The ‘Emoji Movie,’ based on the emoji symbols, was released by Sony Pictures Animation in July this year. The film centres around ‘Gene,’ a multi-expressional emoji who lives in a teenage boy’s phone. Gene sets out on a journey to become a normal ‘Meh’ emoji like his parents. For in the emoji world the expectation is that you will have no change in emotion, you must always outwardly show the emotion that is expected of you.
Gene is joined on his adventure by his friend ‘Hi-5’ the unpopular emoji (voiced by James Corden) and the hacker ‘Jailbreak,’ a female character who doesn’t want to be constrained by the stereotypes of a Princess.
This movie is packed full of teachable moments and you can revisit the movie’s themes and messages with your children.
Some discussion starters…
*Gene is expected to conform to showing only one emotion. Do you think that can happen to people as well? Have you ever heard the expression “put on a brave face?” Have you ever heard someone told to “toughen up?”. Is it ok to show and tell someone that you are feeling sad/scared/unsafe?
* One of the early scenes in the movie shows everyone on their mobile phones and two people walk into each other because they are looking at their phone rather than what is around them. How much time do you spend on electronics? Do you think that electronics can stop people from communicating in real life? (The producer of the movie said that ‘phones are something that we use and can bring us together but we also have to have human connections.’)