By: Julia Xia; Staff Writer
When someone asks the question “what movie is the best?” Many people would immediately respond with Pride and Prejudice or Endgame, but one movie many people seem to forget about is the Emoji Movie. This movie seems to get a lot of hate only getting 6% rotten tomatoes, but this can be quickly discredited because of the personal vendetta they had against Tony Leondis. The main character, Gene, is part of the ‘meh’ emoji family. From the minute he was born his parents and the rest of the emojis already decided that he would become a ‘meh’ emoji. Because of society’s impact on the way he sees himself he begins to think that the only way of him to succeed is to become ‘normal’ and only experience one emotion.But as Gene countries on his adventure with his friends Hi-5 and Jailbreak he slowly realizes he wants to be more than just the ‘meh’ emoji and that just because he can feel more than one emotion it doesn’t mean he’s different or needs to try any harder to be accepted by society.
One reason why the movie seems to get criticism is its jokes. Many people say they’re ‘unfunny’ or ‘overused’ but the jokes in the movie are actually pretty funny when you show the targeted audience. Since the audience of the movie is kids of course the jokes are going to be pretty surface level and not overly complicated. The thing is, most kids’ movies try to make these types of surface level jokes but they don;t always land the way the creators intended them to. The Emoji movie is the exception. This movie is able to take any situation and create some funny jokes to go along with it, they also use the emojis appearances as funny punchlines. Older viewers need to realize that most of the humor was’t targeted to them but to kids, so it’s understandable why they would understand a lot of it.
Many people seem to hate the masterpiece because it doesn’t stand out. It also seems like a rip off of the movies Wreck-it Ralph, Inside-Out, and The Lego Movie, The characters have similar characteristics and the storyline is something we’ve seen before countless times, but perhaps the true meaning of the movie was overshadowed because of the lack of philosophical knowledge students receive in the American education system. In reality the movie teaches its young audience that they don’t need to fit into the standards society has already set for them, they are allowed to explore the different sides to their personalities and the writers use emojis as a relatable reason to connect with the audience .
Many kids grow up with parents who have already planned out what they want their children to be when they grow up. Whether it’s to be a doctor or major in a specific subject in college. Oftentimes children feel like their life has already been planned out from the start and they have no control over it. Since Gene(the main character) also feels this way many kids can find comfort in him and feel like they’re not alone.
In the end it really does come down to personal opinions but you do have to realize that the movie does teach kids a lot about their personal identity and that they are their own person, not their parents or societies.
