If you’ve ever watched “Big Hero 6” and thought “But what if Baymax was small and Polish,” then rejoice, because “Ron’s Gone Wrong” is pretty much exactly that. And it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the story contained the heat that the previous robot movie captured.
But directors Jean-Philippe Vine and Sarah Smith (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Baynham) take away all the emotion that made “Big Hero 6” an enveloping and heartfelt story about heartbreak. Instead, “Ron’s Gone Wrong” features partially realized social media posts while filling the story with elemental view gags, too many overused “fish out of the water” tropes and merchandise options. attractive.
All college boy Barney (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer) wants is to fit in with everyone in college. But the socially awkward youngster is a little different from most of his peers. His mother is dead (still a dead mother, sigh) and his father (Ed Helms) has multiple jobs to support Barney and his Polish immigrant grandmother, Donka (a heavily accented Olivia Colman). While Barney is used to not receiving the latest news, he secretly hopes his family will finally give him his college’s most popular gadget: a B-bot, aka “Best Friend out of the Box”.
The “bubble” bot is so popular that his college has a full charging port for them in their hallway. And, unbeknownst to his father, Barney goes into hiding during every school break as each child is playing with their b-bots. But his father, both on a budget and not wanting his son to be sucked into gadgets his whole life, gives him a set of stone collectors, for which Barney warmly thanks him for not hurting his father’s feelings.
Eventually, his father sees how lonely his son is and gives in. Barney is thrilled and immediately tries to get “Ron” ready for his college debut. Soon, however, Barney begins to notice that Ron might not be like all the other bots. Chaos ensues, Barney makes friends, and in the end, no lessons are learned.
Filmmakers often take inspiration from other films and properties and incorporate that inspiration into the story. But here it looks like directors Smith and Vine, as well as co-director Octavio E. Rodriguez (“Coco”), only imbued the film with the cute “boy and his pal” trope that has been a favorite for family films. from “ET” to “Lassie”. Or at least, that’s how it happens when visual gags attempt to compensate for the lack of emotional filling.
The rarity of the poignant character is not for lack of trying; on the contrary, there is a clear message about society’s overly attachment to being connected 24/7 and the harm this can cause to children. Yet this moral is so deeply buried that it comes across less as a theme and more as a side note.
As a parent of a teenager, I had hoped that Savannah’s (Kylie Cantrall) script would carry more weight. Embracing the dangers of social media (especially with what’s going on with Facebook and Instagram right now) and showing a young girl clearly traumatized, to offer no honest advice or solutions to young children watching is just one performative inaction at this point, sending any real relationship or connection straight down the waste chute. (The video that is causing her pain is simply erased, which we know is not how the internet works.)
Animation, on the other hand, does not advance the needle. It’s bright, alive, and yes, bots are adorable. After watching the movie, each kid will likely want their own Ron, which just goes to show how poorly crafted the message is. It’s a complicated journey for 20th century Disney-owned studios to sell a movie about the dangers of social media and hyperconnectivity while hoping the character becomes a must-have toy for kids. This complicated relationship ends up tarnishing the whole movie.
“Ron’s Gone Wrong” hits theaters in the US on October 22.