If we take a moment to look back at movies that launched ideas for others, I’d like to take a moment to blame Toy Story for bringing toys alive and for Inside Out for making me care about my inner feelings. Fresh out of brilliant ideas for animated movies, someone somewhere said we deserved a Hotel Transylvania short and a movie about the feelings of the little emojis in our countless messaging apps. Have you ever wondered what these guys do while your phone is off? Yeah I didn’t either and after watching this, I probably still won’t. I promise not to hate so much, but this could have been a fantastic idea, if it had been done right. I hated Wreck it Ralph, despite the huge success of a film about life inside an arcade game. The Emoji movie follows the same formula, while taking the poop Emoji and dumping it on our lap. We are briskly taken through a story that is hard to get into, even for kids. Characters are introduced so quickly and without merit that even the stereotypical “bad guy” is put together all wrong. You may chuckle once or twice at the poop related puns, but you’ll want to bang your head against the wall more than anything as a pointless story comes to its conclusion. I kinda feel bad that so many talented people would get on board with this film, because they had to have read the story beforehand right? Who actually thought that this movie would enjoyable or even watchable? TJ Miller is known for playing some off beat crazy characters, but this may be the lowest he’s ever sunk. No one is gonna remember The Emoji Movie because it’s a little bit of everything that we have already seen a dozen times before. As I always point out, some movies could have and should have been better than the final product, and this film will fall deep into the bottom of that category. Save yourself a headache, save your money, and wait for a better animated movie to bring the kids to.
star rating: 1/10
Ten Stars or Less 