Ron’s Gone Wrong is a new animated feature that hit theaters this weekend, and it follows a world where android friends have replaced phones as the go-to device. The movie is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% critics score after 68 reviews and a 96% audience score after 100+ reviews. The movie was co-directed by Octavio E. Rodriguez, Sarah Smith, and Jean-Philippe Vine. While Smith has some big features under her belt such as Arthur Christmas, Ron’s Gone Wrong marks the directorial feature debut of both Rodriguez and Vine. Recently, the directors had a chat with ComicBook.com, and Vine opened up about his first time helming a feature.
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“I started as a storyboard artist and that’s what I was doing at Pixar when Sarah Smith, who is one half of our writing team and also directed the movie,” Vine shared. “She pitched me this story and I was pretty hooked because it had that awesome kind of sense of a coming of age story, but also it really spoke to a contemporary world looking at the issues that contemporary kids face. And I thought, ‘Wow, I want to be part of helping to tell that story.’ But the amazing thing about directing an animated feature is when we’re storyboarding, we’ve got a sense of, you know, the script and the shots that we want to do, but then there’s so much more detail that follows on from that through animation, through layout, through rendering and lighting. And it really gave me a massive kick in the butt. In terms of the workload and the challenge of it, but a real appreciation for the craft of animation and what we can do with it.”
Ron’s Gone Wrong is a commentary on social media, so Vine also talked about his own history with Twitter.
“I’m a bit of a Twitter addict, unfortunately, which I know it’s not good for me, and quite often it’s the first thing I’m looking at, first thing in the morning,” he admitted. “And really, the times when I’ve sort of just left the phone and just kind of appreciated the day and drunk a coffee, they always feel like the right way to start. Like, we try not to critique social media because there’s amazing things too, obviously, to learn and to connect with. I love learning about screenwriting and there’s so much of that on Twitter, and I’ve learned a ton from that, but really what we’re trying to say is, separate your sense of self from that, right? And then it’s about who are you in real life and your real-life friendships, which are messy and complicated and beautiful. And it’s about celebrating those as well.”
Ron’s Gone Wrong features an all-star voice cast that includes Zach Galifianakis (A Wrinkle in Time, The Hangover), Jack Dylan Grazer (Shazam!, Luca), Olivia Colman (The Crown), Ed Helms (The Office), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Kylie Cantrall (Gabby Duran and the Unsittables), Ricardo Hurtado (The Goldbergs), Marcus Scribner (Black-ish), and Thomas Barbusca (Chad).
Ron’s Gone Wrong is now playing in theaters.
