Hi-5

Hi-5 is the deuteragonist of the critically panned 2017 animated film, The Emoji Movie.‎ He's meant to represent one of the hand emojis. He was voiced by James Corden.

Why He Can't Give a High ✋

 * 1) While none of the main characters are well-written, he in particular stands out as the absolute worst among all of them due to how bad he is.
 * 2) His design is mediocre and below-average looking, just like most of the other characters, since he looks exactly like a human hand with a face and legs.
 * 3) He's very self-centered and arrogant to the point where he's near impossible to sympathize with for most of the movie.
 * 4) Similar to Jar Jar Binks, he serves absolutely no role in the plot (if you can even call it that) whatsoever, and he's meant to be a comic relief, but he can't even do that right.
 * 5) While his voice by James Corden can be decent, it can be shockingly mediocre and annoying, with not a lot of effort and emotion put into it.
 * 6) He has a terrible sense of humor and too much poor dialogue which is basically what writers Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel are trying to be cool. For example, at one point he tells Gene Meh "None of these people know him! But they like him! And that's what matters in this life - popularity!" which also conveys the messages that "Even if you've never met someone in person and have no idea what they're actually like, you should still like them because they're already popular" and "Popularity is what matters in life", both of which are terrible morals to teach anyone.
 * 7) He often steals the spotlight from the other characters and doesn't give anyone else practical screen time.
 * 8) His reason for joining Gene Meh on his quest is very generic. He just wants to be popular among the other emojis again. Because we've never seen that done before.
 * 9) He's a total idiot, as he causes too much trouble for the "heroes". One example is when he turned the app on after Jailbreak told him not to, nearly killing everyone. Speaking of which...
 * 10) He's also extremely unsympathetic, as when he and the host of Just Dance get erased from the phone, Gene Meh comes back to rescue Hi-5 from the memory dump, and neither of them showed any mercy for leaving the host, Akiko Glitter (one of the film's few tolerable characters) to die a painful death. Plus, Hi-5 never proved himself worthy of being rescued up to that point. Please remind us again why we're supposed to root for these guys, all because the film keeps trying to force everybody to like the protagonist, and not the villain? It feels like Sony Pictures Animation was only goofing off with all of us and made this film just for money.
 * 11) There's one scene where he waves his butt-like palm at the camera. Why would a hand have a butt?! As if his character wasn't lazily written enough...
 * 12) He literally has no personality other than being a sidekick for Gene Meh, who is not even much better.
 * 13) He was also the entire reason why The Emoji Movie was very negatively received by critics. In fact, he and the film’s failure almost killed the film’s studio Sony Pictures Animation until the company was finally saved by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for good. Even James Corden himself was so angry that his character was badly written, he regretted playing his role as Hi-5 and banned Sony Pictures Animation from making any sequels.
 * 14) In the book adaptation, "The Emoji Movie: Junior Novelization" (also known as The Emoji Movie: Book of the Film, or The Emoji Movie: The Novel in some regions), he's been flanderized to the point where he is seen as even more unlikable and insufferable than he already was in the actual movie itself.
 * 15) * There, he is actually very mean spirited towards Gene Meh. A good example of this is when Gene Meh tells him that he is a malfunction, in the film, he just gasps. In the book however, he also tells him "Ew, yuck! You’re even more of a loser than these guys!."
 * 16) * He acts even more selfish and annoying than he is in the movie, to the point where it makes his movie counterpart look likable in comparison.
 * 17) * He also thinks he's a total "know it all" here, as he tells Jailbreak "Hey, nice hacking. But that’s kid stuff, am I right? How would you like a real challenge?".
 * 18) * Another change from the movie is that Hi-5 purposefully pressed the button during the Just Dance scene to slow his friends down. Whereas in the movie, he pressed it not knowing it would activate the app.
 * 19) * He is also a total hypocrite, as he thinks Jailbreak is rude, where he himself is so much ruder.
 * 20) * Not only that, he often swears in the book. When Jailbreak reveals that she was formerly a princess, in the film, Hi-5 just gasps. In the book, however, he also says, “Ew, you’re a princess! How are you a fucking princess if you know how to hack!”
 * 21) * It gets to the point where even Jailbreak is bothered by his actions, and threatened to beat him up over it.

Redeeming Qualities 👌

 * 1) He saved Jailbreak's life at the end of the movie.
 * 2) He started to care for others once Gene Meh was taken by the Anti-Virus bot.
 * 3) He can be helpful sometimes.
 * 4) James Corden does a decent job voicing him, despite BQ#5.