Photos ©2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
In Ron’s Gone Wrong, a socially awkward seventh grader named Barney is thrilled when he finally gets a digitally connected device hailed as a “best friend out of the box.” But Barney’s excitement is short-lived when he realizes his B*Bot “Ron” malfunctions, isn’t connected to anything, and needs to be taught everything.
As Barney learns about the power of real friendships in the social media age, the filmmakers are hoping it’s something that will resonate with audiences as well.
“I think what we really want them to experience is a model of friendship that is messy and beautiful and also just to go away with the encouragement that everybody like Barney feels insecure about who they are and to not take too seriously how the social networks might influence them,” director Jean-Philippe Vine tells Cineplex.
“It’s much more important to find a friend that will support you, will encourage you, validate you, but also challenge you and that’s what we wanted to show in Ron.”
The new animated film from 20th Century Studios and Locksmith Animation stars Jack Dylan Grazer as Barney and Zach Galifianakis as Ron, along with Ed Helms as Barney’s father and Olivia Colman as Barney’s grandmother.
Vine adds the fundamental idea behind B*Bots – a device that is not only a best friend but also helps children connect with others – was a good one.
“We set up the movie with this idea of an algorithm for friendship, which is the code that all these B*Bots run on, it’s actually a very noble and cool idea. It’s a design that’s enabling children to make more friends,” says Vine.
But through some ulterior motives of the chief operation officer at Bubble, the technology company that created B*Bots, the device only connects kids with kids who are like them, making them feel even more on their own.
Even though the film highlights how reliant society has become on technology and social media, Sarah Smith, director, writer and Locksmith co-founder, says they wanted to make sure the film didn’t come off as “medicine” to children, especially when adults are also on their phones all the time.“If you’re trying to give them a lesson about screentime, they’re going to know because they hear it from us every single day. So then we put ourselves in the movie in the form of Barney’s dad who’s saying, ‘Don’t get addicted to devices’ while taking messages on his own phone,” Smith tells Cineplex.
“So, we were trying to see it from all angles, kids’ point of view, our own fears, things we know, the pitfalls but also the opportunities.”
Since technology isn’t going anywhere, Smith says it was important that be reflected in the film.
“The movie is not saying that technology’s bad or even good,” says Smith during a virtual global press conference.
“We realized we needed to make a more challenging movie, which is about, ‘How do we, as parents, as children, as kids growing up in a world in which this is all they’ve ever known, how do we learn to live with the tech?’”
Julie Lockhart, producer and Locksmith co-founder, hopes the film will be an opportunity for families to discuss how they use technology.
“It can allow families when they come back from seeing the movie … (to) discuss what they saw and accept none of us are perfect in the way we use our technology but it’s not going anywhere,” she says.
“We didn’t’ want to preach … it has to be done in such a way that it’s not condemning anything it’s just highlighting the issues for discussion.”
Ron’s Gone Wrong opens in Cineplex Theatres Oct. 22 get tickets here