If everybody owned a dangerous death-inflicting toy, would you insist on getting one, too? Maybe don’t answer that near an NRA convention. Ron’s Gone Wrong is a cute li’l Big Hero 6 ripoff almost entirely about peer pressure and conformity. As peer pressure and conformity continue to be serious problems in our community –especially among the young, impressionable, and Nazi-inclined- I have no problem endorsing the film no matter how much Ron’s B-bot deliberately co-opts Baymax.
In the fictional town of Nonsuch, CA (Ha!), Barney (voice of Jack Dylan Grazer) is the only kid in middle school who doesn’t own a B-bot. B-bots are hobbit-sized, egg-shaped supercomputers so advanced they’ll give you game when you don’t have any. Imagine your iPhone deliberately collecting friends for you on its own without you doing anything; you get the idea. That’s an awesome and dangerous tool, no? We’re already too addicted to our phones as is; what if your phone were deliberately constructed to be your best friend?
Is Barney bullied for not having a B-bot? Is he ever. But his doddering single-parent father and immigrant grandmother can’t afford one, so whatchagonnado? After realizing these two have failed Barney in several significant ways, they scout for an affordable B-bot and find their quarry: a damaged model that doesn’t quite know the playbook. For one thing, the new B-bot has neither understanding nor appreciation of safety protocols. For another, it can’t seem to download the stuff it needs to know; a running gag is that the machine’s higher vocabulary doesn’t exist past the letter “A,” so whenever Barney needs to execute a difficult command, he has to come up with a synonym that begins with the letter “A.” That’s clever writing…er, astute ascribing.
Damaged technology is a problem we have all encountered. Tell me you’ve never owned a smart phone with a cracked screen and I’ll call you a Big Fat Hero 6 liar. The question is always: “What level of damage can I live with?” You can probably live with a car that has a dent. You probably have to do something about a car that has a flat tire, dig? How low are you willing to go to accept a knockoff robot? Barney needs encouragement to get there. His goofy, colorless B-bot “Ron” (Zach Galafianakis) is embarrassing on several non-conformity levels and needs to be taught more often than it teaches or helps.
Try asking 
a middle schooler how patient they’re willing to be with the thing that will almost certainly cause them a popularity setback. Go ahead, ask. You want the malfunctioning B-bot when other B-bots are garnering “likes” on social media without effort?
Ron’s Gone Wrong presents the dilemma of nonconformity, but the film is about friendship — which is frequently incompatible with conformity. What does it mean to be a friend? Is friendship ever a one-way street? Can you be a friend when one person holds all the power in the relationship? The last one is a very important question for Americans; we seem to have inherited a time and place in which servitude and boot-licking is mistaken for friendship, often deliberately by folks who strive to perpetuate misunderstanding. Can you be a friend to a goofy, egg-shaped robot? I suppose, but there’s a fine line, isn’t there? Most relationships require compromise. What’s being compromised in a relationship with a robot? Ron’s Gone Wrong is probably not going to win any awards or occupy a special place in your household – especially when Ron’s silly innocence routine is so similar to Baymax of Big Hero 6. However, this is a thoughtful, responsible, and occasionally funny film. Parents can do a lot worse and have, often.
There once was a robot named Ron
Who was more ugly duckling than swan
He grew tired of disorder
And went south of the border
Ahora, es un aspidora, nombre “Juan”
Rated PG, 107 Minutes
Director: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, Octavio E. Rodriguez
Writer: Peter Baynham, Sarah Smith
Genre: Mmm … bot!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Nonconformists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Bullies
