Gene Meh

Note: Not to be confused with Gene from Wreck-It Ralph.

Gene Meh is the main protagonist of the infamous 2017 film The Emoji Movie. He is an emoji who, unlike the other emojis in Textopolis, is diagnosed with a malfunction that causes him to have multiple expressions. Determined to have a normal expression like all of the other emojis, he enlists the help of Hi-5 (his best friend) and Jailbreak (whom he develops a crush on). He is voiced by T.J. Miller.

Why He's 😒 Meh Indeed

 * 1) Gene is nothing more than just another overused basic and clichéd "the odd one out misunderstood protagonist". In fact, he is enough of a badly written character that he makes good protagonists like Emmet Brickowski from The Lego Movie and Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph look bad. And unlike Emmet Brickowski and Ralph, who both got character development later in the film, Gene himself absolutely gets zero character development, other than almost getting Alex’s phone deleted and being the one responsible for all the troubles that happened throughout the movie.
 * 2) He is mostly unfunny, unlikable in some ways (mainly in relation to his irresponsible actions, and in some cases, unintendedly), and clumsy.
 * 3) His design is uncanny, even for Sony Animation standards. He looks like a Pac-Man that comes out from Chernobyl with the head of Mike Wacowski thrown.
 * 4) His romantic relationship with Jailbreak is just forced, bland, and dull.
 * 5) His last name, "Meh", is rather lazy, but who on earth would name their families after a word of what is supposed to be not great?
 * 6) One of the main complaints with The Emoji Movie is that Gene is supposed to be the main protagonist, but he caused more damage than the main antagonist, almost got everyone killed and deleted, and somehow, we are supposed to root for him.
 * 7) * Speaking of which, writers Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel did a very awful job representing the characters' roles in the movie. Smiler is depicted as the villain even though all she wanted to do was to protect the Emojis world while Gene Meh, despite being the protagonist, was the one really responsible for all the troubles that happened in the movie, as he actually caused the deaths of many characters such as the trolls and the Just Dance girl and almost caused the entire phone to almost have its data deleted. Basically, Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel keep trying to force viewers to like the protagonist and despise the villain without giving the usual proper characterization to them as a reason to do this.
 * 8) * Not only that, the scene where his father Mel was revealed that he had the same problem as Gene feels very rushed and bland to the point where it doesn’t even count as character development. Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel did that just so the audience could understand why Gene is a multi-expressional emoji.
 * 9) * He never ever gets any punishment for his mean-spirited actions, making him a Karma Houdini
 * 1) * He never ever gets any punishment for his mean-spirited actions, making him a Karma Houdini

Redeeming Qualities 😃

 * 1) He redeemed himself in the third act by saving Textopolis by being an animated emoji showing that Alex loves Addie.
 * 2) The only reason Gene is a misunderstood protagonist is that his father was also diagnosed with the malfunction that he has, despite it doesn’t count as character development.
 * 3) Unlike Jailbreak, he has an ok relationship with Hi-5, and wasn’t flanderized completely in the book.
 * 4) He started care about other people around him in the third act, including his friends. He even explains this to Jailbreak in the Spotify app right after Hi-5 goes into the phone's recycle bin.
 * 5) T.J. Miller plays him decently, despite wasting his talents.
 * 6) "Hi-5 don't do it, don't you do it, it's already been there once. Don't do it."
 * 7) Gene Meh can be a bit sympathetic at times.

Videos🎥
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