Since emojis are the new viral thing, it was only matter of time an Emoji Movie would make its debut. It’s the new universal language we’ve learned to communicate in over text messages, pepper our Instagram captions with, slide into DMs with ease, etc.
Sony Pictures Animation beat out two other movie studios bidding for the title, paying close to seven figures. Sony president Kristine Belson revealed at a CinemaCon presentation night back in April explaining that the movie will take place inside an actual smartphone, with the emoji themselves serving as characters living in “Emoji Valley.” Things like a smartphone’s home screen are all given physical counterparts in the world of the movie.
Music streaming giant Spotify has also signed on as one of the major smartphone apps that will be the music streaming service included in the film, which is set to hit theaters sometime in 2017.