Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Ron's Gone Wrong Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 10, 2021

What is a friend, and what is friendship? In the digital world they can mean two entirely different things. Today, a "friend" can be someone who clicks a "thumbs up: icon or an "add as friend" button, granting them access to a digital profile full of likes and dislikes and opinions and so on and so forth: a digital footprint. But is that also "friendship?" Can a real, soulful, purposeful friendship exist based solely on a series of profile similarities, or is there something more organic, some connection beyond the digital realm that makes a real friend and a real friendship? Just a few years ago talking about degrees of digital friends and what "friendship" actually meant would have been crazy talk, but here is it, 2021, and Ron's Gone Wrong is asking these very questions about the shifting perspective of friends and friendship in the 21st century technological world.

A futuristic tech conglomerate known as “Bubble” has just released its new new Bubble Bot, the ultimate robotic friendship companion that “pairs” to its user by scanning the user’s total online profile and customizing the friendship experience to the user’s digital preference. It’s “your best friend out of the box” and it’s a hit. Soon, they are everywhere. Every school-aged child has one and they become fully integrated into everyday life. But there’s still one person who doesn’t have one: Barney (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), a middle schooler who not only does not have a B-Bot, he doesn’t have any flesh and blood fiends, either. He’s an outcast at school, he fears recess when the kids socialize with one another and their ‘bots, and he’s left sitting alone to only further ostracize him from society. He desperately wants a B*Bot, but his widower father (voiced by Ed Helms) will not hear of it. But when his father finally realizes that Barney’s social life is suffering for lack of a B*Bot, he attempts to get one, but the store is closed and they’re sold out, anyway. He finds a scratch and dent model he buys off the books and presents to his son for his birthday. Barney is of course overjoyed, but he quickly learns that his B*Bot (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) is malfunctioning. He tries to exchange it for a new model but because it was purchased illegally, it’ll have to be destroyed. Fearful of losing the only hope he has ever had at friendship, Barney risks everything to run away with his B*Bot, called Ron. Can the two bond, even as neither one of them has any real clue how to do so?

The film is very balanced and thoughtful, building a legitimate story about what it means to be human in a supposedly connected but increasingly distant 21st century world. Barney and Ron are not an odd couple pairing but rather kindred spirits, as it were and as far as that is possible to connect with a digital "thing." Both are glitchy and malfunctioning in some way, Barney because he's been battered by life (his mother died when he was young and his father doesn't quite know how to balance his relationship with his son to his work life) and Ron because he's been battered by an accidental fall off the back of a truck. Both of them learn on the fly, not relying on what should be innate programming but rather through life experience together. And isn't that how friendship is supposed to be forged? It's doing life together, learning not from a set of preexisting key words and web histories but getting to know another person from the inside out, not from the outside in. The film is very thoughtful and expressive, keyed in on what it means to be a human, and a friend, in the digital era.

The characters are well defined and voiced. The digital artistry brings real, tangible, expressive people to the screen and the interaction with the B*Bots, which looks like a mix of Baymax from Big Hero 6 with that creepy Moxie educational robot. But in the film B*Bots take on the personality of their users, so like every human is unique, so too is every B*Bot unique, and one of the film's highlights is soaking in all of the personalized details across the army of robots that appear on the screen any time there's a crowd of people. The digital artists and creative minds behind the film certainly went to town and let their imaginations run wild with the possibilities, but the film remains grounded in that core exploration of the human condition, which is does very well, supported by one of the best looking digitally animated films of the past few years.

Ron's Gone Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unsurprisingly, the picture quality is excellent. The 1080p Blu-ray transfer is a delight. It's super clear, razor sharp, abundantly colorful: it's everything that a brand-new high end digital animation should be on Blu-ray. There's nary a flaw to be found here. Whether considering the absence of any encode issues or the freedom from various source anomalies, the picture is technically perfect. The Blu-ray is well capable of revealing the fine-point animation excellence on display from start to finish. There's no digital stone left unturned, allowing the viewer to soak in all the excruciatingly pinpoint detailing the digital artists have painstakingly rendered for the film. Fine character model peculiarities, broad environmental niceties, clothes, scratches on Barney's beater of a 'bot, and so on and so forth: everything is presented to the peak of format clarity and perfection. Color output is superb, yielding endlessly bright and abundant colors that leap off the screen with mightily impressive depth and brilliance. Colors are well saturated, contrast is spot-on perfect, and color temperature is even and appealing. Whites are crisp and bright and blacks are deep and powerful. This is yet another reference quality animation presentation from Disney.

Ron's Gone Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

From the Fox fanfare it's obvious that Disney's fingerprints are on this soundtrack; the fanfare is weak and timid at reference volume, and the score to follow over the opening titles is likewise a little bit wanting for added volume and aggression. There is, at least, a decent sense of depth at work and this is far from the most impotent DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack Disney has released, but it's not the full-bodied experience the material deserves, either. It flirts with excellence, offering a tangible sense of depth and there is certainly not any want for additional surround content. Indeed, the track offers plenty of rear side engagement and delivers a fluid audio experience that is perfectly at ease making use of the backs for immersive content and discrete effects alike. Stage balance is never in question; it's just a matter of lacking authority and power at reference. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized from its natural front-center home.

Ron's Gone Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disney brings Ron's Gone Wrong to Blu-ray with two featurettes and a trailer. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase.

• A Boy and His B*Bot: When Jack Met Zach (1080p, 3:51): Actors Jack Dylan Grazer and Zach Galifianakis talk up technology, the story, and the characters they voice, as well as a few other odds and ends.
• Making Ron Right (1080p, 16:23): A longer piece exploring story elements, social commentary, voice work and cast camaraderie, tales from the set, a few technical details, and more.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:02).

Ron's Gone Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ron's Gone Wrong does a lot right in how it communicates the story of the human condition in the digital era. It's moving, funny, well voiced, and expertly animated: a solid film all around. Disney's Blu-ray delivers tip-top video, acceptable-to-good audio, and a couple of extras. Recommended.