I previewed the movie last week and I thought it was smart and funny. And also relevant as everyone with a cell phone has run across an emoji, but who ever thought to look beyond the screen and wonder what their world must be like!
The Emoji Movie unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone’s user. In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression – except for Gene (T.J. Miller), an exuberant emoji who was born without a filter and is bursting with multiple expressions. Determined to become “normal” like the other emojis, Gene enlists the help of his handy best friend Hi-5 (James Corden) and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak (Anna Faris). Together, they embark on an epic “app-venture” through the apps on the phone, each its own wild and fun world, to find the Code that will fix Gene. But when a greater danger threatens the phone, the fate of all emojis depends on these three unlikely friends who must save their world before it’s deleted forever.
The Emoji Movie features the voices of T.J. Miller (click for that interview), James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin (click for that interview), Christina Aguilera, Sofia Vergara and Sir Patrick Stewart. The film is directed by Tony Leondis, produced by Michelle Raimo Kouyate, and screenplay by Tony Leondis & Eric Siegel and Mike White from a story by Tony Leondis & Eric Siegel. “emoji”™ is a trademark of emoji company GmbH used under license.
And we met Smiler!
Maya Rudolph is such a sweet lady, she is the perfect Smiler!
And even before she said it, I knew that in order to get the true feeling of Smiler across to the audience, Maya was smiling in that sound booth until her cheeks hurt! That’s how these animators bring such a fantastic film to the big screen, they use the actor’s facial expressions as well as their voices to bring the characters to life. Smiling that much has go to hurt after awhile!
Maya felt that Smiler’s message was: don’t be yourself, conform, and be a slave to your job. We could see by the end of the movie how that all worked out. Maya played the role wonderfully, she said it was fun to make this smiling character evil, which she sort of is through all of the control issues and smiling face! The challenge was to hear a little anger through the smiling voice! And she loved how serious Smiler too her job: Maya said she took her job three levels too serious, and that was why it was so much fun to play her!
This was the second year in a row we got to interview her and the conversation did get real. We all have kids and we did discuss the issue of electronics and how they have to be monitored if we want to protect our children. This movie mentions a “skin,” something your kid can use to hide the real app underneath. I had no idea.
We also spoke with Director, Tony Leondis and Producer Michelle Raimo. This was my second meeting with Tony, what a nice man, and so happy we enjoyed his movie!
One of the apps in the movie is “Just Dance and Tony shared that they hired a choreographer for T.J. Miller, which I thought was hysterical! They needed his “Gene” character to show all of his emotions, and this was how they accomplished their goal! The whole point is that Gene is supposed to be a “Meh,” and never show emotion, yet that is all he wants to do.
Michelle spoke about how they came up with the idea for the Instagram app to be one of static memories that one will always have.
And then we asked, which Emoji are you! Tony said he was the sunglasses emoji because now that the film was done he was relaxed, and Michelle said she was the hysterical laughter emoji, good to know!
Here we are trying not to block the movie poster!
All the voice actors did a terrific job, and all were funny, especially my favorite, James Corden. I love how the app world in your cellphone was imagined by this talented production staff, and I think this movie is funny and entertaining for all ages!
Click for more on the Emoji Movie, and take everyone to see it his weekend! Click here to buy your tickets on Fandango.com!
Lastly, can you pick the celebrity and match them with their character in the movie? Leave me a comment!
I am really looking forward to this movie. My kids love a good animation and this looks cute.
This looks like a fun and cute movie for the family to enjoy.