Smiler

“	Nobody leaves the phone! DELETE THEM!	„
	~ Smiler ordering her bots to catch Gene in the trailer.

Smiler is the main antagonist of Sony Pictures Animation's 17th full-length featured film The Emoji Movie.

She was the former leader of the Emojis from Textopolis who plans on getting rid of Gene Meh for his perceived malfunction, which gives him a multi-expressive ability, as an emoji himself. Such phenomenon got increased after he and his friends Hi-5 and Jailbreak were roaming around Alex's smartphone, where chaos ensues.

She was voiced by Maya Rudolph, who also played Rapunzel in Shrek the Third, Julia in The Simpsons, Malvina Monroe in Disenchanted and Cynthia Utrom in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Biography[]

When Gene arrived at the text center, Smiler soon arrived. She then explained how the process of sending an emoji works and began to guide the other emojis throughout the text center. Even then, it's clear that underneath her smile, she has a more controlling and unforgiving side.

After the text center was accidentally wrecked by Gene, he was called to Smiler's office for a "teeny-weeny chat." Gene said he promised to not make another mistake ever again (of not making the right face). Smiler said that she knew he won't. Whilst working on her teeth, Smiler stated that Gene was a malfunction and brought forth Anti-Virus bots. She told him that they would delete him that way he will never ever make a mistake (permanently), causing him to flee.

Thanks to an Anti-Virus bot, Smiler saw Mel and Mary Meh (Gene's parents) make their way out of Textopolis in order to look for Gene. This caused her to discover that Gene left Textopolis, leading to her sending more Anti-Virus Bots in an attempt to delete him.

Later, Smiler is so angry (despite her permanent smile) that Gene escaped for Alex's phone. A Dancer emoji (the one with the red and black dress) tries to help. Smiler said "not that happy", possibly because that would might distract her from her plan to delete Gene. Then, the emojis in Textopolis received the notification that Alex (the phone's user) scheduled a phone appointment to erase his phone's data, the rest of the emojis in her office began to panic. Smiler tried to calm them down but failed. At one point, when the other emojis in the room calmed down, Smiler inserted an illegal upgrade in an Anti-Virus Bot. Before the screen cut back to Gene and his friends, Smiler was heard letting out an evil laugh, further showing that she was getting crazier as the movie went on.

Eventually, the upgraded Anti-Virus Bot bought Gene back to the text center, where Smiler hoped to delete him in front of all the other emojis. Soon, Mel and Mary arrived. Mel revealed that Gene has the same "malfunction" that he had, leading to Smiler deciding to delete both of them. Luckily for them, Hi-5 and Jailbreak came in and Jailbreak instantly got to work at disabling the bot. Unfortunately for her, the bot managed to toss her off. Before it could finish her, Hi-5 managed to finish the job and disable the bot, which proceeded to fall onto Smiler and damaging her teeth. Despite her downfall, Gene was able to save the emojis.

In the movie's mid-credits scene, Smiler was seen at the "loser lounge", possibly being fired from her job as punishment for her crimes, and wearing braces as a result of her damaged teeth. She was playing (and losing) a game of cards with the other emojis there and looks forward towards the camera looking somewhat sad (despite her looking like she is smiling). A fitting end for the well-intentioned but highly vain leader.

Appearance[]

Smiler is a young female smiling emoji (😀) who had yellow skin, light blue eyes, white perfectly straight teeth, dark brown eyebrows, a tiny mole above her lips, three black eyelashes on each eye, and blonde hair styled on one side of her head. She presumably wears a lot of makeup because she has pink lips (likely due to lipstick) and pink cheeks. She is seen to constantly smile always.

Personality[]

At first, when she was in a good mood, Smiler was a kind and pleasant person. She was always full of smiles and seemed rather feminine, which was shown when she told Poop not to touch her.

However, things would change when she would get in a bad mood. She would become more vicious if she was put in a bad mood. As the film progressed, she became crazier and more merciless. She is also shown to be incredibly vain, shown as she works on her teeth a lot, such as when she began flossing and later cleaning her teeth when she was talking with Gene. This indicates that her easy-going side is nothing more than a façade.

She was also well-known for her belief that all emojis were supposed to be capable of only having one expression/emotion and any emoji that would not apply to this (having more than one expression/emotion) would be considered a "malfunction" in Smiler's eyes.

Still, many of Smiler's actions throughout the movie have good intentions behind them, as it can be argued that she is simply attempting to save Textopolis just as all of the other emojis are, and her mission to delete Gene is what she believes will keep the city from being wiped out entirely (and based on several of the film's events, she is not necessarily wrong). Nonetheless, her ruthlessness behind her actions is what ultimately dubbed her a villain. Even her argument that Gene did pose a threat to Textopolis becomes overshadowed by her sadistic pleasure in deleting him.

Quotes[]

“	Here's how it works. It's nothing fancy. Wait a minute! It's really fancy! You each have your own cube on the emoji bar. If Alex chooses you, should you be so lucky, your cube will light up. (...) The scanner will scan you. And that scan will be sent right up to Alex's text box. And let me tell you guys, there is NOTHING like getting scanned for the first time. Giggles You're gonna love it.	„
	~ Smiler explaining the process of sending an emoji.

“	Congratulations everyone! What an exciting day for all of you!	„
	~ Smiler during her introduction.

“	Now that makes me happy!	„
	~ Smiler after using an illegal upgrade on an Anti-Virus Bot.

“	Good for him, little... wait, what?	„
	~ Smiler when an X Eyed emoji said that Gene was making the wrong face.

“	Oh no! What did you do to my beautiful bot?...	„
	~ Smiler before her deactivated bot fell on her.

“	Ow! my tooth...	„
	~ Smiler after an Anti-Virus bot crushed her.

“	An emoji should only be one thing.	„
	~ Smiler to the emojis.

“	Go fish.	„
	~ Smiler's last words in the mid-credits scene.

Trivia[]

Smiler is the third Sony Pictures Animation main antagonist to be a female, after Constance Nebbercracker, Queen Victoria and before Zeta.
In a promotional image for the film on Twitter, which spoofed the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale, Smiler was depicted as being the series' main character June Osborne, also known as Offred. Due to the arguably inappropriate nature of the spoof, the image sparked controversy of The Emoji Movie's marketing, eventually resulting in the tweet being deleted. Even though the tweet was deleted, the impact of the bad marketing remained.
In the non-canon book adaptation, The Emoji Movie: Junior Novelization, for some reason, she turns good and eventually gives up trying to kill Gene, Mel, and Jailbreak.
Smiler serves as a dark counterpart to Gene. Both characters are emojis who want to be perfect and proper in order to be loyal to their user Alex. Gene eventually realizes that his malfunctioning multi-expressionist trait is actually good and what makes him unique whilst Smiler fails to realize its significance which leads to her defeat by getting crushed by her own Anti-Virus Bot at the climax of the film. If Gene focused too much on fitting in instead of being himself, he would've ended up like Smiler.

Navigation[]

Villains