A computer animated film that promotes the virtues of analog life and a potentially heartwarming story that plays out as mildly terrifying after a Facebook whistleblower reveals, “Ron’s Gone Wrong” sends viewers into a world that suddenly seems more dystopian than before. As family entertainment, it’s fine.
The film, directed by Sarah Smith and Jean-Philippe Vine, revolves around a whole new gadget. Bubble, an not at all subtle amalgamation of Apple and Facebook, invented the B * Bot, an R2-D2 sized robot that logs into children’s social media accounts and becomes their constant sidekick, seemingly to make them bigger. social, but really to help Bubble become a watchdog.
As a late birthday present, Barney (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer) receives a robot that fell from a van and is therefore a little fried; he’s anxious to know how many Newtons of force he can apply to the school bully. As Zach Galifianakis expressed it, the droid, eventually dubbed Ron, speaks in mantra-like repetitions that become more and more fun as they are repeated. The animation shows wit in its details: the droid’s body design and not very smooth graphics seem to send out older iMacs, with maybe a bit of Atari.
Some of the cartoons (Olivia Colman, her unrecognizable voice, plays Barney’s Bulgarian goat-herding grandmother) themselves seem a little repulsive. But if the basic ideas – friendships are best done the old fashioned way; technology offers the illusion of connection while promoting loneliness – look like bromides, in this context, they hold up a sharp mirror to screen addicted children, and perhaps even more so to adults.
Ron went wrong
Classified PG. Duration: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.
