The Emoji Movie Blu-ray Review

The Emoji Movie arrives on Blu-ray with a 2.39:1 AVC-encoded disc, showcasing a competent and pleasant visual presentation. Despite the film's inherently simplistic animation style, the transfer excels at displaying the digital material's clarity and sharpness. Emoji characters, while smooth and occasionally glossy, are depicted with a well-detailed and crystal-clear digital picture. The bright and vividly colored scenes, featuring dominant yellow hues alongside greens, blues, reds, and purples, highlight the film’s rich color saturation. Black levels are impressively deep and inky, devoid of significant digital artifacts, although a subtle softness may occasionally be discernible.

The transfer's standout elements include its textural stability and clarity, with no notable instances of noise or aliasing. The environments within the film exhibit sharpness and clear definition, underscoring the high quality of the encode. The palette of highly saturated tones springs to life compellingly, enhancing the viewing experience through vibrant and dense color reproduction. Overall, The Emoji Movie's Blu-ray presentation is reliable and visually robust, assuredly capturing the bright and buoyant world of emojis with precision and clarity.

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track on the Blu-ray of "The Emoji Movie" delivers an engaging auditory experience tailored for animated adventures. While it doesn't feature the Dolby Atmos track available on the 4K UHD disc, this DTS-HD MA track holds its own with commendable execution. The forward-heavy mix emphasizes clear and well-defined dialogue, ensuring character voices remain crisp and balanced amidst the film's bustling backdrop. Music sequences, especially during the notable dance-off, dynamically activate all six speakers and engage the subwoofer deeply, delivering pleasing bass resonances. Additionally, the surround sound channels effectively incorporate a variety of sound effects, from beeps and chirps to immersive environmental sounds that add depth and liveliness.

Larger environments in the film, such as cityscapes, are brought to life through precise effects placement, enhancing the spatial dimension of the audio. For instance, exterior scenes with city ambiance or helicopter flyovers seamlessly move across the soundstage, enriching the viewer's immersion. The dialogue is consistently clear and detailed, maintaining positive prioritization amidst high-energy sequences, with vocals retaining natural clarity and positioning accuracy. Light ambient sounds and reverberations in quieter scenes further contribute to a comprehensive auditory field, filling in gaps and ensuring that even subdued moments maintain presence. The soundtrack may not serve as a demo track but stands as a robust and capable mix that complements the film's animated action and narrative flow adeptly.

The Blu-ray extras for "The Emoji Movie" are an eclectic mix that offer both depth and frivolity, catering to a varied audience. The Director & Animators Commentary stands out for its insightful and humorous take, juxtaposing the film's narrative. Other notable inclusions are the charming "Puppy!" Hotel Transylvania short and behind-the-scenes featurettes that delve into character design and digital world-building. Interactive elements such as "Gimme a Hand!" guessing game and the "Good Vibrations" Dance Along ensure there's something engaging for younger viewers. Tutorials on drawing characters like Poop and Gene add a creative dimension to the package. These extras collectively enhance the Blu-ray offering, adding genuine value through a blend of informative and entertaining content.

Extras included in this disc:

Audio Commentary: Insightful and humorous track with key contributors. Puppy! An Original Hotel Transylvania Short: Dennis gets more than he bargained for with a new pet. Jailbreak Decoded: The Untold Story: Background story on Jailbreak. Good Vibrations Dance Along: Kids dance to a movie song. Good Vibrations Lyric Video: Sing along with onscreen lyrics. Express Yourself: Meet The Cast: Quick interviews with the voice actors. Girls Can Code!: Focus on young female programmers. Choreographing Emoji With Matt Steffanina: Look at the Just Dance sequence. Creating the World Inside Your Phone: Explore the digital world of the film. Bringing Emojis to Life: Discussion on character design. How To Draw Poop: Tutorial by Character Designer Andy Bialk. How To Draw Gene: Andy Bialk draws the main character. Gimme a Hand! Guess the Emoji Game: Fun guessing game for kids. Sweet App-etite: Make Your Own Candy Crush Inspired Saga Cake: Baking tutorial.

"The Emoji Movie" is an animated film that presents a vibrant, albeit shallow, narrative centered around life inside a smartphone. The film follows Gene (voiced by T.J. Miller), a "meh" emoji who deviates from his singular expression of indifference, leading to chaos in the emoji world. Gene's inability to hold the "meh" face sparks a journey with Hi-5 (voiced by James Corden) and Jailbreak (voiced by Anna Faris) to reprogram his expression within the complex, app-laden digital universe. While the movie attempts to explore themes of self-worth and individuality, it ends up retreading familiar paths seen in more heartfelt and intelligent films like "Wreck-it Ralph."

Technically, "The Emoji Movie" demonstrates commendable animation quality and has a cast that clearly enjoys their roles. Performances by Maya Rudolph, Patrick Stewart, and other notable celebrities add an element of fun, though they are ultimately undermined by a lackluster script. The plot navigates through various familiar smartphone applications, which adds visual diversity but also feels like a blatant product placement strategy. Despite its colorful and spirited execution, the movie emerges as a hollow experience, weaving a generic narrative that seems more of a desperate cash grab than a sincere storytelling effort. The modest $50 million budget against a surprising gross of $204 million underscores its commercial success despite its artistic shortcomings.

In essence, "The Emoji Movie" reflects the industry's trend towards creating content based on trendy and familiar digital concepts. The film's major strength lies in its animation and voice work, yet it falters with its unimaginative plot and superficial characterization. The overall impact is a movie that is technically sound but fundamentally empty, highlighting the erosion of innovative ideas in contemporary animated cinema.

"The Emoji Movie" endeavors to be an animated adventure encapsulating themes of expression and acceptance. Unfortunately, it misses the mark by presenting a soulless and formulaic narrative devoid of dramatic creativity. The movie appears as a product of necessity rather than a genuine creative endeavor. The plot is fundamentally shallow, leading to a viewing experience that lacks depth and engagement. Despite the voice actors' evident enthusiasm, their performances are stifled by a script that plays strictly by the numbers, resulting in a storyline that feels labored and lengthy despite its relatively short runtime.

On a technical level, "The Emoji Movie" demonstrates the caliber one expects from a modern Blu-ray release. The 2.39:1 AVC aspect ratio ensures a crisp and visually appealing presentation, while the audio quality is robust, with the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track delivering clear and immersive sound. The supplemental content is relatively standard, offering some behind-the-scenes insights but nothing that elevates the movie itself. While these aspects contribute positively to the home viewing experience, they fail to redeem the core deficiencies of the film.

In conclusion, there’s a difference between being ineptly done and painfully bad versus being executed without any enthusiasm or cleverness, and "The Emoji Movie" falls into the latter category. The film feels like a desperate attempt to mine new territory for animated content and ends up being a bland, uninspired effort that overstays its welcome. It is a harmless kids' movie that will not offend sensibilities but shouldn't be expected to entertain beyond surface-level amusement. This Blu-ray release might cater to a specific audience seeking high-quality video and audio presentations but does little to recommend itself as a must-watch animated classic.

Recommendation: Skip It