You have probably seen its movie trailers and advertisements around, and I’m willing to bet that your first thought was probably along the lines of “What the heck?”

We’ve seen successful movies centered around the animation of inanimate objects, such as childhood favorite Toy Story and 2015’s Inside Out, but this time, it might have gone a little too far.

Yes, I’m talking about The Emoji Movie.

Released on 8 August in Singapore theatres, this movie is exactly what it’s called: a movie about emojis. Here’s what you should know about it.

Famous voices on board
You ever wonder what it takes to get top-list celebrities to agree to be part of such productions? Well, this movie has characters voiced by many well-known and well-loved actors and actresses such as Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara, Patrick Stewart, Christina Aguilera, and Carpool Karaoke host James Corden.

Inspired by Toy Story
The writer and director of the script explained that the concept for the movie was inspired by the all-time favorite Toy Story series. In questioning himself about “What is the new toy out there that hasn’t been explored?”, he realized that emojis have taken over our lives and that perhaps there was an opportunity to make a movie about it!

Performed fairly well at Box Office
I guess the sheer disbelief that such a movie would exist really motivated people to see it, as it made a rather impressive earning of $62.2 million worldwide. On its first day alone, it pulled in a total of $10.1 million.

Really, really bad reviews
We’ve all heard about how Rotten Tomatoes is exceedingly harsh on movies and it is rare to see a film with a fairly high rating. But The Emoji Movie has really outdone itself, receiving a whopping 6% on the review website. That’s not just low; it’s abnormally low.

Smart tactics
Seems as though Sony knew that reviews would not be too favourable, as they prevented critics from sharing their reviews until the day before the scheduled release date, when usually reviews are released one week in advance. Smart move, Sony.

Fairly high budget
You might wonder how much an animated movie about emojis could cost to make, and the answer is a lot. The Emoji Movie had a $50 million budget, which is kind of sad when you realize the amount of criticism it has received. Well, at least their earnings managed to cover the cost to make the film!

Poorly-planned advertising
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for firms to be able to produce eye-catching advertisements, and sometimes the desire to stand out manifests in the wrong way. The Emoji Movie made a movie poster imitating A Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian story about the repression of women’s rights, and needless to say it was shot down and caused international uproar.

Large television ad spending
An estimated $5.8 million worth of ads were placed across 37 networks on 1,497 national air slots for this movie. I’m not quite sure what warranted such extensive spending on media advertisement but I guess it generated lots of discussion about the movie.

And lest you’re not aware, yes, it aired in Singapore TV, too.

Experienced director
The Emoji Movie was directed and co-written by Tony Leondis, a director at DreamWorks Animation, who was responsible for a few popular movie sequels such as The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride and Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters.

Unique emojis
Maybe this is where the $50 million movie cost went. If you noticed, the emojis in the movie don’t exactly look like the ones on our phones. This is because over 250 unique emojis were styled and created from scratch solely for the movie.

So, will you be catching this movie in cinemas? Don’t let bad reviews deter you, maybe it makes for a light-hearted and fun family movie!

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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