Ron's Gone Wrong is a 2021 British-American computer-animated comedy film directed by Sarah Smith (who previously directed Arthur Christmas) and Jean-Philippe Vine as the debut film by Locksmith Animation (the animation itself being handed by studio co-founders DNEG's feature animation branch).
The film follows a socially awkward middle schooler named Barney Pudowski (Jack Dylan Grazer) who receives a robot for his birthday that he names Ron (Zach Galifianakis), only to find out that he constantly malfunctions. Barney does everything in his power to get him fixed but ends up cultivating his very first real friendship in the process, and in doing so, he may just learn that his faulty companion might be exactly what he needs to rebuild old bridges.
Rounding up the voice cast are Ed Helms, Olivia Colman, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, and Ricardo Hurtado.
The film was released on October 22, 2021; besides being Locksmith Animation's debut film, it is also the first animated film released under the 20th Century Studios name, as well as the first release from 20th Century Animation and the first for 20th Century's animation department following the shuttering of the division's main studio Blue Sky Studios that April (by coincidence, the film was once set for release around that time, but was moved by Disney before Blue Sky was shut down).
Previews: Official Trailer 1
, Official Trailer 2
Tropes
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The B-Bots are initially programmed to basically interface with their assigned user's social media and help them make friends with people who share their interests based on their media posts. The titular Ron suffers a glitch as he is incapable of accessing the Bubble Network due to damage sustained while he was being taken to the shop. As a result, Ron is brought online with a limited database and lacking the standard safety protocols to prevent the bots from hurting humans, although he never does anything more serious than slap potential bullies. This requires Ron to actually learn how to be a friend to his owner, Barney, resulting in him developing his own interests in a glitchy manner rather than just being essentially an extension of Barney, prompting Bubble CEO Marc Weidell to use Ron's code as the basis for a mass upgrade of the other bots to make them more like Ron.
- Accidental Misnaming: Barney accidentally sets his username as "Absalom" on Ron, prompting the B-Bot to address him as that for a good chunk of the film.
- Actor Allusion: Savannah warns Barney not go into the woods due to evil clowns living there. Fighting one such clown was Jack Dylan Grazer (Barney)'s breakout role.
- Alpha Bitch: Savannah serves as a deconstruction. She is introduced as a popular but vain influencer who frequently belittles Barney and the more shy, nerdy Ava. The film gradually reveals that Savannah's craving for social media popularity is borne out of desperation for validation, and she becomes a laughing stock after a humiliating incident with the B-Bots is broadcast on a livestream. She significantly mellows out following this ordeal and ultimately gives up her popularity to be Barney's friend again.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Well, Grandparents, as Donka is so peculiar that Barney frequently cringes at her (and Ron learning things from her is not a good thing either). The actual parent, Graham, is far from normal, but is far more reasonable than her.
- Ambiguous Ending: At the end of the film, Ron's face is shown on the Bubble tower, implying that he's still alive, albeit Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: The film opens with Barney having a bad birthday, specially as everyone only focuses on their new B-Bots (he even eschews spreading invitations for a party to celebrate alone)...
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: ...although the previous one was possibly even worse, with plenty of questionable choices of entertainment from Donka and her goat causing things like eating Savannah's bracelet and kicking a kid right in the face. Not to mention that Donka unintentionally starts a fire, causing the house to be evacuated by authorities.
- Bittersweet Ending: Barney uploads Ron's programming into the cloud to replace the standard B-Bot software, but is forced to sacrifice Ron in the process. On the other hand, Marc regains his position as CEO of Bubble after blackmailing Andrew, and as shown in the epilogue, Ron's memory literally lives on as all the other B-Bots exhibit the same malfunctions he had. Furthermore, Barney finally earned friends of his own and has become more outgoing as a result of Ron's influence.
- Black Comedy: Donka claims that Uncle Boris was "possessed" by cashews. However, he was allergic to them. This means that Donka inadvertently killed Boris.
- Blackmail: How Andrew is defeated. Marc threatens to expose his true colors if he doesn't surrender his position as CEO back to Marc.
- The Bully: Rich serves as one for the first half of the film. He constantly pulls pranks on Barney and other students for social media clout, which eventually prompts a malfunctioning Ron to attack him in response. After Barney and Ron are lost in the woods, Rich comes to his senses and regrets his past actions, ultimately befriending Barney again at the end of the film.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: Savannah gives up her social media fame so she can be friends with Rich, Ava, Noah, and Barney again. She even says that fame is overrated.
- Character Development: Barney becomes a lot less socially awkward and more outgoing due to his experiences with Ron.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Graham's laptop keeps shorting out the house's electricity. He later uses this to disable Bubble headquarters' security so Barney can sneak into the cloud servers.
- When Barney needs to find Ron's backup on the cloud servers but can't locate him through the search function, he remembers that Ron knows he's afraid of the dark and turns off his remaining light, causing Ron to light up in response.
- When Ron and Barney are in the woods, Barney can’t find anything in the woods that burns for a campfire. Ron says “Incorrect” and sees Barney’s underwear (he burned Barney’s underwear earlier in the film).
- Child Hater: Andrew straight-up says in the movie that he isn't a fan of kids. Marc uses this as leverage to get him to surrender his new CEO position back to him.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Due to Ron being malfunctioned, he has an erratic and kooky personality.
- Combining Mecha: The B-Bots can combine each other. When the B-Bots have their parental controls disabled, Rich abuses this to combine them all into a giant monster that wreaks havoc on the school and then swallows and "poops" Savannah, leading to her online humiliation.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Much of the movie's humor derives from the characters being jerks to each other.
- Company Cross References: Among the many skins a B-Bot can have are Iron Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel, as well as Darth Vader and Stormtroopers.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Andrew Morris proves to be this, as he obsessively tries to save face by covering up Ron's malfunction, and is even willing to resort to bribery and violate the privacy of innocent civilians to hunt Ron and Barney down.
- Not to mention leaving them to die alone in the woods when he knew perfectly well where they were!
- Cute Machines: The B-Bots are sleek, customizable, pill-shaped machines about the size of a toddler. Some users customize them to look even more cute, such as giving them features of a cartoon bunny.
- Defector from Commie Land: Donka escaped communist Bulgaria.
- Dirty Commies: Donka fled communist Bulgaria for the United States. At Barney's sixth birthday, the kids are shown throwing knives at a picture of Joseph Stalin.
- Disability Immunity: Due to Barney's complete lack of friends and online presence, as well as Ron not being linked up to the system, The Bubble Network have a very hard time finding them.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Barney escapes to the woods with Ron as Bubble is looking for them. At first they have a good time, until night falls and Ron's batteries start to die down, leaving them at the mercy of the elements. With his last ounce of energy, Ron manages to drag Barney, cold and suffering from asthma, back where they can be found.
- Engineered Public Confession: Marc records Andrew's condemning statements and plays them as soon as his presentation goes live again, forcing him to resign. Unusually for the trope, the footage is not played publicly and only Andrew sees the playback, upon which he resigns because he knows Marc will play the footage publicly if he does not.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: Downplayed, though the goat still eats at least half of a bracelet.
- Good Parents: Graham is one for Barney, always supportive of him and showing concern.
- Harmful to Minors: Flashbacks to Barney's sixth birthday show Donka allowing the guests to throw knives at a portrait of Stalin and the party breaking up because the house caught on fire.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ron sacrifices his programming to upload his code to every B-Bot in order to make them more layered and fun (unable to copy it directly as that's one of the functions he's missing due to his glitches).
- Honest Corporate Executive: Marc Weidell proves to be as such as he is more focused on people making friends than making money and he even takes to Ron's original erratic personality as it is a lot more human and layered.
- Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Savannah being "swallowed" and "pooped out" becomes an internet sensation. People never let her live it down and keep calling her "Poop Girl" until Ron deletes all videos from the internet.
- Ink-Suit Actor:
- Marc Weidell looks nearly identical to Justice Smith with his skin color and stubble.
- On another note, Savannah looks almost like Kylie Cantrall with her skin color, facial features and hairstyle.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Due to Ron's malfunctioned personality, he ends up causing harm to Barney and everyone else he comes into contact with.
- Because Savannah's B-Bot is imprinted with her social media interest, it innocently keeps rubbing in her face how many views her "Poop Girl" video is getting.
- Instant Web Hit: When Savannah gets swallowed and expelled by the B-Bots forming a mecha, she says "It pooped me" and the video goes viral, costing her reputation (there's even a remix made!).
- iPhony: Bubble borrows very much from Apple, from the B-Bots following the iPod school of futuristic design to Andrew Morris being a morally bankrupt corruption of Steve Jobs.
- Irony: Before they even meet, Barney unintentionally causes Ron's malfunction by causing a B-Bot deliveryman to stop dead in his tracks, causing Ron's model to fall off the truck.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Andrew Morris' main goal of destroying Ron is because a video goes viral of Ron attacking a person, meaning Ron is a PR nightmare for the company. While Andrew does cross many ethical lines to find Ron, Ron over the course of a few days causes multiple car accidents, kidnaps an old lady and a baby, fights Barney's bully, attacks a police officer, and indirectly causes massive destruction to Barney's school when other B-bots manage to copy Ron's lack-of-safety features and go on a rampage.
- Jerkass Realization:
- Rich starts the film as a bully who likes to prank people for online clout. But when Ron's glitch spreads to the other B-Bots including his own, he realizes no one finds his pranks funny and that they come as more hurtful than entertaining once he goes too far, causes massive amounts of destruction, makes all the other kids suffer as a consequence, and is ostracized by said kids as a result.
- Savannah likewise is first seen as a popular influencer who loves her social media fame, but coldly shuns those around her in the real world, including her former friend Barney. When the recess fiasco sees her become a laughingstock when she's eaten by the B-Bots and then comes out (earning her the nickname of "Poop Girl"), she realizes how it feels to be an outcast like Barney. So when she finds out that Barney is in trouble with the law, she drops everything to help him, with Rich following suit when she passes the news to him, too.
- Karma Houdini: Outside of being blackmailed into giving up his new CEO position, Andrew does not suffer any repercussions for his unethical business practices. Very much Truth in Television, sadly.
- The Key Is Behind the Lock: Ron tells Barney that the instructions to connect him to the Bubble network are on the network.
- Kids Versus Adults: Some elements of this. For instance, footage of B-Bots bypassing content locks and wrecking havock earns complaints from parents for the potential danger they present to their children... and from the children themselves because their own robots can't do this fun stuff!
- Literal-Minded: Ron's faulty programming means he often comes across as such.
- Lonely Among People: It's revealed that the popular kids like Savannah and Rich are secretly lonely and use social media to validate themselves, but it rears its ugly head when damning incidents become infamous online, resulting in those affected being unable to live them down. The reason that Ron replaces the B-Bots' code with his own in the end is so that everyone can have meaningful connections and relationships in their personal lives, not just Barney.
- Missing Mom: Barney's mother died before the events of the movie.
- Nerdy Inhaler: Barney is a dorky guy and he uses an inhaler.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Andrew ordering that the cloud (or rather, its servers) be shut down serves as the perfect opportunity for Barney (with an assist from Marc) to reboot the network from an external source. Said source being Ron means that his "faulty" code gets copied to all of the other B-Bots, making all of them actual friends and not just glorified social media platforms.
- Patient Zero: When Rich finds out about Ron’s lack of safety controls, and his B-Bot learns how to unlock its own safety controls. Within minutes, all B-Bots in the playground go rogue.
- Polka Dork: Donka loves a polka-esque musician. Barney is annoyed that Ron picks up this musical taste from spending time with her.
- Quick Sand Sucks: While in the woods, Ron gets stuck in quicksand and begins to sink. He treats is as a joke and even tells Barney how his number of friends is decreasing from 1, to 0.5, to 0.20. Barney pulls him out before he fully sinks.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Marc Weidell.
- Shrinking Violet: Barney serves as one at the start of the movie. His science-loving classmate Ava is also one, and is frequently dismissed by the more popular Savannah.
- Slave to PR: Andrew tries to cover up Ron to avoid any bad publicity.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Barney starts off as one before Ron influences him to get out of it.
- Social Media Is Bad: There is a clear message against obsessing with likes and followers, as well as disregarding real life interaction for just virtual and proxy ones, specially for children.
- The Stinger: Ron waves at the audience and his arm falls down.
- Theseus' Ship Paradox: When Marc Weidell "fixes" Ron to make him a standard Bubble-Bot, Barney makes it clear that this bot might be physically Ron, but he wants the original Ron's personality back.
- Three Laws-Compliant: The B-Bots have safety protocols preventing them from harming humans. Ron lacks this restriction due to his glitches, allowing him to freely push others whenever he wants. This gets him on Bubble's radar when he shoves a cop, and leads to the playground incident when Rich has his B-Bot copy Ron's code to duplicate the feature, leading to it spreading like a virus until Bubble releases an emergency patch.
- Ugly Slavic Women: Donka is really, really hard on the eyes.
- We Used to Be Friends: Rich, Savannah, Ava, and Noah all used to be friends with Barney when they were younger, but kept their distance from him following his disastrous sixth birthday party. As they got older, their different interests and the introduction of B-Bots also caused them to drift away from each other as well. They all reconcile at the end of the film.
- What You Are in the Dark: Savannah is at her lowest point. The whole world is mocking her being the Poop Girl and her B-Bot keeps updating her on how many people have seen it all because of Ron. At this time, Barney and Ron hide in her backyard from the Bubble Network goons and one such goon asks if she's seen them. She looks directly at them then replies she hasn't.
- Yes-Man: The movie brutally deconstructs this trope regarding the functional B-Bots as their purpose is to just do whatever their owner tells them no questions asked, which eventually ends up making them seem boring and monotonous. Ron's malfunctioned personality is considered more popular because it makes the B-Bot more human, and Barney ultimately replaces the B-Bot's standard code with Ron's own.
