Ron’s Gone Wrong review – imperfect but charming robo-buddy comedy

When trying to break in as a new animation studio, it’s helpful for your first feature film to really have a hook. Pixar’s Toy Story broke new technological ground while still keeping a warm beating heart at its centre, while relative newbies Cartoon Saloon have made their USP an unflinching commitment to hand-drawn beauty. Locksmith Animation’s debut, Ron’s Gone Wrong, doesn’t quite have that – it really feels like it could have come from anywhere – but with Disney backing and some interesting central messages, it still makes for a perfectly entertaining, if mostly derivative, family trip to the cinema.

Barney (Jack Dylan Grazer) is a misfit in middle school, never quite saying the right thing and held back socially by his chaotic home life, with dad Graham (Ed Helms) swamped by his job selling novelty tat and Bulgarian tank of a grandma (Olivia Colman) constantly putting chicken feet in his lunch and letting a goat having the run of the house. Things take a turn for the even worse upon the releases of the “B-Bots” by Apple-esque tech megacorp “Bubble.” The B-Bots are little, R2-D2-type robots that connect to kids’ social media and build a personality around that, becoming a kid’s best friend and helping them to find other friends with similar interests.

Barney is the only kid at his school who can’t afford a B-Bot, which just furthers his isolation until his dad manages to score a busted one from the back of a van. This is Ron (Zach Galifianakis), whose operating system hasn’t been installed right, and so needs to be guided by Barney in his mission to be a friend, and of course teach Barney himself some lessons along the way. Ron is a very charming little creature, his digital features drooping and shifting unpredictably as he tries to make sense of the world, and the anarchic early joys of Barney and Ron’s makeshift friendship are Ron’s Gone Wrong’s best, funniest moments.

As the plot escalates, though, the laughs die down a bit, and the central conflict feels pretty thin, whilst the animation isn’t quite slick enough to give the more action-y sequences a real thrill. It’s all fun enough – the kids in the screening were mostly diverted, though the slapstick gags failed to raise many laughs – but when put up against the other major animated films this year, Ron’s Gone Wrong falls short.

It’s AI-gone-wrong storyline (combined with the blithely evil corporation at the centre) has echoes of The Mitchells vs the Machines and Grazer’s (pretty good) central voice performance as someone trying to fit in brings to mind his work in Luca, and both of these are prettier and wittier than Ron’s Gone Wrong. It’s saved by the sweetness of the central relationship (Ron’s design is nicely minimalist, his white orb body given an extra homely touch by a hat Barney’s grandma knits for him), and the lesson it leaves us with. Whilst the first, more obvious, moral is that kids need a balance of online and physical interaction in their social lives, the more interesting message is about friendship, and how you can never have one purely on your terms. It’s a lesson that can be tough to learn, and Ron’s Gone Wrong teaches it with grace and clarity.

Though it lacks the polish of the best of its contemporaries, Ron’s Gone Wrong is a mostly promising introduction to Locksmith Animation. There’s very little here that you haven’t seen before, but, much like the little robot at its centre, it’s put together with enough heart and charm to keep it rolling entertainingly along despite its imperfections.

Ron's Gone Wrong is now showing in UK cinemas.