Ron's Gone Wrong

This review may contain spoilers!

Ron's Gone Wrong  is an animated feature detailing a world much like our own, specifically revolving around the latest technological craze: the B-Bot. The B-Bots imprint on their users and utilise an algorithm to connect with your interests, enhance your life and help you make friends compatible with you; they're the 'ultimate buddy'. However, our main protagonist Barney isn't able to afford a B-Bot and becomes an outsider; until his family gifts him a damaged B-Bot named Ron. This is a film with some direct and rather mature jokes about Apple, advertising algorithms and how poverty alienates people from trends and social acceptance. I actually really appreciated these rather insightful observations and methods of dealing humour; they rang with a sense of truth and actually felt like a family film about technology tat had some genuine reflection of reality. I also really liked the relationship steadily built up between Ron and Barney, it was a nice demonstration in what we need from others but also what others need from us in a true friendship.

 

Jack Dylan Grazer, who voiced Barney, has been doing amazingly with his leading roles the past few years; Grazer's depiction of an outsider yearning to connect with others and have a real friend is really sweet. Ed Helms, who voiced Graham, is such a gentle and relatable paternal figure; the way Helms presents Graham as a father who is struggling and lacking self-confidence but doing the best by his son is incredible. Rob Delaney, who voiced Andrew, is kind of perfect as this evil parody of Steve Jobs; I liked the brash way Delaney cut corners and breached rules for the sake of his own greed. Kylie Cantrall, who voiced Savannah, was a very charming character who went on a nice sub-plot arc; Cantrall presents Savannah as someone obsessed with image yet this slowly changes as she becomes more involved in the world immediately around her.

However, the best performance came from Zach Galifianakis, who voiced Ron. This character is so abundantly full of energy, he absorbs your focus and really dominates every scene. Galifianakis really leans into his comedic roots with the character, delivering some hysterical lines and crafting Ron to be an impulsive character. I found Ron such a wonderful role because he starts out as this entirely stupid blank slate, he's a real goofball character. But the charm of Ron is seeing how Galifianakis moulds Ron and develops this caring, friendly personality; fully fleshing him out into a three-dimensional role is stunning. This is a simply wonderful character who I think really steals the show.

There have been a real surge in buddy robot films lately that have done their stories rather well; my mind immediately went to Big Hero 6, Next Gen and The Mitchells Vs. The Machines while watching this. In a lot of ways these family friendly animated sci-fi features are a great way to talk about our evolving modern world and help children understand the relationship technology has with everyday life. So when I sat down watching Ron's Gone Wrong I found myself initially struck by the charm of seeing Barney and Ron together as friends, but the further it went I found the film losing its appeal. I'd seen this story done before (or at least elements of it), and I'd seen it done better. This film has a nice critique of how technology impacts our relationships with one another; but its ultimate message of a better way to make friends is a little ambiguous. The film really only comes alive when we see Barney and Ron interacting, a number of the side characters are linked very loosely back to Barney with no interesting examination of how they relate to one another. The final act in which our heroes break into Bubble HQ to steal Ron back feels like an entirely different film to the one I had been watching; it felt like an action sequence had been pushed in to liven things up. I really felt like this ending unravelled some of the hard work done in earlier acts. The animation wasn't very appealing, the design of the B-Bots especially struck me as incredibly simple. Both the score and soundtrack for this feature didn't stay with me, it felt like an aimless peppy series of tracks for a generic animated feature with little love behind it.

Olivia Colman, who voiced Donka, hasn't really done a performance I've disliked until now; but Colman's over the top approach to an Eastern-European accent and character is a bit much. Justice Smith, who voiced Marc, never strikes you as the big tech genius behind a multi-billion dollar company; in fact the heart on his sleeve presentation by Smith is quite two-dimensional and means he gets dwarfed by Delaney. Ricardo Hurtado, who voiced Rich, is pretty dull as the classic bully character; Hurtado's portrayal of vanity and a desire of fame don't make him very engaging as an early act antagonist.

A film with a lot of charm and a nice theme that struggles to do anything truly unique. I would give Ron's Gone Wrong a 6/10.