THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Throughout the year of 2021, it almost felt like each genre of film had a hit. The animation family genre was no exception because aside from what Walt Disney had to share, 20th Century stood up and surprised us with Ron’s Gone Wrong.
PLOT
The film takes place in a fictional 2042, where about every child has their own B Bot from the technology industry Bubble, a robot designed to help make friends. Middle schooler Barney Pudowski has recently turned 11 years old and wants a B Bot of his own like everyone else in his school. His father Graham (Ed Helms) and grandmother Donka buy one off a delivery drover when the Local Bubble store claims to not have any available for three months. They do this to empathize the boy’s loneliness. At first, Barney is excited and names it ‘Ron’ after its model number ‘RONB1N5CAT5CO’. But then he becomes disappointed to see it act extremely defective. In an attempt to take it back for it to be fixed, he is bullied by a former friend named Rich (Ricardo Hurtado). However, his faulty boy defends him by attacking the bully, which was possible as it’s safety functions have not been set up. When the situation gets reported to the police, the store plans to destroy it. But Barney secretly saves it and hides it from his family, out of respect for it protecting him. Although Bubble CEO Marc Wydell is intrigued to hear of a B Bot going against his programming, the COO Andrew Morris worries that it could be bad publicity. As Barney teaches Ron how to be a friend, his classmate Savannah (Kylie Cantrell) insists that it should help him get friends. The B Bot takes it personal by actually bringing strangers to school the next day. On that day, Rich downloads the unlocked settings Ron has for his Bot and passes it to every other bot in school, which causes a riot in recess. During all of that, Savannah is humiliated after being briefly consumed by a swarm of them and defecated, being labeled ‘Poop Girl’ on the internet. Despite irritation of the fuss that was made, Barney still keeps Ron and runs away with it into the woods when Bubble is looking for them, learning that the faulty bot is still alive. Within two days, the boy suffers from a bronchospasm when he gets cold and his inhaler is low. Ron then decides to take him out of the woods to save him. When the kids from school notice them from a far, Ron is taken by Bubble and Barney recovers at the hospital. When the boy wakes up, he meets Marc who offers a non faulty Ron, but he demands him back to the way he was. He does try to respect his wishes, but is locked out by Andrew who gained control of the company. So with the help of his family, they agree to break into Bubble HQ to regain Ron’s personality. As Graham & Donka distract employees in the building, Barney is able to sneak into the database and find Ron’s original code. When he realizes that his classmates feel as lonely as he was before Ron, he decides to upgrade every B Bot with his bot’s flaws, mixing his personal code with Marc’s algorithm. However, Ron is dispersed in the process. Marc regains control of Bubble when blackmailing Andrew with proof of him admitting to spy on B Bot owners for profit. Three months later, every kid enjoys the wild personalities of their B Bots. Barney on the other hand gains friendship with classmates: Savannah, Rich, Noah (Cullen James McCarthy) and Ava (Ava Morse). The film ends with a glimpse of a Bubble tower producing Ron’s face, implying that he is still alive.
THOUGHTS
As 2021 was reaching an end, I was catching up the catalog of films I was behind on seeing. So when I got to this one, I was definitely caught off guard on how much I would enjoy this. Directors Sarah Smith, Jean-Phillipe Vine and Octavio E Rodriguez made a film that turns out to be smarter than it looks. While the animation is unique to witness, the most important thing to come from this movie is its message of encouraging children to socialize without technology. This is important to say because in this modern society, it is not easy to do so due to being so used to our advanced technology making our everyday lives feel easier. The sacrifice could be our communication skills if we don't talk to each other. I never needed a phone to make friends and I don't need one to make more. When I use social media, I don't depend on making friends or being liked, I just do it because it is fun for me. So I respect this movie for telling us we don't need technology to make friends in whatever generation. What matters is that you are yourself, thick and through. When you focus on Barney's classmates, they use their hobbies as a lifestyle because they don't know how to make friends on their own. They found that inspiration after noticing the adventure Barney went through. Going into the cast of characters, Jack Dylan Grazer portrays a kid who goes through a similar situation: In his age, he just doesn't know how to fit in, which does result to his social awkwardness. However, he connected with Ron so well because he was the first to naturally like him for who he was. And from there, became a memorable friendship. Seeing them together comes to show how friendship will always come in different shapes and sizes. Speaking of which, Zach Galifianakis lends his voice to play one of the most adorable robots to ever behold onscreen. Ron is almost like if Baymax was a phone, that's how lovable he gets. But he stands out for embracing his flaws, which can be more inspirational as days go by. Barney made the decision to make B Bots faulty like Ron because he couldn't bare seeing others be as lonely as he was. He even chooses to not get a new one because he knows deep down that friends are irreplaceable and seeing Ron at the tower proves just that. With his newfound confidence, I think he'll do just fine as he grows up, whether or not he reunites with Ron. You know I wasn't so crazy about Donka because I couldn't relate to her, but I can admit that actress Olivia Colman was pretty versatile making her unrecognizable throughout. As for Justice Smith, he made Marc a likable character for wanting ongoing generations of children to be happy as he was in his childhood. So seeing how cooperative he was with Barney comes to show happiness is all that matters to him. He understood friendship better than others around him, but Ron helped him re define it. And lastly, I think Rob Delaney was on point in playing the villainous Andrew. At first he is annoying for expressing his greed, but then you'll hate him for eternity that he preferred to let Barney die in the woods, in order to eliminate his only obstacle on getting rid of Ron. Thankfully, his reign as Bubble CEO didn't last too long because I'm certain that it wouldn't succeed if he was in charge for a few years, as he clearly never understood friendship like Marc or Barney. While this film is undeniably cute, I won’t ignore that there were so many things that confused with the story. Like for starters, why did Marc show off the algorit HM during the B Bot presentation? That is a rookie mistake because he’s unintentionally inspiring possible copycats. The biggest flaw of his algorithm is how it doesn’t even have a warning system for bullying? The whole point of making theses robots is to spread equality, so it’s hard to believe that he didn’t prepare for that. And what kind of school does only 18 minutes of recess? That is not long enough for kids. Just when I thought the name ‘Nonsuch’ was a weird ass name for a school, I’m livid that this one would enforce kids to go through more education during recess. I mean that is wrong in so many levels, aside from the fact that the B Bots were briefly used for that purpose. Also, why the hell was Donka driving to the Bubble store when Graham knows she ain’t safe as him? He is basically asking for trouble having her drive. I’m even wondering why does it take three months to get a new B Bot when everyone else in town already has one? On top of that, there were a bunch in display later on, so that was pretty messed up. And why the hell didn’t Donka stop Ron from destroying the inhalers? I’m starting to think she’s blind if she didn’t pay attention to that. She also should’ve not went to the Bubble store when Ron first got apprehended because her honesty just made things worse. I know we need the story to get going for Ron and Barney to meet, but howcome B Bots don’t have outer boxes while being transported? If this is how they always got shipped, then a hundred more faulty B Bots should’ve existed before Barney got his own. That’s even weirder than how no one from Bubble questioned it. And how did Savannah forget Barney had a B Bot? I know they’re not friends at that point but since every has one of their own, I feel like that is something to remember. I’m even tripped out how no one reported Ron when he was strolling around the neighborhood. I mean did they really think ignoring it was gonna make it go away? It worked, but god that’s lazier than the wiener dog ignoring toast Ron had on him. I didn’t think I would find a plot hole, but this movie had a big one: Savannah’s B Bot plays the ‘Poop Girl Remix’ when it’s supposed to show off it’s educational program. If you’re telling me it ain’t rogue, you’re lying. You‘ll even become a bigger liar when you say she can’t command her B Bot to stop talking about the incident until the climax. And lastly, I can complain of Donka having too much metal on her walking into Bubble, but I’m appalled how the Bubble receptionist bothered putting up with Graham’s laptop that was probably not a Bubble design. I mean he was just dying to get fired. It does get cute when Barney bonds with Ron in the woods, but I’m surprised he didn‘t get injured when he jumped into a River bed with a bunch of big rocks around. It’s even when a bird pooped on his face, but the laughter quickly disappears when Ron doesn’t know what it is and calls it a comment. However, I still think you can enjoy this movie for what it’s trying to say. To wrap up, Ron’s Gone Wrong is an animated hit for telling us exactly how important friendship is. If you dig the movies that make you smile, check this out.
댓글