Ron’s Gone Wrong. Quick Review

What makes a new animation studio stand out? That was the question this viewer was asking himself when watching Rons Gone Wrong. This is the first effort for London based animation studio locksmith. What the creative team have come up with is a fairly standard technology/ AI influenced comedy. Sat in a vaguely non-specific near future where everyone relies on Alexa type robots as part of their everyday life. A desperate kid finally inherits a broken model. Cue your standard mismatched unlikely friendship animation. Ron’s Gone Wrong isn’t helped by the fact it’s coming out so soon after the brilliance of Mitchell’s VS The Machines. Mitchell’s in a lot of ways does everything Ron is trying to do in a much stronger overall package. The opening scene in which a tech mogul character introduces his robots to the audience is essentially a played straight version of the same sequence in the Mitchells. In a way, this is somewhat unfair to Ron. The opening act might be a little slow but once the boy and Malfunctioning robot come together there are some solid slapstick hijinks for the rest of the running time, It’s broadly entertaining enough with some effective set pieces. It will keep kids and parents distracted For the length of its running time. That said there’s so much competition in the animation space in 2021. Even if Ron is marginally above average in terms of theatrical animation this writer is not sure it’s distinctive enough to gain Locksmith a toehold in a very competitive industry. This feeling bleeds into a discussion of the animation from a quality perspective. The films palate is colourful and pleasing to look at. Unfortunately, it won’t amaze anyone who’s seen a wide range of current feature-length animation. Given the wide scope of quality within the field, this gives Locksmith a solid foundation to build upon with any further features. It also won’t make them stand out in any way.
Ron’s Gone Wrong takes a derivative premise and crafts it into something promising for the debut of the new animation studio. Critically though anything the film can offer is not distinctive enough to make it truly stand out from the competition. Especially with plenty of AI themed family movies still in the marketplace. The brilliance of Mitchell’s VS The Machines has set an incredibly high bar for 2021 animated releases. Ultimately new animation studios can live or die based entirely on one film. This viewer doesn’t think Ron’s Gone Wrong is necessarily going to move the needle either way for Locksmith. For the time being this is marginally above the average first entry that is April to overcome its derivativeness to a certain extent. It won’t set any adult or child viewers world alight but is generally solid enough in most aspects.
6.5/10.