First Take: Ron’s Gone Wrong- a kids film that has a few malfunctions

SYNOPSIS: The story of Barney, an awkward middle-schooler and Ron, his new walking, talking, digitally-connected device. Ron’s malfunctions set against the backdrop of the social media age launch them on a journey to learn about true friendship.

Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn animation studio. That’s right, we have a new rival to Pixar and Dreamworks: this is the debut film from British studio Locksmith Animation, and it’s been through the wars to get to cinema screens -  many distributors sought, many release date shuffles, and of course, the pandemic, making this one of the first animated features to be recorded and finished remotely - but has it paid off? In some cases, yes, but on a technical front, there are issues.

Sarah Smith and JP Vine are co-directors here, creating a 1 hour 47 minute film that has a lot of potential in terms of what it is trying to do, but the execution feels a bit flat, which is a shame when you have someone like Peter Baynham co-writing the script (with Smith)- there is a clear message there, like any animated film, but the pacing to get to that message is quite simply a mess, a good 10 minutes could’ve been cut entirely. Henry Jackman is on scoring duties, and it’s an OK score, but it’s the animation that really saves the film- working with DNEG, that style is very unique, littered with easter eggs, and importantly, photorealistic- it’s what a Blue Sky film would look like with RTX on (that’s one for the gamers).

As for the cast, it’s a relatively heavyweight job- Ed Helms, Rob Delaney, Justice Smith, Liam Payne (who provides the credits track too) and Olivia Colman make up the supporting cast, but this film is really all about Jack Dylan Grazer and Zach Galifianakis, who sell that friendship about as well as what their Disney rivals did with Big Hero 6 back in the day (Fox might be releasing this film, but Locksmith are working exclusively with Warner going forward due to the Disney acquisition). I wanted to enjoy this film more, but basic issues prevented it from reaching the potential it had from the trailers- but it is worth it just for the Mad Max line. 

THE VERDICT

Ron’s Gone Wrong is a film which has a lot of potential, but as a feature, bits of it did feel dragged out to pad the runtime to something more respectable- it’s done decent business here in the UK, but in the shadow of Bond, Addams Family 2, and from next week, Eternals, this film is probably going to burn out quicker than a real android.

RATING: 3.5/5