“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. “Ron’s Gone Wrong” features the voices of Zach Galifianakis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Olivia Colman, Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, Marcus Scribner, Thomas Barbusca.

Entertainment Affair recently joined the creative team behind “Ron’s Gone Wrong” for a virtual press conference to discuss the film. We heard from writer/director, Sarah Smith; director Jean-Philippe Vine; producer Julie Lockhart; co-director Octavio Rodriguez; and scriptwriter Peter Baynhamn. Check out a few highlights of the event below.

Question: Sarah, what was your inspiration for the creation of this story?
SARAH SMITH: “My passion as a movie-maker is wanting to do movies that actually talk to stuff that really matters to kids. And I was very aware of my own daughter, as every parent is. At some point your kid comes home and says, ‘They all had someone to play with at recess except me.’ You feel like ‘Oh my God,’ and then you remember having that experience yourself. It’s like the universal problem we all have of feeling like everyone else has it down except us, and at the same time being super aware of how technology made all that really even more complicated for kids. I literally remember sitting on a sofa with a glass of wine watching her, thinking, ‘We have to make that movie for kids, because kids don’t understand that maybe what their experience is online, maybe there’s different.’ Then it became a kind of journey to try and find how could you put the idea of our online relationships into a fun, animated format. And the answer is, the idea that there’s a device out there that replaces your phone and your iPad, but it runs around and talks to you.”

Question: This film touches on some familiar themes in sci-fi and animation. What were the touchstones you were trying to capture and what beats were you looking to avoid?
JEAN-PHILIPPE VINE: “In terms of it being a sci-fi movie, we really wanted it to feel like when you went out into the woods and it was a movie about being alone in the woods, and that sense of nature and freedom, and abandon. That’s why we love movies like Stand By Me. We certainly had very selective sci-fi elements. Our aim, throughout, was to keep this on the level of an eleven year old kid adventure.”

Question: You’re working with some incredibly funny actors here. What was it like to work with the great talent you got together on this film?
JULIE LOCKHART: “They were specifically kind, given the lockdown situation, because we were still recording cast. We would do things like deliver recording packages on their doorstep, and then give them instructions for how to put them together. Poor Jack Dylan Grazer, the second or third time we did him in lockdown, he’d gotten so used to it that he had a duvet over his head in a cupboard somewhere. Olivia was in her home and had to stop because the combine harvester was going down the road. They were wonderfully accommodating. A lot of the lines that they recorded were done in their own homes, under their own technical guidance.”

Question: There have been so many films about the relationships between robots and humans. How did you aim to make sure this story would be different from what’s been created before?
OCTAVIO RODRIGUEZ: “There’s something really great about a kid trying to define what friendship is. That’s the unique scenario about this story. He’s sitting there mimicking or taking information from people in society that this is how we’re supposed to be and it’s completely uninformed. So it’s great to see that he’s learning with Ron about what is friendship and how to build relationships, which is awesome.”

Question: This film explores the frustration with technology, and also the importance of friendship. Do you feel a personal connection to that, either having had an annoying incident with a piece of technology, or a close friendship that you developed?
PETER BAYNHAM: “The frustration with technology is that on an hourly basis I want to smash something up! You just get things that make your life better and I become instantly dependent on them and then I’m furious when they won’t work. So, it’ll be terrifying to depend on a device for friendship, because I know, just at the moment it doesn’t work, I would be melting down in a small corner somewhere.”

Question: If you had a B*Bot, what would it look like and what would it do for you?
PETER BAYNHAM: “I lose everything, all the time. I bought those air tag things that Apple do, and then I lost them. I need a B*Bot that probably can find me when I’m missing.”

Ron’s Gone Wrong hits theaters October 22.