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Ron's Gone Wrong Review: Zach Galifianakis's film is a quirky spin critiquing social media's pros and cons
With a terrific and delightfully versatile voice cast, Ron's Gone Wrong is as clever as it's heartwarming. Read Pinkvilla's review below.
Ron's Gone Wrong
Ron's Gone Wrong Cast: Jack Dylan Grazer, Zach Galifianakis, Olivia Colman, Ed Helms
Ron's Gone Wrong Directors: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine
Ron's Gone Wrong Stars: 3.5/5
The emotional tug at heartstrings when it comes to a friendship between a human and his robot sidekick has been tried and tested for decades and you'd expect Ron's Gone Wrong to be a throwaway E.T. knockoff. However, what we're treated with instead is a heartwarming and equally quirky tale, critiquing the pros and cons of social media and its undeniable influence on innocent youth.
Ron's Gone Wrong centers on awkward teen Barney Pudowski's (Jack Dylan Grazer) lonesome life, devoid of friends and equipped with a misunderstood yet caring Bulgarian family; widower dad Graham Pudowski (Ed Helms) selling novelties like glittery unicorn poop, and Borat-esque grandmother Donka Pudowski (Olivia Colman) taming goats and chickens. Taking place on the day of Barney's birthday, we're shown how truly outcast our main protagonist is when he's literally the only student in his buzzing high school that isn't in possession of Apple-esque tech giant Bubble's latest, must-have creation: the B-bot; which is basically robots meeting social media.
With your very own B-bot, the technology is customised to adapt to your likes and dislikes while connecting you to the rest of the globe, through followers, likes, live-streams, etc. The ideology behind the B-bot is divided into a two-way street. While Bubble CEO and the creator of the B-bot, Marc Weidell (Rob Delaney), positively aspires for kids to be able to make new 'human' friends with the help of a robotic "best friend in the whole world", Bubble COO Andrew Morris (Rob Delaney, who staunchly resembles a Tim Cook lookalike) has evil intentions in mind to collect data by spying on children as a model of consumerism.
Overcome with the guilt of being distant from Barney, Graham and Donka purchase a B-bot, though, a defective one at best as it fell off a pickup truck. While initially elated, Barney quickly realises, to his dismay, what a malfunctioning hazard the B-bot named Ron (Zach Galifianakis) really is. If you're curious to know just how un-dated Ron is; well, his database is stuck at the letter 'A' while his idea of friend requests is literally sticking heart figures on whoever he deems fit to be Barney's friend whether it be a thug, a grandma or even a newborn baby. He will also quite literally drive out the bullies while looking darn cute in the process. Basically, Ron is the opposite of what a B-bot is supposed to be and instead, Barney has to start from square one to make a literal friend out of his robot sidekick, teaching him the ins and outs.
As Barney and Ron get to know one another, the two eventually strike an unconventional friendship but after a major mishap in school, Bubble is now hellbent on acquiring the unique B-bot in their possession while Barney fights everyone to keep his new best friend away from the gnarly hands of corporates. Facebook's recent controversy looming around the ill effects on children couldn't have helped time Ron's Gone Wrong's release better. There's the constant moral question of how much social media influences kids (and even adults!). We see that not just through Barney, but his estranged best friends cum classmates; Savannah Meades (Kylie Cantrall), an influencer documenting her entire life to spice up the followers' count and likes from thousands to millions, Rich Belcher (Ricardo Hurtado), a resident bully who pranks people to become famous, (Cullen McCarthy), a video game junkie and Ava (Ava Morse), a science geek. While on the outside, they may seem all hunky-dory, we witness how they too have so much in common with Barney, in terms of being lonely and the neverending need to be accepted.
There's also the juxtaposition of not just the cons but the pros of social media, too, which is well balanced out. While not neglecting the fact that social media is the present as well as the future, it instead adapts the storyline to make people understand how much human connection is equally important whilst not blatantly negating technology and its infinite, swift advances. Using humour in all its crisp reliability, Ron's Gone Wrong takes masterful "subtle" digs at giant tech companies and their manipulative ideology; which is making things easier but on their accord and benefit.
With the eclectic directing combo of Sarah Smith and Jean-Phillippe Vine, writers Sarah and Peter Baynham conduct a delightful watch that is as insightful as it's entertaining. The family-friendship storyline is smartly interlaced with the sci-fi genre as you're equally drawn from the brimming beginning to a delectable ending. More importantly, it's the oddball bond established between Barney and Ron that's the true scene stealers. How they begin to understand the other and try to be nothing but a good friend, irrespective of how differently they're cut out is genuinely charming to watch.
Kudos to whoever picked the voice cast; Jack, who comes fresh off of the eccentricity of Alberto from Luca, gives a timid-turned-brave light to Barney while Zach's real-life whimsicalness helps elevate Ron as an even more adorable R2-D2 shaped, smiling bot. No matter how jazzy the other B-bots are customised to look, it's the simplicity of Ron in dull white, with his limbs constantly being knocked off along with the old Internet dial tone, that will leave you endeared. His crooked smile, especially! Olivia as the brash yet loveable Donda is an over the top revelation which needs to be seen to believe while Ed, too, adds a captivating touch to Graham and Barney's father-son bond.
In finality, Ron's Gone Wrong is a clear contrast from its title; everything turned out just right!
