‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ the boy-and-his-bot tale we need right now
“Ron’s Gone Wrong,” Friday’s animated feature about Barney, a friendless young boy, and Ron, the factory-faulty bot he’s given, is a comedy adventure with a message.
While it deals with social media and cancel culture, it’s also a scathing indictment of child-friendly streaming services that are all about the money, not children’s welfare.
“Who do we really care most about in our lives? It’s our children and our families,” said co-director and co-writer Sarah Smith. “I as a filmmaker want to make movies that I can watch with my kids, movies that are something for us to talk about and obviously hilarious.
“The two things going on in my household is,” she continued, “my kid going through, as all children do, the issues of friendship, and at the same time us as parents going, How do we help them in this world in which friendship is mediated by technology?
“That was my emotionally worthy reason for wanting to make the film. When I pitched the idea of it to Pete (Baynham, her co-writer), he said, ‘Well, how about if the device is basically an idiot?’ So Pete brought the comedy idiot in!”
“Once Sarah mentioned this,” Baynham said during a virtual press conference, “we talked about a boy and robot story. Look at them — they’re all set in some imagined future. We thought, ‘No, have this now.’ Because that’s what kids and adults and everyone is going through now.
“Then to have this being an idiot, what Zach did so brilliantly was to take this character that’s almost blank and just keeps repeating things back to you. But then let that become this comedic joy. It was just such a fun thing to take on.”
For Galifianakis the need for a best friend couldn’t be more timely. “If you’ve ever been desperate for a friend, that can make an interesting relationship. What’s neat here is the juxtaposition of all the cool kids with the bots. And Barney and Ron, they sort of fall in love with each other.”
Giving voice to Ron, a round sphere of a bot who becomes the story’s heart and soul, “was a joint effort,” he said. “Honestly, it was a little tricky because obviously you don’t want to do a robot.
“They didn’t want that. They wanted more of my voice. But how do you walk that line of not too much emotion? But likable or lovable? I had a lot of help really, because I needed it.”