The mobile phone always at hand, always online on Facebook and Instagram. This is not only the case for many young people. In the new Disney animated film “Ron goes wrong” this is properly questioned with fine criticism.
Hamburg – Is your child addicted to likes on Instagram, only makes soft videos for social media or spends more time with their online video game friends than with those from school? Then you should send it to the cinema. Namely in the movie “Ron goes wrong”.
The new animated film from the Disney forge focuses on the value of friendships in social networks and contrasts it directly with the adventures of analog friendships. This is not a narrative innovation, but its clarity makes you think and is heartfelt.
Barney stands for the thoroughly analogue world in the 106-minute film. The teenager is the only one in school who doesn’t yet have an electronic best friend called a b-bot. B-bots are a mixture of the cute Pixar robot Wall.E, Facebook and Instagram – social media that have become robots, so to speak. Lay on your hand once and the B-Bot sucks all information about “its” child from the Internet. He becomes a kind of social service provider and makes selfies, streams videos, coupled with the perfect (digital) friendship match. Everyone is in mad contact with each other – without actually seeing each other.
Barney also ends up getting a bot. But it has literally fallen off the truck and is therefore not running completely smoothly. Because Barney also has no accounts, “Ron” cannot download any information about Barney. The end of the story: The two of them design the blueprint for a good friendship themselves. A “code” made of sticky notes with wishes and string.
The movie doesn’t end here, however. Instead, other levels come into play. “Ron goes wrong” continues to consistently turn the world in which friendships are only lived digitally, even in the schoolyard. It’s about the power of social media, the effects of bullying on the Internet, the data greed of companies like Facebook and Co. and the dulling of the real things in life. The B-Bot maker asks at one point: “How can you have fun offline? That’s impossible. ”In the end, all the lights are out and the botnet is broken – and the things that really count and help come to light.
The opposites of both worlds are enormously overemphasized in “Ron goes wrong” – Barney lives with his Russian grandmother and father in the only house with a lush vegetable garden – and the characters – beautiful Insta girl, chubby thug, clever science nerd – straight from the Drawer pulled. But the mallet fits the social media bubble, somehow it has to be smashed.
The wise social criticism is accordingly not very subliminal, but also not with a raised index finger. Anyone who is on the Internet a lot is likely to feel caught out – and in the future maybe just put the smartphone aside from time to time. In addition, the film is entertaining and moves you to tears here and there.
Ron goes wrong, USA / Great Britain 2021, 106 min., FSK from 6, by Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, Octavio Rodriguez dpa
