History Headscratchers / TheEmojiMovie

* Why is Smiler the villain again? Her motivation seems to simply prevent the extinction of their phone's world. It's not like this movie has a nuanced view on morality, so why is the person trying to save lives the asshole?
** While Gene does screw up when being scanned, that alone did not cause Alex to schedule the appointment. Smiler is the one that attempts to kill him, sending him running which is what leads to him and the others running around the other apps which actually leads to Alex scheduling the appointment. Gene may have ended up seeking help from jailbreak anyway, but if not for Smiler, they could have just walked to dropbox and reprogrammed him to be a true "meh" without setting off the other apps.
** I think the moment that sums up her villainy is when she opts to have Gene ''and'' his father deleted, despite the fact that both of them have already overcome their malfunctions and are just normal emoji at that point. I think that was the moment where even some of the other emoji felt she was going too far.
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist She wanted to murder an innocent Emoji for the sake of saving those people.]] She could have let him find Jailbreak and reprogram himself, or she could have listened to him when he said that it was just a goof. But no, her first instinct was to murder.
*** Yes but she was doing it to save her people. Muder one to save the many.
*** But wasn't Gene's condition fixed at the end, and she ''still'' tried to delete him? That would be like the police dealing with a hostage situation where the instigator has put down his weapon, let the people go, and surrendered himself - the police wouldn't be able to shoot him and then say they were protecting innocent people. The threat was already gone by that point.
*** Yeah all jokes aside about Smiler being the "true hero" of the story, Gene just wants to ''live''. Smiler wants to ''kill him''. The fact that other options (repressing his emotions like his dad did, getting reprogrammed, or just plain ''not being allowed to have a box'') exist and yet she immediately goes for the murderous one are villainous enough.

** How else would the plot drive itself?
** Because all the other emojis will know that he's different and ostracize him. Which they did.
*** Why should they though? Showing more emotions outside of work wouldn't affect anything.
*** I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Different types of emojis aren't actors with specific roles, they're races with their own place in society determined by a caste system. Everyone has their role and they should stay in that role no matter what. Gene is a meh, so he's expected to act like one. Jailbreak was a princess, so she was expected to act like one. So yes, making a different expression than the one you're meant to do wouldn't really affect anything, but doing so would be taboo.

** I haven't seen the movie yet, but after reading the YMMV page (and also spoiling the plot for myself), the answer seems to be...feminism.
*** Not really. If the emojis are supposed to be similar to the human world, as in they have their own lives and homes and families and such, it would be weird if there were no women emojis. In real life emojis don't have a 'gender' - it's a little symbol on a screen, so there's no reason they can't be male or female in the movie. There may be emojis that are 'obviously this is a woman/man making this face' or whatever but something like an eggplant or thumbs up isn't. Plus, it's a marketing issue too - children's movies are usually aimed at all kids, not just boys or girls, so in order to appeal to as many kids as possible they include both male and female characters.

** It would be harder to transfer information from a camera. Also, there could be problems such as blurry images and lens smudges.
*** How would it be harder to transfer? They'd only ever need a single picture of each emoji. Also, those can be prevented.

** They're not immortal. It's been established several times that they age and can be killed.

*** Assuming emojis age the same way humans do. And the phone needs replacements if the last emoji dies. Again; they're not immortal.
*** Or, Alex could transfer his data when he gets a new phone. This creates an exact copy of the world, and the emojis can continue on as if nothing had happened. Because of this, the emojis need to make sure they grow, as they are like people in the smartphone world.

** It's probably just habit at this point.
** He knows it's his job to be a "meh" emoji, so he has no reason to talk differently.

** It could be that he is an UnreliableNarrator who is far too different to truly understand the world of Emojis. Or simply a matter of lazy WorldBuilding on the part of the writers.

* Why was Smiler (the villain) used in the Handmaid's Tale "parody"? Are they implying rape victims are evil control freaks?
** Seems they just made a poorly thought out reference and didn't even think that ''maybe'' joking about a story where women are forcibly raped and used for making children is... bad.
** Perhaps someone thought the idea of a bright, grinning face peering out from the drab oppressive garments was an amusing contrast.

* Why was Steven (the devil emoji) given so much spotlight in the promotional material? He got his own poster, and yet Jailbreak (one of the main characters) didn't.
** Probably because the devil-face is a popular emoji, whereas Jailbreak's "hacker" emoji was invented for the movie. Steven had pop-culture face recognition on his side.

** Emojis can be removed and/or replaced with updates to the phone's software (OS).
** Or, if the phone is jailbroken/rooted (as Alex's is shown to be), this can be done through unofficial modifications.

* Would a princess emoji's parents be a king and queen emoji?
** If not, one would have to assume that their parents would both be princesses? Are there male princess emojis? Is the child of a princess guaranteed to also be a princess?
*** The last speculation sounds the most plausible. Ignoring the PlotHole, Jailbreak explicitly states that female emojis can only be princesses. So I doubt there would be any male ones. And I don't see any King and Queen emojis on my keyboard.

** Probably a TakeThat on behalf of Sony towards all the people who bashes its movies on Youtube (as they are presented as the stereotype of the adult nerd). In-universe is hard to tell, as real life trolls are people and not software, unless they are implying that there are softwares that cause the trolling in the internet in a similar way how Spam works.
*** Maybe they think they're bots?

** Maybe a blackout. I mean, a blackout is when an entire city loses power. When you turn off your phone or if the battery dies, the phone no longer has any power but all the data inside it is just fine.
*** That would imply the phone is on 24/7.
*** Maybe it is. Personally, I ''never'' turn off my phone unless I absolutely ''need'' too. Like if I'm on a plane or need to restart it. In every other occasion I just put it on vibrate or silent, and I don't bother to turn it off whenever I charge it. But that's just assuming Alex's phone habits are similar to mine.
** Probably it's just a prolonged "nighttime".

** Either the filmmakers just swept that logic aside so that there could be a happy ending, or they have no idea how technology works.
** Maybe it isn't even set in our ages, it's subtly implied to be set somewhere / sometime (Centuries, which is the most likely one, due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law the Moore's law]]) where much more developed technology could've been made, in which the smartphone could've had the power of a current top supercomputer, which would've allowed it to do some nigh impossible procedures for a phone, like uploading a file swiftly through the operator's USB, and then, outright deleting the file in the phone (Not factory resetting), in a very short time, (Something which takes very long with current technology, how it's done now, for comparison, is, that file is just thought not to exist, and then, eventually overwritten by installations, new data...) For swift checking, and then, inserted back in the phone, after through checking at the data on the phone, with emergency procedures in case of failure for avoiding permanent damage (As no warning was shown before starting the procedure, implying these situations were for safety and very common) Why may be this done though? Remember what I said about [[AIIsaCrapshoot very advanced computing in your phone?]]
** The movie ''is'' set in the present: Alex's birthday is October 11th, 2002. (It's the first password Jailbreak tries.)
** Out of all the flaws present in this movie, I don't find this one to be that egregious. Just the other day, I tried wiping all the data on my iPad, unplugged it halfway through, turned it back on, and found that everything was still there. So it's not impossible.

* So Akiko from the Just Dance game who didn't do anything wrong nor was ever mean to anyone, and who was actually very nice, ends up waiting for her death just because the main characters screw it up and cause her app to be erased?. Isn't that kind of cruel?
** Alex did not know that the emojis and other beings in his phone were sentient, and the main characters did not mean to screw it up; they were just trying to get to Dropbox.
*** They could've at least tried helping her or getting her out when they went to the trash.
*** Akiko's app is gone, so if she was rescued, she would be homeless and out of a job. She might end up in the cloud, which is like Heaven, where she would get everything she wants and does not need to have a job.
** OP here: I get that the scene is intended as DarkHumor, fine. No matter how disturbing is the idea and how mean-spiritted is the joke of seeing a character basically awaiting execution while crying. But then the real headscratcher will be; isn't kind of out of character for the main protagonists not to try to save her?
** I frankly don't see how it could even be ''intended'' to be humor. What's supposed to be funny about it?
** OP again: I personally didn't find it funny, quite the opposite, but I get that some people might and I presume it was the writers' intention. WebVideo/IHateEverything in his review said it was the only part of the movie he found funny (though he might be speaking sarcastically). That said, DarkHumor does have a place in comedy, Film/LifeOfBrian has plenty, problem is it's kind of out of place in ''this'' particular movie, for me it felt mean.
** Overall, I think that the film's creators just didn't see Akiko as that important, and didn't want to put time into having Gene save her when she had nothing to offer to his personal journey. You don't intentionally design a movie to have characters you don't like, after all - they built the film around Gene and the journey he goes on with his friends with the misconception that audiences would be entertained by that and didn't regard Akiko as important, so they pretty much brushed her off. They didn't realize that audiences would be more interested in her than any of the other cast members.
*** The only possible addition she could have brought to the movie would be to show that Gene is selfless and thinks of others even if they aren't any use to him. [[SarcasmMode Oh, wait, that's also known as]] CharacterDevelopment. Feels to me like a WasteOfAPerfectlyGoodPlot as the person who helped bring out Jailbreak's princess side was left to die. And it must have been important because the movie thought it was worth putting two starkly conflicting Aesops in the movie for it.
** [[SarcasmMode It's almost like the people who made this movie are really clueless and had no idea what they were doing.]]

* If the sole reason Smiler is in charge is because she is "the first emoji" (which I'm pretty sure is false) how does anyone know that?
** I think the answer depends on what they mean by "first emoji". If it means "the first emoji listed on the phone's keyboard", then yes, she indeed ''is'' the "first emoji". If it means "the first emoji ever created" or "the first emoji to appear when the phone was first turned on", unless there were any witnesses to back up the claim, it's probably just propaganda.
** Smiler's being 'first' could also possibly be in reference to her being the first emoji ever used by Alex. Which she may have taken to mean that she was a favorite, or being first chosen could be a thing of authority among emoji. With everything after that just being her taking advantage of the other emojiville's inhabitants' naivety to place herself in charge. Especially since Jailbreak, who may have taken charge of the other emoji as the princess had she not left, was not present to say otherwise.
*** Was she actually working though? I don't recall her actually waiting to get scanned or anything.
*** Smiler mentions having a cube at one point and we can see her in said cube during the scene where Gene is botching his first day on the job. So yes. She WAS working and waiting to be scanned.
** Or maybe "First" is a ''title'' rather than a literal description: one that Smiler inherited from her however-many-greats-grandparent. That ancestor, of course, would be the Smiley ''emoticon'', which really '''is''' the first of its kind.

* Of all the emojis for Alex to send to Addie, why on God's green earth did he want to send a "meh"? Was there any kind of context? Some sort of ongoing conversation? Or just, "Well, I like this girl, so I'll send her a face that looks kind of disappointed."
** He probably wanted to pick what he thought was the "cool" option. You know, like, "Whatever. I don't care 'cause I'm cool like that."
** I guess it depends on what was he answering, which the movie doesn't provide context IIRC. For example if Addie's question was "Are you worry for next week's exam?" then "Meh" does make him look cool. If the question was "Would you like to go to the movies with me" well... yes, that's pretty much suicidal.

** It was [[PlayedForDrama for drama, basically.]]
** That's as good as a reason as AWizardDidIt.
** Is it possible Smiler wanted it done in front of her, to ensure that Gene was completely deleted?
*** Fair enough, but that still begs the question as to why she tried to do it in front of everyone else when she could have just as easily done it in her office or something and just told everyone that Gene got deleted in an accident traveling through the phone.
** She wanted his death to be an example to those who might try, or unwillingly end up out of line. Also, it's probably a power tactic; she gets the job done while flexing her proverbial muscle in front of everyone.

** I'd imagine she meant emojis that are specifically designed to be male or female. From the perspective of someoneone using the phone, smiley or meh emojis are typically neither one nor the other. Meanwhile, I don't think I've ever seen a "policewoman" emoji, but I've certainly seen a basic "policeman" and a "princess." I'm not particularly well-versed in my emoji-ing, and there might be plenty of "independent" female ones, but that could've been what Jailbreak was saying: that she thinks people don't go out of their way to design female emojis unless they're in a role that is subservient to a male.
** When I was watching Mr. Enter's take on the movie, there was a clip of the poop emoji shifting into what we usually see on the screen as he was being scanned. Perhaps it's the same for Mary and Smiler--they might be female in Textopolis, but when they're scanned, they shift into normal, non-feminine emojis on the screen. That could have been more in line with Jailbreak's complaint--not that female emojis of other kinds don't exist in Textopolis, but that brides and princesses are the only kinds of emojis that exist as female when they're actually doing the one thing emojis exist to do.

** Because Gene is the protagonist, and the other emojis, but for a few, some sentinent background.
** We all know the meta reasons, but the idea of the headscratchers is to find in-univere explanation. Anyway, in this case might be that the emoji name is like the last name. Gene and his parents are the Meh family and have the Meh surname, all other characters like Poo, Devil, Smiley, etc. have a first name but is never said on camera.
** Then why doesn't Gene ever learn the first names of Jailbreak and Hi-5, if he spends most of the film travelling with them and considering they're supposedly his friends? B.) You'd think that the filmmakers could've come up with more applicable names for them, names that tied into their respective emotions somehow, instead of going for a bit of a StealthPun with Gene and some AddedAlliterativeAppeal for his parents.
*** Well, considering that Jailbreak is really a princess emoji, she might not ''have'' a last name, as royals don't often use them; she might just be Princess Linda.
*** Could just be that Hi-5 is comfortable being addressed on a last name basis (embarrassing or hard to pronounce first name perhaps), and Jailbreak prefers, well, Jailbreak as what people call her as opposed to whatever her name as a princess before actually was.
** For what it's worth, a blink-and-you-miss-it line near the beginning has a Christmas Tree emoji being called "Tim".

* In the climax, why did Mel tell Gene that he was wrong for not believing in him in the first place? In the context of the film, he was ''right''. He gave Gene the chance to prove himself and he ''royally'' screwed it up, and at that point, Gene has done nothing to fix any of the problems (most of which ''he'' caused) the emojis are currently faced with. I know, "touching father-son reunion moment", but context-wise, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
** The only possible explanation I can think of is the possibility that the baggage and pressure of the fact that his father didn't trust him in this role contributed to Gene's breakdown, and if Mel had had more faith in his son from the start, things would have gone a lot smoother. That said, if this was the reason, it could have been portrayed ''far'' better.
** Or maybe Mel should have believed that Gene could have succeeded perfectly well ''as a multi-expression emoji'', rather than as a Meh. Certainly Addie and her friend thought Gene was cool once they actually got a look at him.

* Ironic that Jailbreak wants to change what she is: a princess, but when Gene mentions he wants to change, she tells him to be what he is.
** Are you accusing Jailbreak of being a hypocrite? Because I think she was referring to the act of conforming, not the act of being what you were born as. Jailbreak didn't want to conform and Gene did. By telling him he's cool just the way he is, she's telling him that conforming to society's standards is overrated. [[BeYourself It's better to be who truly are than be what society expects you to be]].
** Ok, but why did she decide to stay in Textopolis (Or whatever the city is called) and not continue her dream of going to the cloud? She has the password and there's no bots chasing after her, just a stroll down down to the Dropbox app. And it's not because "oh well now she's working in the scanner so that 'makes it all better' because we see other things taking care of it before she was there. And for all her feminist talk, nothing changed in the movie. There's no empowering "female emoji's" created or something, like "Hey *insert female* why don't you try to be the Angry face today?" or something.
*** One of her big reasons for leaving was that she didn't want to conform, she just wanted to escape and be free of her restrictions. She went back because she learned to not value her own freedom and went to save Gene. Now that [[BeYourself being yourself]] isn't a problem in Textopolis, she can live an easier life.

* How come the first time Gene makes multiple expressions while being scanned, the image sent is one of a still image, but when he does it again in the climax, the image changes expressions?
** I'd chalk that up to the fact that at the beginning, his face is smashed against the scanner and that's what it picks up; in the climax, he changes expressions whilst being scanned, so it gets all of them at once.

** I feel like that was meant to be a joke at Jailbreak's expense, that she's just assuming sexism right off the bat. Whether the joke worked or not is up to viewer discretion.

** Maybe he means "reset" even though he keeps saying "delete".

* I don't think there's a mention of Akiko Glitter anywhere here without describing her fate of being left to rot in the phone's trash bin because Gene didn't bother trying to save her. But does the movie ever say that she was actually completely deleted? Couldn't Alex just take ''Just Dance'' out of the trash and resurrect her?
** Why would he? i an app suddenly freaks out on you, would you want to bring it back without knowing what caused the freak out?

* A minor one, but does anyone find it weird that Poop and Poop Jr were in the same stall at the start of the movie? Junior is supposed to be ten, so shouldn't he be able to use the bathroom on his own?

*** I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Different types of emojis aren't actors with specific roles, they're races with their own place in society determined by a caste system. Everyone has their role and they should stay in that role no matter what. Gene is a meh, so he's expected to act like one. Jailbreak [[spoiler:was a princess]], so she was expected to act like one. So yes, making a different expression than the one you're meant to do wouldn't really affect anything, but doing so would be taboo.

* If Mel [[spoiler: has the "malfunction" too, why does he still talk in monotone the entire movie]]?

** [[spoiler:Gene's father has the same ability (changing expressions), and it was passed down to Gene]], so maybe it was a mutation in whatever the emoji equivalent of DNA is.

* How can [[spoiler:a total wipe of a phone be canceled and reversed simply by unplugging the phone from the store computer?]]

** Maybe [[spoiler:it isn't even set in our ages, it's subtly implied to be set somewhere / sometime (Centuries, which is the most likely one, due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law the Moore's law]]) where much more developed technology could've been made, in which the smartphone could've had the power of a current top supercomputer, which would've allowed it to do some nigh impossible procedures for a phone, like uploading a file swiftly through the operator's USB, and then, outright deleting the file in the phone (Not factory resetting), in a very short time, (Something which takes very long with current technology, how it's done now, for comparison, is, that file is just thought not to exist, and then, eventually overwritten by installations, new data...) For swift checking, and then, inserted back in the phone, after through checking at the data on the phone, with emergency procedures in case of failure for avoiding permanent damage (As no warning was shown before starting the procedure, implying these situations were for safety and very common) Why may be this done though? Remember what I said about [[AIIsaCrapshoot very advanced computing in your phone?]]]]

* So Akiko from the Just Dance game who didn't do anything wrong nor was ever mean to anyone, and who was actually very nice, [[spoiler:ends up waiting for her death just because the main characters screw it up and cause her app to be erased?]]. Isn't that kind of cruel?

* Why does the [[spoiler:"megabot" (the big bot at the end sent by Smiley as last resource) does not kill Gene at once, just captures him and carries him to Textopolis where he would be executed in front of everyone incriminating Smiley?]]

*** Well, considering that Jailbreak [[spoiler: is really a princess emoji, she might not ''have'' a last name, as royals don't often use them; she might just be Princess Linda]].

* Ironic that Jailbreak wants to change what she is: [[spoiler: a princess]], but when Gene mentions he wants to change, she tells him to be what he is.

** Ok, but why [[spoiler: Did she decide to stay in Textopolis (Or whatever the city is called) and not continue her dream of going to the cloud? She has the password and there's no bots chasing after her, just a stroll down down to the Dropbox app. And it's not because "oh well now she's working in the scanner so that 'makes it all better' because we see other things taking care of it before she was there. And for all her feminist talk, nothing changed in the movie. There's no empowering "female emoji's" created or something, like "Hey *insert female* why don't you try to be the Angry face today?" or something.]]

* How come the first time Gene makes multiple expressions while being scanned, the image sent is one of a still image, [[spoiler: but when he does it again in the climax, the image changes expressions?]]
** I'd chalk that up to the fact that at the beginning, his face is smashed against the scanner and that's what it picks up; [[spoiler:in the climax, he changes expressions whilst being scanned, so it gets all of them at once.]]

** Could be that's where [[spoiler: Mel got ''his'' multiple-expression abilities.]]

*** OR, Alex could transfer his data when he gets a new phone. This creates an exact copy of the world, and the emojis can continue on as if nothing had happened. Because of this, the emojis need to make sure they grow, as they are like people in the smartphone world.

*** The fistbump emoji refers to Hi-5 as "Mike", so it could be that Hi-5 is his last name

** Mayhaps the trolls we see are anthropomorphic representations of the accounts of real trolls that Alex has blocked in his phone’s YouTube app or something.

* If the face Emojis have no physical option to make different faces, then why does Gene say "the pressure is on" for them to [[MethodActing act one way through their entire life?]]

* If the sole reason Smiler is in charge is because she is "the first Emoji" (which I'm pretty sure is false) how does anyone know that?

** A.) Then why doesn't Gene ever learn the first names of Jailbreak and Hi-5, if he spends most of the film travelling with them and considering they're supposedly his friends? B.) You'd think that the filmmakers could've come up with more applicable names for them, names that tied into their respective emotions somehow, instead of going for a bit of a StealthPun with Gene and some AddedAlliterativeAppeal for his parents.

* Why did Gene AK "where's Hi-5?" when he just witnessed him being taken away by a bot?

*** One of her big reasons for leaving was that she didn't want to conform, she just wanted to escape and be free of her restrictions. Now that being yourself isn't a problem in Textopolis, she can live an easier life.