Emoji

Warners has Legos. Disney has video game characters. And Sony? It's got texting symbols

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... Back in 2015, Sony Pictures Animation won a three-studio auction for an animated movie pitch centering on the emoji, the ubiquitous social media correspondence creatures that live inside our phones. ...

Tomorrow afternoon, while much of the world’s media is prepping for Wednesday’s festival open — and looking for photo ops — The Emoji Movie will take over the Carlton pier with signage and star T.J. Miller arriving stunt-style. He will then host the event which takes place around the same time as the international trailer for the Anthony Leondis-helmed animated comedy launches.

As with Angry Birds last year — which went on to a $350 million worldwide gross — the event is looking to fill a content opportunity for the world’s media and consumers. ...

Once upon a time, animation studios all aped Disney with the princesses and dragons and dastardly villains motifs. Most fell on their corporate faces, but then CGI changed the game and suddenly non-Disney companies could play in the animation playground and reap big grosses.

For a time there was a template for CG animation features, but then Warners broke through with the Lego franchise and the range of styles and approaches has widened. Angry Birds celebrated one type of phone application; now The Emoji Movie will attempt to cash in on another. Will it succeed? As always, story and character will sell the movie ...or sink it. The final outcome will become apparent the first one or two weekends of global release.