Oh boy. 20 minutes already! I can't believe I've spent so much time watching and reviewing this terrible excuse of a movie.
Also, editorial note; it has been called to my attention that hieroglyphics are, in fact, not a pictographic language, but instead an alphabet. Not to mention, hieroglyphics are made unambiguous by determinative signs at the end. Thus, it does not serve as a good comparison to emojis, which can be ambiguous and interpreted freely. Unless, of course, you use the Regional Indicator emojis to replace the alphabet. (Thank you for that infodump, The Great Unknown. You get one free drawing of any emoji. Just tell me which emoji to draw.)
Gene goes to a hall filled with portraits of emoji. There a close-ups of Smiler, Poop Emoji Sr. and Mel Meh, and Gene waits below the latter. He overhears the board meeting, and as the emoji walk out the door, he asks them what happened. Mallet and Lightbulb refuses to associate themselves with him, and Poop tries to reassure him. The Devil chides him for being too soft.
Smiler calls Gene into the meeting room, where she commands the bots to delete him. Gene thankfully (or unthankfully) escapes.
Hi-Five tries to get inside the popular emoji club and relive his former glory, once again. This time, he succeeds. He greets the drinks (and angers a cranky cup of hot coffee). The salsa dancer emoji passes and Hi-Five holds his breath to show his abs. Now that's what I want to see, an anthropomorphic hand with abs. He enters Fistbump's cube and gets punched out.
As soon as he gets ejected from the cube, Gene hurls himself at him and asks him to aid his escape from the bots. He does, and leads Gene through a shortcut into the Loser Lounge.
In the loser lounge we see an assortment of emoji we can guess Alex never uses, including the trunk, fish cake, upwards trend chart, broom, (nonexistent) boombox, and eggplant. Yes, the eggplant emoji, one of the most popular and memetic emojis
, sitting lonely and playing Pong with the light-skinned granny. Missed opportunity for a Parental Bonus there, considering Alex is in 9th grade and would probably have an idea of what sex is. Unless, of course, he is incredibly sheltered and prudish, but it hammers the point that the directors are out of touch further.
Gene confesses to Hi-Five that he is hunted down for being a malfunction, and everyone in the Loser Lounge recoils in shock. Trunk even calls Hi-Five out for bringing a malfunction, until he retorts back about the Chinese food Trunk is eating.
Hi-Five rants about formerly being the most popular emoji, then having that privilege taken away, basically being a White-Dwarf Starlet. He suggests that they find a hacker and ask them for their aid to get what they both want. He then recommends Jailbreak, a princess emoji who ran away and lives on the Cloud. Great, now that revelation is spoiled early. Thanks a lot, Hi-Five. Gene tries to convince Hi-Five to help him find her, telling him that he might be able to get the hacker to code him back to his former glory. This prospect excites him, and they both venture out. As they exit the Loser Lounge, a red wagon asks if they can come with and Hi-Five kicks them away.
The two emoji make their escape, disguising themselves from the bots. After making it to the outskirts of Textopolis, Gene loses Hi-Five, but it turns out he has already gone to the other side. He gets him to exit the text app, but before making his departure, Gene says,
- This is it. The next time I'll come back here, I'll be a real Meh.
Gene steps into the Wallpaper, and mistakes a decorative space vortex for a real one. The camera pans to a birds-eye view and shows a variety of apps Alex has in his phone, including Twitch, Facebook, WeChat, an iOS card game and an app which I mistook for Grindr at first. Which got me thinking, if Alex uses Grindr and is attracted to Addie, does that mean he's bi?
They go into some of the apps. In WeChat, they meet the cute, heart stamp-wielding bubblebots. In Facebook, a bunch of people crowds Gene and he gets out surrounded by stickers (including the memetic "Angery" sticker.) He comments on this, saying,
- Gene: Everyone's talking about themselves! *chuckles* How does he know so many people?Hi-Five: None of these people know him! But they "like" him. That's what matters in this life, popularity.Gene: Uh... I'd- rather just have real friends.Hi-Five: A real friend - how is that going to get you anywhere? All you need are fans. They give you complete and unrelenting support, as long as you're on top.
This may highlight Hi-Five's starlet attitude and mindset, but it raises serious questions about the Internet Age. When something happens to an Internet celebrity, who would really be there to support them? And I don't mean empty words of support, I mean actual, genuine caring. Is it better to get an endless stream of support from the masses as long as you stay on top, or forge close friendships with people who will support you wherever you are on the Net's social hierarchy scale? (I'm talking about you, fellow FG and YF tropers. Y'all are great and I wouldn't be where I am today.)
Anyway, that caps this installment off. Good day!
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