According to Ron's Gone Wrong writers Sarah Smith and Peter Baynham, their kids helped to keep them honest while addressing the problems with social media in the animated film.
Ron's Gone Wrong, which Smith also co-directed, is a sci-fi comedy focusing on Barney (Jack Dylan Grazer), a middle-schooler who gets a new robotic companion/friend or B-Bot named Ron (Zach Galifianakis) -- a piece of technology whose programming is anything but flawless. However, as much as the movie centers around Ron's comical glitches, it doesn't shy away from more heady themes involving free will and how being constantly online affects people's ability to form deeper connections.
"I think we just lead with comedy," said Baynham, speaking at a press conference attended by CBR. "I think most of us here, you know, we just start with that, because you can have all the themes and all the messages in the world, but if, especially kids, if it's not on some level entertaining or moving or whatever, then it's just going to go, you know, people aren't going to buy into it. And I think you just need to... we want it to be funny and to be a roller coaster [and] to be, you know, be dramatic. But then along the way, we're telling a story that's very much set now and not way off in the future. And so it just automatically, just by the attention to detail all the way through, you hope that it just means something to people and, you know, especially to kids."
"I think we write as parents, right?" noted Smith. "And our kids keep us honest. And if you're lecturing through their film, you know that your kids are going to go, 'What about you? You're on your phone all the time, get off your phone!'" ("And throw yours away first," Baynham added.) "I think all of us, you know, we have children, you can't get away with it," Smith explained. "You have to be truthful to their experience, your experience, you can't lecture."
The first feature-length film by Locksmith Animation, Ron's Gone Wrong holds an 81 percent "Fresh" score after 52 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.6/10. Its critics consensus on the website reads: "It isn't the first animated film to confront technology creep, but in terms of striking an entertaining balance between humor and heart, Ron's Gone Wrong gets it right."
Ron's Gone Wrong is now playing in theaters.