Ask The Tropers

open

The Emoji Movie page problems Western Animation

The main Emoji Movie page has a lot of weird, shoehorned examples, as does the YMMV page, mainly about how Smiler was right and/or the movie broke its own aesops. Most of the pertinent entries were written by the same troper, MeaJae97.

Examples:

"

• If Jailbreak is meant to be a strong independent minded female role model, then why does she learn to fit in with the expectations of society? It seems to suggest that you can only save the day by following tradition. And why does the movie treat her as being selfish for rejecting Gene's fairy-tale views of romance?
• If the movie was supposed to mock the excessive use of technology, then this was sure as hell broken when sending a text ultimately saves the day. Also, none of the human characters learn the drawbacks of their obsession with technology.
• Hi-5 has to learn to stop being a narcissistic jerk and yet he still yearns for popularity through the entire movie. After he says he learned his lesson, he shouts about how "they love us" without any humility. Lesson learned.
• For a movie where women "have limitless potential" there don't seem to be any interestingly written female characters. The generic order obsessed villain, the generic princess, the generic tough girl, and the generic love interest. Note that the only female character of significance other than the villain fits three out of those four characters.
• Wisecrack Edition made the case that the lesson of "you should reject societal expectations and express who you truly wish to be" couldn't escape unbroken. Sure, Smiler was defeated and the Emojis learn that it's perfectly fine to express more than one emotion. However, there is still the fact that they are stuck with one function, to serve Alex. What a brilliant life. Emojis were invented for this very specific purpose, so Textopolis is a terrible metaphor. The movie constantly validates the idea that they should only peruse society's intended purpose for them. In Real Life, this can easily prevent people from being themselves.
  • If Emojis wanted to become more than merely vessels of conveying ideas, then Alex could simply delete them as they would have outlived their usefulness. After all, Gene didn't stop the phone from being erased. It was Alex who prevented it because his crush was so Easily Impressed.
  • Aspects of the caste system still remain intact as the unpopular Emojis remain in the Loser Lounge.
  • Jailbreak learns to stop valuing freedom and reverts back to being a Princess.
  • Gene quickly discards the idea of leaving the phone forever.
  • Hi-5 never dumps his narcissistic ways."

"* Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If the villain had simply had her way, then the movie would be far shorter. And audiences would be better off as a result.

• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Smiler tries to delete Gene because she sees him as an existential threat to the safety of Textopolis."