Before the breakthrough with the Spider-Vers Films, Sony Pictures Animation was not widely known for its quality seal. On the contrary, outside Cloudy with a chance of meatballsthe underestimated Surf’s Upand the first Hotel Transylvaniatheir early career leaves much to be desired. But nothing they have done is anywhere near as notorious as Emoji – The Movie was a hit immediately after its release in 2017. To this day It is the only animated film to win the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Film.and it is almost unanimously considered one of the worst films of the medium ever made. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a critics’ score of 6% and an audience score of 36%, a rare case of both sides agreeing, although in this case the dismal reviews did not deter families from going to the theater.

But comebacks can come from the most unexpected places. Despite all the adversities, this week Netflix Diagrams presented Emoji – The Movie as the service’s most streamed film in the United States, displacing a crowd that was driven by animated films such as The Lorax And Trolls join forcesBut how has such a notorious film been so surprisingly successful recently? And does it live up to its toxic reputation, or has the hate been exaggerated (even if just a little)?

Emoji – The Movie

Release date

28 July 2017

director

Tony Leondis

Duration

1 hour 26 minutes

Authors

Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, Mike White, John Hoffman

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Is the Emoji Movie really that bad?

The short answer is: Yes, Emoji – The Movie was actually so bad. It is difficult to say definitively whether it is actually the worst animated film of all time (remember, it is part of a crowded field that includes greats like Doogal, Pinocchio: A True StoryAnd Food fight). But it’s hard to deny that it’s a stunningly cynical work that seems convinced that children will watch anything put in front of them, regardless of quality. Its laziness is clear from the very first scene, where emojis are described as “the most important form of communication ever”. What about the telephone, the written word or face-to-face conversation?

The plot makes little effort to hide its liberal theft from people like The LEGO Movie or Ralph has had enoughfocusing on Gene (TJ Miller), a “meh” emoji who is unique among his kind in that he can make multiple facial expressions. For some reason, this makes him ostracized by those around him (when the owner of the phone selects him for a text message, he starts to believe that his phone is not working properly), so Gene takes a journey to become a “normal” emoji before his digital city is reset.

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On his journey, Gene is accompanied by a hand emoji, Hi-5 (James Corden) and Jailbreak (Anna Farris), a hacker whose backstory in the film is particularly blatant. Ralph has had enough Plagiarism. Gene’s journey culminates in a sloppy message about the importance of staying true to yourself, but even this feels half-hearted and tacked onto the final scenes, as if the filmmakers were making one last attempt to convince viewers that their time wasn’t completely wasted (which it was).

But perhaps the worst thing about Emoji – The Movie is how obvious it feels more like an advertisement than a real movie. Much of the runtime is filled with product placement for Dropbox, Spotify, etc., and an entire set piece takes place inside Crush candy. In contrast, The LEGO Movie overcame this hurdle because it dealt directly with the material already there and had compelling characters and thematic ideas, all of which helped make it one of the slyest, most subversive comedies of the 2010s. Emoji – The Movie never deals with its intellectual property for any reason other than advertising to children (many of whom probably don’t even know what Spotify is), and as such, it is exactly the film many feared The LEGO Movie were.

The Emoji Movie proves that you should never underestimate the popularity of animations

All this said, it is not complete surprising that Emoji – The Movie would have somewhat delayed success on streaming (worse films have arguably achieved the same feat). It is incredibly telling that this week’s Netflix charts were dominated by animations, like The Lorax, Trolls join forcesand the youngest Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. With summer drawing to a close, it’s understandable that kids across the country are still looking to get their TV viewing needs met before heading back to school. Of course, there’s also the question of how reliable Netflix’s top 10 really is with their algorithm, but audiences have no choice but to accept them as they are.

The more important finding, however, is one that has been proven time and again in recent years: Animation is still a highly underestimated medium in the industry. Consider how dominant animated films have been at the box office lately; Puss in Boots – The Last Wish And Minions – In search of the mini boss were both among the highest-grossing films of 2022 and last year only Barbie grossed more than The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This summer Inside Out 2On its opening weekend, the film grossed almost twice as much as expected, making it the highest-grossing film of the summer.

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Considering how consistently successful animated films have been post-pandemic, it is clear that children currently make up an important part of moviegoers. This is only made clear by the fact that streaming keeps these films viable even after their theatrical release. This does not mean that we should reward success for films that seem to disdain the intelligence of children; works like Toy history And Into the Spider-Verse prove that children deserve the best we can give them, not the worst. In a review by Roger EbertPeter Sobczynski writes:

Doesn’t matter, Emoji – The MovieThe recent success of proves that children’s entertainment will always be a viable market, especially on Netflix. Considering that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been on Netflix for months, families probably want to see something new. At least this is a more justified reason for a bad movie to become popular on streaming than on Red warningwhich somehow became the service’s most-watched film in history, despite seemingly appealing to no one.

The Emoji Movie is still not worth a second look

After all this, Emoji – The Movie is still terrible from top to bottom and it certainly deserves its Golden Raspberry. In theory it could keep a child entertained and occupied for an hour and a half, but there are so many better films that could achieve the same thing. Inside Out 2 is finally coming out digitally next week and will undoubtedly offer a more rewarding viewing experience for children, while also appealing to adults. Emoji – The Movie is now streaming on Netflix.