The animated comedy ridicules high-tech devices but doesn\u2019t discourage them.<\/b>
\nThere\u2019s a clear message in the new film \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong,\u201d and that message is to stop watching films like \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong.\u201d A derivative tale about a middle schooler and his quirky computer sidekick, the animated film seems to want to preach we should all disconnect from our devices and restore human contact. But then what will the filmmakers do with all that adorable merch? \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong\u201d thinks it\u2019s being subversive when its really being very corporate. It wastes its voice cast \u2014 including Olivia Colman, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis \u2014 and it never really connects, ending as awkwardly as a modern-day seventh-grader with a rock collection. That actually perfectly describes Barney Pudowski (Jack Dylan Grazer), a sweet but lonely kid who dreads recess since all his classmates have totally cool high-tech bots, which are egg-shaped walking, talking, digitally connected devices suspiciously looking like Eve from \u201cWall-E.\u201d The bots are hailed by their creators as \u201cthe perfect friend\u201d and a \u201cwhole new world of connection.\u201d They unveil the bots at a hype-filled Apple-like event, which will leave adults sniggering. \u201cHow can you have fun offline? It\u2019s against nature!\u201d says one co-creator. Soon everyone in middle school has a bot, except Barney, who is even further ostracized. The bots serve as a kind of Sorting Hat \u2014 connecting like-minded owners and then capturing and broadcasting video, making friend requests, liking posts and hyping their owners. Barney, with ears that stick out like satellite dishes, craves his own bot but his widower father and eccentric grandmother are too poor and ideologically opposed. \u201cI don\u2019t want you addicted to some device,\u201d says his dad, who sells novelty goods and is addicted to his device. But seeing their son so morose, Grandma and Dad buy a model that has literally fallen off the back of a truck. It looks like a regular bot, but is damaged, has lost code and can\u2019t connect to the internet. It needs to be taught what friendship is. Co-directors Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine and Octavio E. Rodriguez, working from a script by Smith and Peter Baynham, could have gone many ways from this premise. But they choose a surprisingly violent, sluggish path as Barney and his bot, Ron, explore the concept of friendship while fleeing from the tech giant that created the toy and wants to destroy it, like \u201cE.T.\u201d By now, we\u2019re very used to movies that feature kids with adorable robots, from \u201cShort Circuit\u201d and \u201cThe Iron Giant\u201d to \u201cBig Hero 6,\u201d \u201cNext Gen\u201d and Bumblebee of the \u201cTransformers.\u201d We get it: These steel, childlike creatures somehow make us more human. But \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong\u201d treads this same path to an unsatisfactory end. A film about friendship that mocks modern high-tech devices as mere data-harvesting units built by companies only interested in share price ends with those very same bots still in everyone\u2019s lives. It\u2019s a film that screams for everyone to deactivate their robots and go play stickball. But then what would happen to the toy versions of the bots in every Happy Meal, the airline commercial tie-in or the Walmart night-lights? The film comes out as heat is being put on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook about high-tech\u2019s tole in teen behavior and addiction. Research shows some platforms can damage mental health and body image, especially among teen girls. \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong\u201d cynically skewers tech-makers but doesn\u2019t adequately address the machines they make. It doesn\u2019t even dissuade the idea that algorithm-based steel toys can indeed be our friends. It apes too many films already out there and even its theme song \u2014 \u201cSunshine\u201d by Liam Payne \u2014 is a pale imitation of a Maroon 5 song. \u201cRon\u2019s Gone Wrong\u201d has indeed gone wrong.<\/p>\n