned by critics, who criticized its script, humor, use of product placement, [4] tone, voice performances, lack of originality, and plot, with negative comparisons to other animated films such as Wreck-It Ralph (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), and Inside Out (2015). [5] The Emoji Movie was nominated for five awards at the 38th Golden Raspberry Awards, a parody award show honoring the worst of cinema, winning four. It is the first animated film to win in any of those categories. [6] It is frequently ranked as the worst film of 2017, as well as one of the worst animated films ever made. [7]
Gene is an emoji that lives in Textopolis, a digital city inside the smartphone of a middle school student, Alex. He is the son of two meh emojis named Mel and Mary and is able to make multiple expressions despite his parents' upbringing. His parents are hesitant about him going to work, but Gene insists so that he can feel useful. Upon receiving a text from his love interest Addie McCallister, Alex decides to send her an emoji. Gene is selected, who unintentionally makes a panicked expression and wrecks the text center. He is called in by Smiler, a smiley emoji and leader of the text center, who concludes that Gene is a "malfunction" and therefore must be deleted. Gene is chased by bots but is rescued by Hi-5, a once-popular emoji who has since lost his fame due to lack of use. Hi-5 tells him that he can be fixed if they find a hacker, thus the two go on an adventure so Gene can reclaim his fame.
Smiler sends more bots to look for Gene when she finds out that he has left Textopolis, as his actions have caused Alex to think that his phone needs to be fixed. Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet a hacker emoji named Jailbreak, who wants to reach Dropbox so that she can live in the cloud. The trio is attacked by Smiler's bots, but manage to escape into the game Candy Crush . Jailbreak reveals that Gene can be fixed in the cloud, and the group goes off into the Just Dance app. While there, Jailbreak is revealed to be a princess emoji who fled home after tiring of being stereotyped. They are once again attacked by bots, and their actions cause Alex to delete the Just Dance app. Gene and Jailbreak escape, but Hi-5 is taken along with the app and ends up in the trash.
Gene's parents, Mel and Mary, go searching for their son and have a very lethargic argument. They make up in the Instagram app when Mel reveals that he, too, is a malfunction, explaining Gene's behavior. While traveling through Spotify, Jailbreak admits that she likes Gene just the way he is and that he should not be ashamed of his malfunction. The two start to fall in love and Gene silently debates his choice to change himself. They make it to the trash and rescue Hi-5, but are soon attacked by a bot upgraded with illegal malware. They evade it by entangling its arms and enter Dropbox, where they encounter a firewall. After many tries, the gang gets past it with a password being Addie's name and make it to the cloud, where Jailbreak prepares to reprogram Gene. Gene admits his feelings for Jailbreak, but she wishes to stick to her plan of venturing into the cloud, unintentionally causing Gene to revert to his apathetic programming out of heartbreak. Suddenly, the upgraded bot sneaks into the cloud and captures Gene, prompting Hi-5 and Jailbreak to go after him with a Twitter (X) bird summoned by Jailbreak in her princess form.
As Smiler prepares to delete Gene, Mel and Mary arrive. Mel reveals to everyone that he is also a malfunction, prompting Smiler to threaten to delete him as well. Jailbreak and Hi-5 arrive and disable the bot, which falls on top of Smiler. Alex has since taken his phone to a store in hopes that a factory reset performed by technical support would restore his phone's functionality, which would entail total destruction of Gene's world should such operation complete. Out of desperation, Gene prepares to have himself texted to Addie, making numerous faces to express himself. Realizing that Addie received a text from him, Alex cancels the factory reset just as it nearly finishes, saving the emoji and finally getting to speak with Addie, who likes the emoji Alex sent. Gene accepts himself for who he is and is celebrated by all of the emojis.
In a mid-credits scene, Smiler has been relegated to the "loser lounge" with the other unused and forgotten emojis for her crimes, wearing numerous braces due to her teeth being chipped by the bot, and playing and losing a game of Go Fish.
The film was inspired by director Tony Leondis' love of Toy Story (1995). [22] Wanting to make a new take on the concept, he began asking himself, "What is the new toy out there that hasn't been explored?" At the same time, Leondis received a text message with an emoji, which helped him realize that this was the world he wanted to explore. [22] In fleshing out the story, Leondis considered having the emojis visit the real world. However, his producer felt that the world inside a phone was much more interesting, which inspired Leondis to create the story of where and how the emojis lived. [22] As Leondis is gay, he connected to Gene's plight of "being different in a world that expects you to be one thing", and in eventually realizing that the feeling held true for most people, Leondis has said the film "was very personal". [22]
In July 2015, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation had won a bidding war against Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures over production rights to make the film, [23] with the official announcement occurring at the 2016 CinemaCon. [24] The film was fast-tracked into production by the studio after the bidding war. Unlike most other animated films, the film had a production time of two years, as there were concerns that the movie would become outdated due to the evolution of phone technology. [25]
On World Emoji Day on July 17, 2016, Miller was announced as the lead. [9] Leondis created the part with Miller in mind, although the actor was initially hesitant to play the role, only accepting after Leondis briefed him on the story. [26] Leondis chose Miller because "when you think of irrepressible, you think of TJ. But he also has this surprising ability to break your heart". [26] In addition, Miller also contributed some re-writes. [27] In October 2016, it was announced that Ilana Glazer and Corden would join the cast as well. [10] Glazer was later replaced by Anna Faris. [12] Jordan Peele stated that he was initially offered the role of "Poop" (a part that would ultimately go to Patrick Stewart), which he said led to his decision to retire from acting. [28]
The film's score was composed by Patrick Doyle, [29] who previously composed the score for Leondis' Igor (2008). [30] Singer Ricky Reed recorded an original song, "Good Vibrations", for the film. [31] While also voicing a character in the film, Christina Aguilera's song "Feel This Moment" was also used during the film. [32]
On December 20, 2016, a teaser trailer for the film was released, which received overwhelming criticism from social media users, [33] collecting almost 22,000 "dislikes" against 4,000 "likes" within the first 24 hours of its release. [34] [8] A second trailer was released on May 16, 2017, which also received an extremely negative reception. [35] [36] Sony promoted the release of the latter trailer by hosting a press conference in Cannes, the day before the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, which featured T.J. Miller parasailing in. [37] Variety called the event "slightly awkward", [38] and The Hollywood Reporter described it as "promotional ridiculousness". [37]
Sony Pictures was later criticized after the film's official Twitter account posted a promotional picture of a parody of The Handmaid's Tale , featuring Smiler. The parody was considered to be "tasteless" due to the overall themes of the work, and the image was deleted afterward. [39] [40]
On July 17, 2017, the Empire State Building was lit "emoji yellow". [41] That same day, director Tony Leondis and producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate joined Jeremy Burge and Jake T. Austin [42] to ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange [43] and Saks Fifth Avenue hosted a promotional emoji red carpet event [44] at its flagship store to promote branded Emoji Movie merchandise. [45] [46]
On July 20, 2017, Sony Pictures invited YouTube personality Jacksfilms to the world premiere and sent him a package containing various Emoji Movie memorabilia including fidget spinners, face masks, and a plushie of the poop emoji. Jacksfilms had sarcastically praised the movie on his YouTube channel four months prior. [47] [48]
The Emoji Movie premiered on July 23, 2017, at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. [49] It was initially scheduled for release on August 11, [50] but was later moved up to August 4, [51] and finally July 28. [52] In theaters, The Emoji Movie was accompanied by the short film Puppy! (2017) [53]
The Emoji Movie was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 24, 2017, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. [54] According to The Numbers, the domestic DVD sales are $8,616,759 and the Blu-ray sales are $6,995,654. [55]
The Emoji Movie grossed $86.1 million in the United States and Canada and $131.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $217.8 million, against a production budget of $50 million. [3]
The film was released on July 28, 2017. [56] The Emoji Movie grossed $10.1 million on its first day, including $900,000 from Thursday night previews. [57] The film debuted at second place behind Dunkirk , grossing $25.7 million from 4,075 theaters. [58] Its second weekend earnings dropped by 50 percent to $12.4 million, [59] and followed by another $6.5 million the third weekend. [60] The Emoji Movie completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on November 30, 2017. [61]
Review embargoes for the film were lifted midday July 27, only a few hours before the film premiered to the general public, in a move considered among several tactics studios are using to try to curb bad Rotten Tomatoes ratings. [62] Speaking of the effect embargoing reviews until last minute had on the film's debut, Josh Greenstein, Sony Pictures president of worldwide marketing and distribution, said, "The Emoji Movie was built for people under 18 ... so we wanted to give the movie its best chance. What other wide release with a score under 8 percent has opened north of $20 million? I don't think there is one." [62]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Emoji Movie has an approval rating of 6% based on 134 professional reviews, with an average rating of 2.9/10. The website's critics' consensus displays a no symbol emoji (🚫) in place of text. [63] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned The Emoji Movie a score of 12 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike", becoming the lowest-rated animated film on the site. [64] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. [56]
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a D, writing: "Make no mistake, The Emoji Movie is very, very, very bad (we're talking about a hyperactive piece of corporate propaganda in which Spotify saves the world and Sir Patrick Stewart voices a living turd), but real life is just too hard to compete with right now." [65] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap was also critical of the film, calling it "a soul-crushing disaster because it lacks humor, wit, ideas, visual style, compelling performances, a point of view or any other distinguishing characteristic that would make it anything but a complete waste of your time". [20]
Glen Kenny of The New York Times described the film as "nakedly idiotic", stating that the film plays off a Hollywood idea that the "panderingly, trendily idiotic can be made to seem less so". [66] Owen Gleiberman of Variety lambasted the film as "hectic situational overkill" and "lazy", writing, "[t]here have been worse ideas, but in this case the execution isn't good enough to bring the notion of an emoji movie to funky, surprising life." [19] Writing in The Guardian , Charles Bramesco called the film "insidious evil" and wrote that it was little more than an exercise in advertising smartphone downloads to children. [67] Reviewers like The Washington Post , The Guardian, the Associated Press, The New Republic , the Hindustan Times also cited the film's negative comparisons and similarities to Inside Out (2015), Toy Story (1995), Foodfight! (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), The Angry Birds Movie (2016), and Bee Movie (2007), among others. [a]
Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times , however, gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Occasionally it's as if The Lego Movie is reaching out a long, friendly arm to Inside Out and falling into the chasm between. But the film is inventive too", [81] while Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the film 4/5 stars, calling it "a rare attempt by Hollywood to come to grips with the online world". [82]
Screen Rant later placed it at #6 of their 10 Terrible Movies You Don't Have to See to Know They're Bad list. [83]
At the 38th Golden Raspberry Awards, The Emoji Movie received a nomination for The Razzie Nominee So Rotten You Loved It; and won Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screen Combo, and Worst Screenplay. [84] It became the first animated film to win in any of those categories, [85] and the third animated film overall to win a Razzie (previously, Kelsey Grammer won the award for Worst Supporting Actor in 2015 for voicing the Tin Man in Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return as well as for his live-action roles in The Expendables 3 , Think Like a Man Too , and Transformers: Age of Extinction , while Thumbelina won the since-retired award for Worst Original Song in 1995 for "Marry the Mole").
Maya Rudolph is an American actress and comedian. Born in Gainesville, Florida, and raised in Los Angeles, she is the daughter of the late singer Minnie Riperton (1947–1979) and composer Richard Rudolph. From 2000 to 2007, Rudolph was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). Her accolades include six Primetime Emmy Awards from fifteen nominations. In 2024, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio is based in Culver City, California. Most of the studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, while direct-to-video releases are released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Todd Joseph Miller is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter. He played Erlich Bachman in the HBO sitcom Silicon Valley (2014–2017) and the Marvel Comics character Weasel in the superhero comedy film Deadpool (2016) and its 2018 sequel.
Anthony Leondis is a Greek–American former animator, filmmaker, and voice actor, known for directing The Emoji Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, Igor, and the unreleased DreamWorks Animation film B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations.
Paramount Animation is an American animation studio, serving as the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount Global. The division was founded on July 6, 2011, following the box office success of Paramount's own Rango and the end of their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2012.
Philip Anderson Lord and Christopher Robert Miller are American filmmakers. They are the creators and co-stars of the adult animated sitcom Clone High, and the writers and directors of the animated films Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and The Lego Movie (2014), as well as the directors of the live-action comedy film 21 Jump Street (2012) and its sequel, 22 Jump Street (2014).
Point Grey (PGP) is a Canadian-American film and television production company, founded in 2011 by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The company is named after Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver, where they met.
Timothy Miller is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing the films Deadpool (2016) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). He is also the creator of the animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots (2019–present), for which he has won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the first animated film in the Spider-Man franchise and the first film in the Spider-Verse franchise, which is set in a shared multiverse of alternate universes called the "Spider-Verse". Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman, it stars Shameik Moore as Morales, alongside the voices of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Vélez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. The film's story follows Miles as he becomes the new Spider-Man and joins other Spider-People from various parallel universes who team up to save New York City from the Kingpin.
Hotel Transylvania is an American media franchise created by Todd Durham and owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. It consists of four animated feature films, three short films, an animated television series, and several video games.
Peter Rabbit is a 2018 comedy film based upon the character of the same name created by Beatrix Potter, co-produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Olive Bridge Entertainment, Animal Logic, 2.0 Entertainment, and Screen Australia, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It was directed by Will Gluck, who also produced the film with Zareh Nalbandian, from a screenplay and story written by Gluck and Rob Lieber. James Corden stars as the voice of the title character, with Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, Sam Neill, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste in live-action roles, as well as the voices of Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, and Margot Robbie. The film's story focuses on Peter Rabbit as he deals with new problems when the late Mr. McGregor's great nephew arrives and discovers the trouble Peter's family can get into.
World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July each year, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji.
Ghost Corps, Inc. is an American production company formed in March 2015 to oversee the Ghostbusters media franchise and as a stock exchange for the Ghostbusters brand. It is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia Pictures and as of January 2021 currently no longer functions as a stock exchange C-Corporation business but is currently still active as a PR office on the Sony Pictures lot maintaining management of its online pages and productions related to the Ghostbusters brand.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. In the film, Parker is recruited by Nick Fury (Jackson) and Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) to face the Elementals while he is on a school trip to Europe.
Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the films are based on various Marvel Comics characters and properties commonly associated with Spider-Man.
Kraven the Hunter is an upcoming American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by J. C. Chandor from a screenplay by Richard Wenk and the writing team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, alongside Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film explores Kraven's complex relationship with his father and his path to becoming the greatest hunter.