After the massive success of Warner Bros.’ The Lego Movie, Sony Pictures Animation is throwing their hat in the ring by taking a concept extremely bizarre and turning it into the animated feature. The subject in question being… emojis… you know, those smiley faces on your phone… in a movie called Emojimovie: Express Yourself.

Yes folks... This is a movie.

SPA has released new details about this rather strange project, with new cast and characters, as well as the first screenshot (above). Press release states that the movie takes place in messaging app Textopolis, a thriving place where the emojis inside our smartphone live, hoping one day to be sent by the phone’s user. All emojis are set with a single expression, except one…

Enter our protagonist Gene (voiced by T.J. Miller of Big Hero 6), a unique emoji who was born without a filter, causing him to glitch with multiple expressions. Being an outcast who is unable to fit in with the other “normal” emojis, Gene teams up with his “handy” best friend Hi-5 (James Corden of Animals United), and a codebreaking emoji called Jailbreak (Ilana Glazer of BoJack Horseman) in a big “app-venture” through different phone apps to find the Code that can fix Gene. Plus the movie stars a poop emoji appropriately named Poop Daddy.

In regards of the film’s theme, SPA president Kristine Belson said that “Over six billion emojis are texted every day, and emojis have become a universal language that transcends age and culture. The power of emojis is that they allow you to express yourself in a fast and very fun way, and that is what our movie is about: self expression. We are very lucky to have some of the smartest and funniest actors today bringing their unique voices to this movie.”

T.J. Miller auditioning for his role.

Scheduled for a August 11, 2017 release by Columbia Pictures, Emojimovie: Express Yourself will be the second of three animated features in Sony Pictures Animation’s 2017 lineup, released in between April’s Smurfs: The Lost Village, and November’s The Star. The movie is being directed and co-written by Anthony “Tony” Leondis, who has previously helmed projects like Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, 2008’s Igor, and Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters.

• Sources: Sony Pictures Animation, Cartoon Brew

Karlamon’s thoughts:

My goodness! I’m just sitting here at my computer screen in disbelief thinking how is it possible that Sony can make a good movie out of this. The whole idea of this film feels too similar to Wreck-it-Ralph and The Lego Movie, down to the point of Jailbreak closely resembling Wyldstyle. And unlike Legos where they feel timeless, emojis are just a popular trend which will make Emojimovie seem dated after it’s release.

Additionally with a director who’s done mostly un-noteworthy projects, including DreamWorks Animation’s now-abandoned B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, it’s hard to imagine that this movie will have much quality. Maybe theres a small chance it’ll turn out good, but for now, I’m having serious doubts over this.