Ron's Gone Wrong

***Ron's Gone Wrong*** is a 2021 computer animated comedy film directed by Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine, written by Peter Baynham and Smith, and animated by Locksmith Animation. The film features the voice of Jack Dylan Grazer as Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler who befriends a defective robot he names Ron, voiced by Zach Galifianakis.

## Plot

### Launch Day

*Main articles: Launch Day, Birthday Notification, and Unboxing*

At the headquarters of tech giant Bubble. CEO Marc Wydell demonstrates the B-bot, a walking, talking, digitally connected “best-friend-out-of-the-box”. It can play music, dance, and make friends with other users. Over in the town of Nonsuch, Barney scoots to school, finding the B-bot has become a phenomenon with kids everywhere.

At recess, teacher Miss Thomas finds Barney all alone and seats him birthday on the “Buddy Bench” telling everyone he loves rocks, which attracts mockery; schoolmate Rich and his cronies bully him. At home, Barney’s grandmother Donka and dad Graham wishes him a happy birthday, but find he’s not content without a B-bot.

That evening, Donka and Graham goes to the Bubble store to get a B-bot, but it's closed. They get a damaged B-bot instead, and next morning Barney tries to activate it. He despairs, finding it glitchy and missing software, all the while annoyingly perky and trying to be helpful. Barney goes to school.

### Crushing It

*Main articles: Crushing It and Jailbreak*

Barney returns home to find his B-bot has trashed everything, and resolves to return it to the Bubble store. He runs into Rich and and his cronies who continue to tease Barney. The B-bot, now attracting unwanted attention, outright attacks them. This is to Barney's favour and amusement. The police arrive.

At the Bubble store Graham and Donka arrive, with the B-bot continuing to malfunction and now ordered to be destroyed. Barney, now recognizing the B-bot as looking for him, secretly rescues him by swapping him for a decoy. Barney privately tells the B-bot his name, who replies he’s R0NB1NT5CAT5CO; “Ron”.

### How To Be My Friend

*Main articles: How To Be My Friend, Friendship 2.0, and Checking In At Nonsuch Middle School*

Meanwhile at Bubble headquarters, executive Andrew Morris learns what happened in Nonsuch and becomes nervous about jailbroken B-bots undercutting Bubble’s proprietary business model. Barney meanwhile commits to teaching Ron how to be a friend, creating the friendship board. Along the way they learn the wonderful messiness of real friendship.

The two hang out at the top of Nonsuch one peaceful evening, only to later crash into Savannah’s yard. She’s astounded that Barney has a B-bot, and espouses the virtues of sharing a morning routine. Though unnerved by the run-in, he sleeps sound that night with Ron by his side.

At Bubble headquarters, they pursue to destroy Ron. Barney goes to school while his unattended bot goes into town and plies strangers from the streets to be the boy’s “friend”, embarrassing him when they all arrive at recess. Rich and his cronies take a closer look at Ron and, cloning his firmware, “unlock” their B-bots.

### Unlocked

*Main articles: Unlocked and Connection Dropped*
At Nonsuch Middle School, Barney Pudowski was studying until Ron arrives. They could go to the recess to be having fun. Until Rich Belcher copying Ron's code, the B-bots are unlocked each other, creating chaos everywhere! Savannah Meades was very happy to become famous in this video to these countries all over the world. Until now, a giant zombie got eaten and swallowed her. A zombie's body was passed out and Savannah being poopgirl on this. They shared this video and the B-bots getting dropped out for good.

### Freedom In The Forest

*Main articles: Freedom In The Forest and Battery Life*

In the forest, the two have a blast. Barney loves Ron as the weird and wild friend he is. Meanwhile, Bubble monitors communications across Nonsuch for clues to Ron’s whereabouts. Savannah, still distraught over being poopgirl, is asked by Graham and Donka where Barney is. She pretends she doesn’t know.

Barney is cold, wet, and annoyed; Ron is low on battery. Andrew remotely initiates all B-bots of Nonsuch to sweep the forest. The boy’s health deteriorates and his buddy carries him back to civilization for his sake. The bot, now out of battery, is taken away. Barney is sent to hospital.

### Data Recovery

*Main articles: Data Recovery and Hack Job*

At the hospital, Barney Pudowski was dead. He tells Graham about to be fitting in to be alone, not to mention that he was supposed to be good enough. Until Marc Wydell arrives and delivers a B-bot that he was re-installed and rebooted. His name was Ron, which was now rebooted and better while Barney was so happy. Marc doesn't go to the cloud that he was blocked, Andrew Morris appears and tells anything that HE WAS WRONG to do it. While they reassured, they will have to team up to the giant tech Bubble to find the cloud to be safely good. And then, Nonsuch Middle School has been safed and Ron was very happy to go to the network.

### We'll Find Each Other

*Main articles: We'll Find Each Other, Fully Uploaded, and Cord Cutters*

Barney is now in the cloud. In an act of sabotage, Andrew powers it down. In a moment of emotional revelation, Barney finds Ron and the two tearfully reunite. Marc realises Ron never had his code. The boy wonders whether every B-bot could be upgraded to be like Ron.

## Cast

### Main cast

* Zach Galifianakis as Ron
* Jack Dylan Grazer as Barney Pudowski
* Olivia Colman as Donka Pudowski
* Ed Helms as Graham Pudowski
* Justice Smith as Marc Wydell
* Rob Delaney as Andrew Morris

### Minor cast

* Kylie Cantrall as Savannah Meades
* Ricardo Hurtado as Rich Belcher
* Marcus Scribner as Alex
* Thomas Barbusca as Jayden
* Cullen James McCarthy as Noah
* Bentley Kalu as Cop
* David Menkin as Mr. Cleaver
* John Macmillan as Shayne the Biker
* Megan Maczko as Miss Thomas
* Krupa Pattani as Sita
* Sarah Miller as Bree
* Ruby Wax as Ms. Hartley
* Iara Nemirovsky as Ellie
* Ava Morse as Ava
* Marcus Scribner as Alex
* Thomas Barbusca as Jayden
* Liam Payne as a B-bot

## Production

On October 12, 2017, it was announced that the first film from Locksmith Animation would be *Ron's Gone Wrong*. Alessandro Carloni and Jean-Phillipe Vine would serve as the film's co-directors, while Peter Baynham and Locksmith co-founder Sarah Smith would write the screenplay. DNEG was on board as a digital production partner. Baynham and Elisabeth Murdoch were named executive producers on the same day.

Animation and voice acting have been done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Henry Jackman composed the film's score.

On August 19, 2021, it was announced that Liam Payne had made an original song, titled "Sunshine" for the film. The song was officially released on August 27, 2021.

## Reception

In the United States and Canada, *Ron's Gone Wrong* was released alongside *Dune*, and is projected to gross around $10 million from 3,550 theaters in its opening weekend.

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The critical consensus 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." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 63 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `:0`
2. ↑ *Ron's Gone Wrong* on Rotten Tomatoes
3. ↑ *Ron's Gone Wrong* on Metacritic