Last Modified: 02/08/2017
Human beings have never been more connected. With the smartphone, we are never out of touch from each other – and constantly in touch with people around the world. And with a simple invention, we are now able to communicate with people who are separated from us by language, borders, oceans…
…after all, everyone knows what 😃 means.
At the centre of The Emoji Movie is – no surprise – a phone, belonging to a teenage boy named Alex. And at the centre of his phone is Textopolis, where all emojis live. Textopolis is a hustling, bustling community 🌇 that serves only one purpose: to help Alex communicate. They wake up in the morning, go to their jobs, and each emoji has a central and very important role to play.
In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression - the single emotion that they are meant to express. No matter how they might be feeling inside, Smiler’s always got to be smiling, Crier always has to cry even if he just won the lottery, and Christmas Tree has got to be… Christmassy 🎄.
There is one exception, though. Gene, an exuberant 😜 emoji, was born without a filter and is bursting with multiple expressions 😂😡😱😍. Determined to become ‘normal’ like the other emojis, Gene gets help from his handy best friend Hi-5 and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak.
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.
In a world populated by emojis only expressing one emotion, an emoji with every expression would be very threatening. Not coincidentally, in our world, being different is sometimes threatening to other people.
Gene feels like he’s broken – not just different, but broken – and could be fixed somehow. As he goes on this journey to ‘fix’ himself, he realises that he’s not broken at all – the thing that makes him different makes him stronger.
Gene’s journey has real-world complications. Alex has been trying to get the courage to text a girl he likes – and if he doesn’t send the right emoji, it could spoil his chances forever. When Gene’s journey puts the phone on the blink, Alex starts to believe that the only solution is to wipe his phone… and everyone in it.
Gene and Alex’s journeys mirror each other. It’s about a boy who’s trying to express himself to a girl, but doesn’t feel free enough to express his emotions. Gene has all of these emotions but he’s told to suppress them, so he doesn’t know how to express his emotions either.
Gene’s journey takes him through several of the world’s most popular apps – including Candy Crush Saga, Dropbox, Instagram, Just Dance, Spotify, Twitter, WeChat, and YouTube – with each app becoming its own distinct world as the three emojis make their way to The Cloud. Popular apps Crackle, Facebook, Shazam, Snapchat, and Twitch also appear in the movie.
Characters:
Gene is a ‘meh’ emoji, which means he’s supposed to be disinterested and always have that “meh, who cares, I’m over it” expression on his face all the time. But Gene doesn’t always feel meh, so he ends up with the wrong expression on his face pretty often, and this is quite scandalous in Textopolis.
Hi-5 is an open-face palm Emoji ready to give you a Hi-5 at any time! Hi-5 used to be a favourite, a highly respected celebrity. But recently Hi-5 has been usurped by a new Favorite… Fist Bump Emoji. Hi-5 can’t stand the rejection and just wants to be popular again.
She is a tough, blue-haired, code-breaking Emoji. Jailbreak is the only emoji in the movie who knows anything about computers. She dreams of someday leaving the Phone and living in the Cloud, a legendary world where she can live her life by her own rules.
She is the original emoji and the boss of Textopolis. She always has a huge grin plastered on her face, and is incredibly evil. Smiler wants to ensure all expression emojis follow the one simple rule – have one expression and one expression only.
Poop is one of the most popular Emojis, and it’s a position he takes very seriously. With his upper-class accent, toilet paper bow tie, and penchant for wearing a little too much cologne, Poop carries himself proudly and often doesn’t realise he’s the butt of others’ jokes (someone who is laughed at).
Alex is a teenage boy – and it’s his phone is the home for our emoji heroes as they help him communicate. Alex has been trying to get the courage to text a girl he likes, and if he doesn’t send the right emoji, it could spoil his chances forever.