Jul 29, 2017

Who hated the "emoji movie" the most-

“A piece of shit…”

“A force of insidious evil…”

“A soul-crushing disaster…”

“Nakedly idiotic…”

“As bad and brutally depressing as everything else in 2017…”

It's no surprise that critics disliked Sony Animation's The Emoji Movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, the site that compiles reviews from established critics, reviewers near-unanimously despised the film, giving it just a 6% positive rating, among the lowest ever for an animated feature with 30-plus reviews. Currently, that puts the film below Norm of the North, which ended up at 9%, and slightly above Yu-Gi-Oh: The Movie at 5%.

It's not just that critics disliked Emoji Movie, the level of vitriol and contempt directed at the movie is unprecedented for an animated feature. Critics seem to be engaged in an unspoken contest to see who can serve up the harshest review of the review.

The movie was originally titled Emoji Movie: Express Yourself, and while the film failed to express much of anything besides the incompetence of Sony animation president Kristine Belson, it has certainly inspired critics to express themselves in the most vocal and blunt way possible.

Here are some of the acrid and grim takes on Sony's latest:

Indiewire's David Ehrlich, who said the film “is almost as bad and brutally depressing as everything else in 2017,” added:

“Please restore my eyes to their factory settings,” pleaded Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post. “They have seen The Emoji Movie, a new exercise in soulless branding, aimed primarily at little kids.”

Vox's Alissa Wilkinson, whose review is simply titled, “Do not see The Emoji Movie” included this gem:

The Wrap's Alonso Duralde said “there are no words” to describe this “(POS) piece of shit” before coming up with these words:

In an A.V. Club review entitled “The Emoji Movie is Inside Out crossed with a Sony commercial and dunked in toxic ooze,” Vadim Rizov wrote,

Emily Yoshida of New York Magazine's Vulture, described the film as “one of the darkest, most dismaying films I have ever seen, much less one ostensibly made for children,” and critiqued:

On the other side of the Atlantic, Charles Bramesco in The Guardian called the film “a force of insidious evil,” adding that “the best commercials have a way of making you forget you're being pitched at, but director Tony Leondis leaves all the notes received from his brand partners in full view.” He also felt that “any social commentary is stymied by the execution,” and that “the film's insistent feel-goodery and occasional nods to feminism ring false,” pointing to one particular scene:

Glenn Kenny of the New York Times was one of the few to also comment on Genndy Tartakovsky's short Puppy that screens before Emoji. Kenny had the same opinion of both-idiotic:

If you're thinking that professional reviewers might be just a little bit jaded and not in touch with mainstream tastes, you're probably right, but it's worth noting that reactions to Emoji Movie from online film fans and vloggers is even worse. Here's some choice cuts from the Youtube review circuit: