[TRAILER] ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ Glitches with Joy

British newcomer Locksmith Animation is making its grand and glitchy entrance into the animation scene with its debut feature Ron’s Gone Wrong. Ron may be going wrong in this new trailer, but it sure looks to be hitting all the right notes to be a hilarious, heartfelt, and relatable flick!

Ron’s Gone Wrong delves into society’s social media crazy and the frustrations in malfunctioning technology. This is especially the case with our protagonist Barney (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer of Pixar’s Luca), who finds out his late birthday present, a new digital B-Bot named Ron (voiced by Zach Galifianakis of Missing Link), doesn’t quite function as intended. Here’s the official synopsis:

20th Century Studios and Locksmith Animation’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong” is the story of Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler and Ron, his new walking, talking, digitally-connected device, which is supposed to be his “Best Friend out of the Box.” Ron’s hilarious malfunctions, set against the backdrop of the social media age, launch them into an action-packed journey in which boy and robot come to terms with the wonderful messiness of true friendship.

20th Century Studios

Also voicing in the movie are Ed Helms (Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie) who voices Barney’s caring father and Olivia Colman (The Mitchells vs. The Machines) as Donka. Other casts with currently undisclosed roles include Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu), Rob Delaney (Tom & Jerry), Kylie Cantrall (Gabby Duran & the Unsittables), Ricardo Hurtado (Glitch Techs), Marcus Scribner (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), and Thomas Barbusca (Solar Opposites).

This original comedy is the creation of Sarah Smith, the acclaimed director/writer of Aardman/Sony Animation’s Arthur Christmas, who also co-founded Locksmith with Ron’s Gone Wrong producer Julie Lockheart. Smith reunites with her fellow Arthur Christmas co-writer Peter Baynham for the screenplay and is directing the film alongside former Pixar storyboard artists Jean-Philippe Vine and Octavio Rodriguez (the latter as co-director). Other key crews involved are Wreck-It Ralph composer Henry Jackman creating the musical score and London VFX house DNEG (aka Double Negative) providing animation services.

Ron’s Gone Wrong was initially the start of Locksmith’s multi-picture deal with 20th Century Studios (back when Fox owned them) to bolster its animated feature output alongside Blue Sky. This deal was cut short after Disney’s buyout, leaving Ron’s Gone Wrong as Locksmith’s only movie with 20th Century. Blue Sky was sadly the more-tragic causality to the purchase, as Disney shut down the Ice Age studio back in April.

Thankfully for Locksmith, it has since signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to release its future movies. Additionally (and separate from the new deal), the studio recently announced an adaption of Richard Curtis’ That Christmas book series, which will be directed by Simon Otto, head of character animator for the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.

(Update for June 22, 2021: I was contacted by Locksmith Animation’s corporate publicist, who corrected me that the That Christmas project is not with Warner Bros. and that they are yet to announce the distributor. I have since fixed the incorrect information.)

Disney will release Ron’s Gone Wrong theatrically through the 20th Century Studios banner on October 27, 2021.

Excited to join Barney and Ron’s quirky adventure in Locksmith’s first movie, [insert Rotoscopers reader’s name]? Insert opinion into c̵̞͝ō̷͖̖̆m̴̛̲m̴̈́ͅe̵̟͑̾n̸͉̿̈͜t̷̍̉ ъ0X b̵̪̽͋̅e̸͙͂͊̾ͅl̶̛̛̯͠0w̷͈͍͓̄̋!!1!

Edited by: Kelly Conley