Director: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, Octavio E. Rodriguez
Starring: Jack Dylan Grazer, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Olivia Colman, Rob Delaney, Justice Smith, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, Ruby Wax
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Runtime: 104 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Mild themes and crude humour

A very 21st century family entertainment. Here the children all have their own AI robot which teaches them about friendship. Except one boy whose family give him a broken (and eccentric) robot, Ron.

Ron’s Gone Wrong is the first animation feature from British studio, Locksmith Animation. But, the setting is, it would seem, California. The voice talent is both British and American, with Jack Dylan Grazer (the 2 It films) voicing the central young character, Barney, while comedian Zach Galifianakis is the entertaining voice of the crazy at times robot, B*Bot, Ron. And it is a surprise to find that Olivia Colman voiced the rather strong-minded Polish grandmother.

This is animated entertainment for a 2020s audience – youngsters who are at home with all kinds of technology, in a US where every child has its own personal AI B*Bot, (visually akin to R2D2). They come in assorted colours and personalities, and are friends, playthings, companions at school and in games. [Perhaps the kind of technical world we will come to expect.]

The story is about Barney, his widowed father who makes rather useless novelty toys, and his dominant grandmother. Barney wants his own robot and father and grandmother find one that has fallen off the back of a truck and bring him home to the delighted Barney. But, he does not work properly, which leads to all kinds of jokes, mistakes, even some riots at school.

In the meantime, there is Marc, the young creator of the B*Bots (Smith) and the dastardly, profit-criminally ambitious to be CEO, Andrew (Delaney), who continually reminds us how unscrupulous and greedy big business is (or can be). Which means then that Ron has to be recalled and crushed, but rescued by Barney and taken into the woods, and then an excursion into the enormity of the Cloud, to rectify Ron’s workings.

There are a number of children from the school, once Barney’s friends, now either ignoring or bullying him. We can see where this is going towards a happy ending.

For adults, it offers a lot of time to think about our technological age, the growing dependence of everyone, and now children, on their own AI. Which may teach them a lot about relationships and companionship. But, the question lurks, why is it that the film is showing us how youngsters relate better to robots than they do to one another. Already, children spend so much time in front of their screens. While the robots might get them out of the house, it is still a technological dependence rather than a chance to develop human relationships. While that may not have been the intention of the filmmakers, the question emerges. And was it the filmmakers intentions to have Andrew, the profit-engineering CEO be the business alter ego of Mark Zuckerberg? A thought.