Ron

**R0NB1NT5CAT5C0** or "**Ron**" is a character in *Ron's Gone Wrong* voiced by Zach Galifinakis. He is the titular deuteragonist. He is a modern glitchy friend and defective B-bot who befriends Barney Pudowski. Along the way, he teaches about the boarding that calls, "How To Be My Friend" goes along the way to be having fun around with him.

## Biography

After Barney Pudowski receives a B-bot as a late birthday present from his father Graham and his grandmother Donka, Barney activates his robot and upon seeing it glitching, figures out that the partially downloaded software can only recognize people with the letter "A". The boy insists him to download names on Ron's algorithm in which he explains to Barney that he needs a Wi-Fi connection from the Bubble company to help him download more names other than those beginning with "A". Throughout Barney's life, Ron still keeps calling Barney "Absalom" even after charging his battery. After Barney returns home, Ron constantly dances with Donka in his family room's kitchen to traditional music from her Bulgarian heritage much to Barney's worry that there is something wrong with Ron who is continuously glitching to which Donka suggests Barney reboot him so that his glitch would be fixed to which Barney explains that Donka fixing Ron using a screwdriver drill would make it even worse to which Donka explains to Barney that he should take Ron outside to look at the world around him.

As Barney takes Ron outside to show him a trio of three teenagers, Rich Belcher, Alex, and Jayden, they tell Barney to do something funny to which Ron does the dance that Donka does at home to which as Rich hits him to stop his constant dancing, Ron also hits him to teach him a lesson as a consequence for Rich and his companions to which he and Barney evade from Rich and his companions. Later at a grassy hill, Barney explains that this moment was amazing to which Barney explains that B-Bots like Ron should not hit anyone just like he did with Rich Belcher just as Barney knows that B-Bots have mega safety controls in which Ron denies due to the setting not uploaded on his algorithm and as Barney's family takes Ron to the Bubble store due to a policeman who found Ron being an uncontrollable and dangerous B-bot to which Bree, one of the techs, explains that B-Bots have no intention of acting violent to humans to which according to records, Ron has no registered owner and the policeman threatens Ron to be sent to the crusher to destroy Ron permanently much to Barney's worry as Barney tries to prevent him from being destroyed to which during a chase at the Bubble store, Barney encounters Ron at the Space Attack area where the two evade from a couple of B-bots with space designs on them and passing through some B-bots with racecar designs and upon ending up at the help desk, a B-Bot with a luchador design sees Ron whom he thinks he's a fake B-Bot to which he and Barney hide at the kid-friendly Preschool Forest area and as the Preschool Forest-themed B-Bots evacuate, Ron is taken back to the crusher area where he would be destroyed, but Ron is rescued from being crushed just as Barney takes Ron home once again. Meanwhile, at the Bubble HQ, Andrew Morris sees footage of what Ron was doing due to the glitches he had earlier, just as Andrew explains to Marc that Ron would cause more havoc if he is not destroyed.

Back at home at a nearby shack, Barney privately talks with Ron about how to be his friend due to the settings on Ron's system not uploaded as Barney teaches him the importance of making friends throughout his life just as Barney tells Ron to like his interests and be on his side and during a montage of trying to make Ron study Barney's likes and dislikes, Ron slowly starts to understand Barney's interests. Later at a nearby hill behind the tower of the Bubble company, Barney sees Ron rolling down the hill into Savannah Meades' house to which Savannah confuses him for a snake, and upon seeing Barney and Ron at the pool, Savannah finds Ron as an unusual B-Bot to her and when Barney explains that Ron could not make friends, Savannah's B-Bot then shows Ron some of Savannah's interests consisting of her likes just before Barney leaves with Ron to return home. Back at the Bubble company, Andrew tells the GPS to search for Ron as seen on Bubble's network just as Andrew threatens to track down Ron and have him crushed to which one of the techs explains that they could not find any info from Barney's B-Bot to which Marc explains to Andrew that he never programmed B-Bots to laugh, telling Andrew to get a hold of it.

The next day at the streets of Nonsuch, Ron tells the citizens to follow Barney's interests and tells him how to make friends with Barney and later at school, Ron shows up at the B-Bot section just as Ron places stickers on the B-Bots to make friends with Barney just as Ron explains to Barney that he will make friends at recess, much to Barney's worry that it would cause a disaster at school. However, Mr. Cleaver, the school coach, tells Barney to go to the principal's office for an unacceptable thing he did at school. Suddenly, when Rich and his friends observe Ron's glitching, he causes everyone else's B-Bots to have their parental safety features disabled, causing a big incident at school where the B-Bots create big havoc at school to which Barney is suspended from school for causing the incident. Following the incident at school, Barney feels upset about what Ron did at school earlier during recess time, to which Ron suddenly leaves upset with Barney about having a bad day at school just as Barney returns to his house at Oak Hill Drive. Back at the shack, Ron explains to Barney that he will return himself to the B-Bot facility, to which Barney denies, explaining that Ron will be Barney's friend forever. Suddenly, Bree and Graham begin knocking on the shack as Bree threatens to kill Ron and fix his glitch, only to find out that Ron and Barney escaped into the Pudowski family's chicken cage just before Graham studies Ron sharing Barney's interests. As they escape, Ron and Barney are chased by a group of Bubble employees who are attempting to destroy Ron and upon hearing and passing by Savannah's house, he and Ron arrive at the woods not explaining about the video humiliating Savannah herself just as Ron and Barney end up at the woods just as he and Ron have a wild adventure at the woods having a fun trip of friendship just as Ron himself feels excited that he made a friend with Barney. That night while at a treehouse, Ron shows Barney that he remembers the interests he shared with a memory of the B-bots and as Barney Pudowski asks him to know if he has any stories to share, to which Ron explains that he will create a story from his available data because Ron can only create stories that begin with the letter "A" so he creates one called "The Awesome Adventures of Absalom and Addis Ababa and His Android, Alan". After Ron shares the story he made for Barney, the two spend their best algorithm of friendship of a great time during a quiet night in the middle of the forest together.

The next day, Ron and his companion Barney walk into the woods to which it suddenly starts to rain to which as Barney plans to make a campfire, Ron explains that he has 12% battery remaining in his system to which Barney warns him that if he returns to the Bubble Store, the Bubble techs will send Ron to the crusher just as Barney tells him to save his battery. Later that night, Ron has 5% battery remaining in his system just as Barney tells Ron to be in sleep mode to avoid battery draining to which as soon as he does so, Barney remembers the moment his mother passed away while talking about it, Ron suddenly shuts down. Later at the Bubble company, Andrew then starts a plan to find Ron and take care of him to which Marc Wendell and a fellow pilot plan to go to the woods to find Ron and Barney and make sure they are safe. Back at the woods, Barney is carrying Ron and upon seeing red security lights from a distance established by Andrew at the Bubble company, it is revealed that these lights are coming from security-powered B-Bots who are attempting to capture Ron and Barney back at Bubble HQ, Andrew finds no results of Barney's B-Bot to which he decides to search the town just as the B-Bots that attempt to capture Ron retreat.

The next day, Ron carries Barney across the woods just as he approaches the Nonsuch Middle School just as Rich, Noah, Savannah, and Ava approach Barney who has asthma just as Graham, Donka, Marc, and a group of officers and medics arrive just as Barney is taken to a hospital to which a group of techs cheer for Ron who saved Barney's life, much to Andrew's rage. At the hospital, Marc Wendell enters Barney's room as he is revealed to have fixed Ron to which it is explained that Marc backed up Ron into a cloud-saving system just as Marc attempts to log in to the CEO account to help fix Ron to which Marc cannot access due to Andrew being CEO of the company as Andrew explains that Marc himself is fired from Bubble. Barney then devises a plan for his parents alongside Marc to take Ron into the cloud storage area where Ron would be fixed to which Marc warns Barney that the cloud area is in a concrete fortress half a mile below Bubble where there are dozens of servers in it to which Barney denies about Ron being his friend, explaining to Marc to take him to Bubble HQ so Ron can be fixed.

Arriving at Bubble HQ, Marc devises a plan to his allies that to bring Barney into the cloud area, they must get past security and get into Bubble HQ to which after Donka's goat disrupts Andrew's ceremony, the other B-Bots start stalling him while Barney is on his way to the cloud area to take Ron there while Marc tells him to go the central shaft where the data cables inside it lead to the cloud area to which Barney follows Marc's advice to which while on their way to the cloud area, Barney notices a fan below him which blocks to the entrance to the cloud area, much to Barney's worry that falling into is dangerous as he explains to himself that Marc never mentioned this hazard. As Barney is about to fall into the cloud area with Ron, Marc's robotic skateboard disables the fan just as the two manage to arrive at the cloud area in time.

At the cloud area, Barney loses faith himself inside the cloud area and upon seeing a small glow, he finds a Bubble HDD hard drive (which was Ron's original data) just as Marc finally gets access to the cloud area so that he can continue fixing Ron and as Barney puts in the hard drive and Marc finally finds out that the reason why Ron was glitching at first was that Ron did not have Marc's algorithm and upon seeing part of Ron's code shared with Barney in the past days, Ron and Barney become enthusiastic thanks to Barney's optimism and confidence. Seeing Barney's friends who are not having fun with each other to which as Barney explains that he and Ron are in the middle of the network, Barney plans to upgrade all the remaining B-Bots to be like Ron just as Ron and Marc work together to upgrade all the B-Bots to have Ron's code, much to a trio of guards attempting to burst into the cloud area to get Barney out of it for trespassing. Barney then shares his final moments with Ron just before Barney leaves the cloud area. As Ron bids Barney a farewell, all the data on the remaining B-Bots are overwritten to have Ron's code (which includes the video humiliating Savannah being deleted permanently), much to the guards attempting to open the gate just as the data on the B-Bots are overwritten with Ron's code while Barney exits the cloud storage area. After Ron's fixed code is successfully installed, Andrew steps down his position as Bubble CEO, pivoting it to Marc who retains his current position as CEO just as the audience cheers for Marc for retaining his position.

Three months later, all the B-Bots are updated with Ron's code at Bubble HQ to which Savannah praises Barney for changing the world thanks to Barney who updated all the B-Bot's codes by overwriting them with Ron's code mixed with Marc's algorithm just as Barney shares the food his grandmother packed him for lunch with Noah, Ava, Rich, and Savannah. Suddenly, as the film ends, a giant Bubble tower at Nonsuch appears with Ron's face, which implies that Ron is still alive in order to preserve his legacy.

## Appearance

Like any other B-Bot, Ron is a spherocylindrical (capsule) shaped robot that's little below waist-height and has a pair of wheels and stubby arms that retract flush into his body.

While a normal B-bot usually has a full-color 360-degree thematically customizable motion graphics skin, Ron is a plain grey-blue and limited to a basic monochrome pixelated interface and friendly face presented with "soft-edged simplicity". As he is defective, Ron's face intermittently glitches; an eye may drop, or a few pixels go astray.

Ron makes a habit out of wearing a chunky-knit beanie on his head, which Donka had originally made for Barney.

## Personality

As result of being a not-so-perfectly operating B-bot, Ron moves wobbly, as if he's dizzy. He is not as intellectual as the others and sees himself being 'laggy' frequently. Christy Lemire for *RogerEbert.com* wrote, "He’s just so perky and well-intentioned despite his brutal literalism and awkward turns of phrase, you can’t help but like him."

Due to an error in his programming, Ron is very stubborn, naive, and lacking in several key features most B-Bots normally have. Despite this, his main goal is still to become the best friend of his user; in his case, Barney. Despite Barney's initial reluctance towards Ron, in addition to Ron burning Barney's inhalers and underwear in an attempt to learn more about him, the two eventually start to grow on each other after Ron attacks a group of bullies after they antagonize him. He is even shown to be selfless at times, sacrificing himself so that all B-Bots could share his personality, despite it being heavily implied that doing so killed him.

However, in spite of Ron's good nature, his gullibility can also be a source of conflict between him and Barney, such as when he gets Barney suspended from school after starting a party that later leads to chaos. Ron is still shown to be very loyal to Barney, even when he isn't happy, as he still returned to his home after the two argued, and even coming with him to the forest to support him.

## Trivia

The B-bots who have a part of Ron's code, have some of his eccentricities as well. When Marc becomes CEO again for example, the bots on stage are heard playing the "Dikky dakka" music and dancing to it.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rons-gone-wrong-movie-review-2021