Movie Review: Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)

Synopsis: An already friendless Barney feels even more alone when he is the only kid at his middle school without a new B-bot, a robotic "buddy" created by the tech company Bubble that keeps the kids connected via social media. His dad buys him one that fell off the back of a truck but the unregistered B-bot, Ron, is unable to connect to Bubble's database and doesn't function properly as a result. While Barney tries to teach the robot how to be his friend, Bubble learns about Ron and tries to reclaim it so it can be destroyed.

Who's in it? The animated movie uses voices from Jack Dylan Grazer, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Olivia Colman and Rob Delaney.

Review: I had honestly never even heard of this movie until my 13-year-old daughter convinced my wife to rent it from Redbox earlier today. I had some doubts when we watched it while eating lunch, but it turned out to be an entertaining movie.

I think the thing I liked best about this movie is it wasn't as predictable as most family films tend to be. Ron's (Galifianakis) personality was so all over the place, it was hard to tell what would happen next. He definitely didn't behave like the other B-bots (which were primarily programmed to steal data) and, whenever it looked like Barney (Grazer) was making progress, Ron seemed to take a step backwards.

The movie also had a not-so-subtle message about kids and technology, showing the dangers of being obsessed with getting the most views on a video and the damage something embarrassing could cause when the world could see it over and over again. And while the movie was mostly about Barney's friendship with Ron, I also liked how it managed to show he had more human friends than he realized.

I am also going to admit, there were some seriously funny moments scattered throughout this film, especially early on, when Ron was trying to learn the basics, such as Barney's name, when he only had words starting with the letter A in his database (I personally would have found him a dictionary to look at, but that's just me and I'm probably incorrectly assuming middle school kids even know what a dictionary is anymore).

A warning to parents, some scenes are kind of intense/emotional and it is probably best to pay attention to the PG rating on the movie because I'm not sure some younger kids would enjoy it as much as a result of those. This is especially true about the ending, though I'll try to avoid saying too much about that.

Final Opinion: It was definitely better than I was expecting and a family movie I would recommend taking the time to watch. However, as I mentioned, it might not be a good choice for some younger viewers.

My Grade: A