Hello, dear readers, and welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
This is the fourth entry in my blog's annual partnership with St. John's United Methodist Church for their Summer at the Movies series. For this entry, we will be looking at the 2021 animated film 'Ron's Gone Wrong.'
(Credit for this image goes to the user Bszabo15 on the Disney wiki at https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Ron%27s_Gone_Wrong?file=Ron%2527s_Gone_Wrong_official_poster.jpg)
In this movie, tech corporation Bubble Tech has unveiled its masterpiece: "The B- Bot," a small cylindrical robot buddy that can interact with its owners in an amazing variety of ways, and help them connect with and befriend other humans by syncing together with THEIR B-Bots to see what they have in common. It almost instantly proves a smash hit, as practically everyone gets a B- Bot in a short period and relies on them for just about everything.
Everyone, that is, except a middle- school boy named Barney Pudowski (Voice of Jack Dylan Grazer, who played young Eddie Kaspbrak in the recent 'It' movies). He has no friends whatsoever (In fact, a former friend of his named Rich now routinely bullies and humiliates him for a prank- centered Youtube channel), an odd family consisting of his widowed father who struggles to get his novelty- item business off the ground and an eccentric Bulgarian grandma and a number of farm animals, and they cannot afford a B- Bot for him, which further isolates him from his peers as literally everyone else at his school has one.
Miraculously, on Barney's birthday, his father manages to acquire a B- Bot that was discarded as it fell out of the delivery truck and was damaged.
Barney's initial joy at this is greatly hindered, though, as the damage this B- Bot (Voice of Zach Galifianakis) suffered caused it to be severely defective in a number of ways. It constantly glitches, and makes multiple mistakes, including the fact that its disabled safety functions cause it to fight back against an annoying bully AND a cop! Nevertheless, Barney grows to like the weird little fellow, names him "Ron," and sets out to teach Ron how to be his best friend.
However, Ron's glitchy behavior soon attracts the attention of the Bubble Tech higher- ups, including a scheming COO who bears a MAJOR resemblance to Steve Jobs, feel like it could harm the company's publicity and set out to find and destroy Ron. Barney runs away into the woods with Ron to try and avoid this, many other major developments occur, and everyone learns a lesson on what true friendship can look like.
One of the only problems I have with 'Ron's Gone Wrong' is with the bully Rich, as while he redeems himself by the end of the movie, it feels a little rushed. There are no real moments of him feeling remorse for his awful past actions, apologizing to Barney and the others he's wronged, or anything like that. I mean, it's always great to see in a movie when a jerk manages to come around, but they need to show what led to him doing this and him acknowledging that his past actions were wrong.
In spite of this, 'Ron's Gone Wrong' is a real underrated animated gem. I think it really deserves to get more attention than it ended up getting.
The humor is pretty constant in it, most of the characters are believable and likable, and there are some real moments of poignance scattered through it. The friendship that Barney eventually develops with Ron really is quite nice to see.
It also has some good social commentary relating to social media, and how, while it can be used for good and help people to better connect with each other, it also can cause them to isolate themselves from each other a lot (i.e. We learn that Barney used to have a nice group of friends, but them getting B- Bots caused all of them to distance themselves from him as this new gizmo caused them to be more concerned with things like online gaming and internet fame than in- person friendship). I know that this seems like a similar message to the one for the movie I looked at in the previous entry on this blog, 'The Mitchells vs. the Machines,' but there's a big difference: 'Mitchells' focused on our society's addiction to technology in general with social media being only a small part of that, whereas 'Ron's Gone Wrong' seems to specifically focus on social media's effect on our society.
Now, for the character run- down. Barney is quite well- developed as a main character. He's easy to relate to with his loneliness, his initial struggles with being picked on and with how much he and the rest of his family clearly miss his late mother, and desperately wanting to make friends. He can at times be selfish and struggle to put others first, but he grows a lot and eventually does learn that, ad becomes a better and more sociable kid in the process.
Barney's father Graham is shown to be quite a kind, loving man who does all he can to help his family. There are times when he doesn't have quite enough time to be there for his son due to his work and trying to find buyers/ investors for his novelty items, but considering that he seems to be pretty much the sole family breadwinner and the only thing keeping a roof over his family's heads, that's forgivable.
Barney's grandma Donka is, quite frankly, AWESOME! She is so funny and crazy (Both in a typical "Kooky grandma" way, and in the quirks she has as a Bulgarian immigrant and ardent anti- Communist), yet it's clear that she immensely loves her son and grandson. She spends all day cooking and baking for Barney's birthday party, even though no one comes, and uses her own "Funeral money" to help buy Ron simply because she knows it will make her grandson happy and help him to make friends. Definitely one of the best fictional grandparents I can recall seeing in a movie.
Ron's assorted acquaintances/ former friends are all a pretty interesting group, each with their own quirks and hangups. Mostly seem like a nice group other than Rich, and even he gets better by the end.
The company's well- meaning CEO, Marc Wydell, is pretty likable, too. While he wants his company to succeed, he's humble and good natured (Unlike the Steve Jobs- esque CEO), and is fascinated at what Ron can do, and how it could potentially help everyone.
However, the most prominent and memorable character in 'Ron's Gone Wrong' is definitely Ron himself. He is insanely funny in pretty much every scene he is in due to his glitchy nature, and also has a few moments of real poignance. In spite of his glitches, he is a fast learner of human behavior, and quickly learns to be a supportive and loyal friend to Barney. In fact, when I did my "Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters of 2021" list, Ron made an Honorable Mention on it. Just a delightful character all the way!
In general, 'Ron's Gone Wrong' is a nice film for the whole family to enjoy. It'll make them laugh, make them think, and maybe even make them cry.
There are a few Scriptural messages that I think can be taken from 'Ron's Gone Wrong.' The first, which I put on the devotional that was passed out at the screening, was on how true friends need to be selfless with each other, esteeming each other more than themselves, as Romans 12:10 says.
Another important message is on the fleeting and honestly undesirable nature of fame. A character in 'Ron's Gone Wrong' who demonstrates the downside of seeking and achieving fame is Barney's classmate, Savannah. She starts out as an aspiring vlogger who records and posts online pretty much everything in her life. However, an incident involving a bunch of malfunctioning B-Bots leads to her being horrifically humiliated on video that soon streams and trends worldwide, and causing Savannah to be branded with a grotesque new nickname that I won't mention here. She gains the sort of global fame and attention that she had always sought, but for all the wrong reasons and in a VERY negative way that makes her life miserable. Even in this sense, though, she learns her lesson and becomes a wiser person for it. In the very end of the movie, when Rich asks to be allowed to livestream the amazing details of everything Barney did in the movie, Savannah interjects, "Take it from me, Rich: Fame is overrated."
Savannah's observation is very much a Biblical concept. Proverbs 25:27 observes that "It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory." Seeking to constantly elevate yourself is not a pleasant way to live, any fame which may come from it usually doesn't last long, and often does not end well, as Savannah learns the hard way. We should instead strive to humble ourselves, and seek out the Lord God, the One who is truly worthy of fame and admiration.
Another Scriptural lesson to be taken from 'Ron's Gone Wrong' concerns the need for people to be united together, not isolated. Early in the movie, before Barney's family acquires Ron, there is a brief but telling exchange when Barney's dad asks, "You need a B- Bot to have a social life?" Barney responds, "Yeah, Dad, kind of." Sadly, far too many people hold to views similar to this with their phones and computers. There is also an important scene near the end when Barney sees through recorded B- Bot footage of Savannah, Rich, and his other former friends that while they each seem happy and fulfilled outwardly in their own ways, in reality each of them is incredibly lonely, insecure, and desperate for real companionship and affirmation. This proves to be a real epiphany for Barney, and so he finds a way to arrange for all of them and himself to sort of rediscover each other and become again the close- knit, supportive group of friends that they used to be. As Psalms 133:1 puts it, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!" Ron and his group eventually discover this firsthand, and so too can all of us if we reach out to each other for direct connections. Over- reliance on social media is causing us to not develop as many lasting friendships with in- person people. We all need that kind of in- person connection with others.
In summary, 'Ron's Gone Wrong' is a wonderful little film that helps us see what true friendship can look like, the price of seeking temporary fame, and the importance of reaching out personally with fellow children of God whenever possible. There's nothing glitchy about any of those!
That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back next week for the concluding entry in the series (I initially thought there were only four films in the series, but there are actually five; WHOOPS!). Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
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