For some reason we often find ourselves watching a film that brings out the difficult time students have in middle school. If we think back on our own experiences, the experiences here may be over the top but middle school is an uncomfortable difficult time for kids.
Here Barney Pudowski is an outcast because he appears to be the only kid in his school that doesn’t have a B-bot. The B-bot is programed to become the best friend of the kid it is paired with helping to connect the kid with friends and other factors that kids have in common.
With the voice of Ed Helms as Graham Pudowski, Barney’s father who sells small gimmick devices wholesale on the internet attempting to raise his son alone, Barney’s mother has passed on but grandmother Donks (Olivia Colman) is in the house cooking as grandmothers do. She is drawn interesteningly as a character, she is heavy has a round full face along with an Eastern European accent. She is also probably the most reckless driver ever on the screen.
The other main characters are Savannah Meades (Kylie Canrall) the cute young girl with style who is a sophisticate on the B-bot trail. Adults to balance to the kids in school are: Marc (Justice Smith) the inventor of B-bot and Andrew Morris (Bot Delaney) the CEO who mirrors the recent news when he states we want all the kids on the network so we can sell them more things and make more money.
Ron’s Gone Wrong smoothly blends the comedy and fun around the young characters playing with and communicating through the B-bot system. There is also some of the standard lack of confidence in young teens that we expect in a film about middle school, and a lesson about friendships that will develop.
Ron, the bot challenges the standard when he falls off a truck in a near accident during transportation and doesn’t follow his program as all the other bots do. The control from CEO Andrew Morris doesn’t work on Ron and that allows Ron and Barney to challenge the entire system all the way back to the giant server room.
What is most enjoyable for kids and adults is the mis-interpretations that Ron picks up on his orders from Barney who is trilled to finally have gotten his own B-bot. Ron takes everything literally and has nothing governing his behaviour. That brings a comfortable level of comedy to the script that will be enjoyed by everyone.