5 Ways to Prep: The Emoji Movie

By George Rose

July 31, 2017

Even the voice actors don't know what's going on in this scene.

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4) Inside Out (2015)

Now, this is an Oscar winning animated movie that deserved to win. Emojis aren’t websites, games or toys like the last three recommendations. They are visual icons we use to communicate online with one another that help represent our emotions. Feelings like happiness, anger, sadness, fear and disgust all have their own emoji that is quicker to text and faster to read than the right words needed to convey your emotions. Emotions are very deep and complicated, so much so that if each one was a person in a room it would make for a very interesting experience. One would hope those vastly different but equally necessary emotions was able to have a civil conversation and not start a war. Because war is boring. Like Dunkirk.

Well, my friends, I have a treat for you. A movie about five emotions living in your brain actually exists! It’s called Inside Out and it’s from Pixar and it’s perfect. It’s just so wonderful and smart and funny and I just love it so much. Animated movies have the ability to seamlessly incorporate visuals that don’t seem artificially inserted with CGI and the brain has endless visual potential. What Pixar achieved here is nothing short of astonishing. I cry to the point of snot running down my face every time I see that little runaway girl cry in the arms of her parents as her brain creates its first hybrid emotional memory. I doubt the Emoji Movie is shooting for the heights Pixar pulls off with ease, but Inside Out proves you can make movies about emotions.




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5) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

If you’re still doubting the potential that the Emoji Movie has to be even mildly entertaining (which, again, still makes it more worth your money to see on the big screen than Dunkirk), then remember this final recommendation. Emojis aren’t websites, games, toys or deep emotions. They also aren’t a classic kids book that I remember fondly from childhood, which again means they aren’t nostalgic like I mentioned earlier. This movie fits wells as my last chance to help sell the ultra simple concept of text icons, because Cloudy was able to turn a 30-page picture book about food that rains down from above into an hour and a half long movie. And that tiny kids book that turned into a short kids movie was one of the best times I had at the theater in 2009.

I was in my mid-twenties and I snuck beer into the theater with my friend, Marta. She was nervous and thought we’d get in trouble or, worse, judged by the theoretically respectable parents that brought their noisy offspring with them. I pointed out this cute and quaint little family and told her there was a good chance the mom was banging her tennis instructor, the dad was secretly gay and the small boy was probably tripping balls on Adderall because it’s the new millennium and nobody is allowed to hit their bratty children anymore.

The point is you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Movies about raining food turned out to be hilarious and clever and as much for adults as it was for kids. Animated movies are fun for the family and that’s what I’m all about this week, having fun. So screw the Oscars (they don’t always get it right anyway) and screw Dunkirk (it definitely got it wrong). Grab a six-pack and go see the stupid kids movie about emojis. The worst that could happen is seeing Dunkirk instead.


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