The bustling city of Textopolis lies hidden in your
smartphone, waiting to help you communicate. Each app is its own little world;
Textopolis is made up of the emojis that live in your text app. One of the
emojis, a young “meh” face named Gene, is very excited for his first day on the
job, but he gets nervous and causes a disaster that leads their phone owner to
decide to erase his phone. In an attempt to save their world, one of the emojis
attempts to have Gene deleted, which sends him into flight.
All the emojis are supposed to have one face, one emotion,
and one thing that they do very well. Gene feels multiple emotions and shows
multiple faces, which a leading emoji believes is a malfunction. The other emojis
eventually see the value in Gene’s range of expressions when Gene is able to
create a unique emoji to help the phone’s owner (a preteen boy) communicate his
complicated feelings of shyness and interest to his crush.
The Adoption
Connection
There is no adoption connection in the movie. The film does
highlight the value of different and complex emotions, and that could be helpful
for kids who have a hard time owning and expressing their feelings. Inside Out did
it better, and with more complexity, but if your kids are begging to see the
Emoji Movie, you could put it to some degree of good use. (In Inside Out, a
character’s emotions help her navigate her feelings of ambivalence after moving
to a new state; in The Emoji Movie, a character’s emojis help him tell a girl
that he likes her).
Strong Points
Gene’s parents love him even when he falls out of favor with
the community.
Gene’s unique emotions are a positive, not a negative.
Girls aren’t limited to being princesses and brides; they
can be computer geniuses, too.
A character acknowledges that “looking out for number one” isn’t
so great if there aren’t any other numbers – we need each other.
Gene’s dad is eventually able to express his loving emotions
towards Gene.
Challenges
The animated short before the movie features a very large
dog who pees a lot.
Gene’s parents do care about him, but his mom has a hard time
showing it because she is a “meh” emoji and is unable to express any emotions
other than a vague disinterest. Her words convey her true feelings of concern,
but they’re not matched by her tone or facial expressions.
A leading emoji basically tries to kill Gene; their whole
world is nearly destroyed when their owner tries to erase his phone.
One of the emojis is cruel; she hopes to delete Gene in
front of everyone.
Gene sees his parents deleted; they are quickly restored,
however.
Recommendations
You know how some board games have an app version, and how
the app version is sort of like the real thing, but not quite as good? So, this
movie is kind of the app version of Inside Out. It’s got a similar message
about the value of emotions (and anthropomorphized emotions; and a memory dump
place; and a forgotten old favorite), but it’s not as strong, not as far
reaching, and not as well done. This movie isn’t as bad as its reputation; it’s
just not great. There are plenty of nods to today’s culture that might appeal
to preteens, and some of the concepts seem helpful for the age: your emotions
are all valid; you might be ready for things that your parents might not think
you’re ready for; failing doesn’t mean you’re a failure; people “knowing” you
is different from people “liking” you on Facebook (that one isn’t really
unpacked); parental love is dependable. This one should be OK for kids ages
7-11 or so.
Questions for
Discussion
What are your favorite emojis?
If you had to be an emoji, what would be your top 3 picks?
What do you want to be?
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