Barney gets a robot for his birthday, and it does not work the way the other kids’ robots work. That’s the setup for Ron’s Gone Wrong, and it’s also the movie’s whole argument: sometimes the thing that doesn’t fit is the one worth keeping.
Sarah Smith directs the film alongside Jean-Philippe Vine, with a script from Smith and Peter Baynham. Zach Galifianakis voices Ron, the glitchy bot, while Jack Dylan Grazer plays Barney, the boy who can’t find friends anywhere else. Ed Helms, Olivia Colman, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, Cullen McCarthy, Ava Morse, Marcus Scribner, Thomas Barbusca round out the cast. The film ran 107 minutes.
Trailer, via 20th Century Studios.
The B-Bot Problem
In Ron’s Gone Wrong, Bubble, the tech company behind the B-Bot, designs a robot buddy meant to make friends through algorithm. Its CEO, Marc Wydell, wants the robot to help kids connect. In the town of Nonsuch, California, Barney Pudowski is the only kid in his class without one. His former friends, Savannah Meades, Rich Belcher, Noah, and Ava all have their own B-Bots.
On Barney’s birthday, his father Graham and his grandmother Donka realize he has no friends. They rush to a Bubble store, but it closes for the day. So they grab a slightly damaged B-Bot that fell from a delivery van. Barney gets the bot as a late-birthday gift, and he quickly learns it’s defective and glitchy. He tries to return it, but he ends up running into Rich and his friends, who taunt him.
The bot fights back because its safety functions are disabled. Barney and the bot happily run off together. Then Rich calls the police, and Graham and Donka are taken to the Bubble store so the bot can be recycled. Barney saves the bot and names him Ron Bintscatsco, after his model number: R0NB1NT5CAT5CO.
Galifianakis and Grazer Carry It
Galifianakis performs Ron with a deadpan delivery, meant to show the bot is run by an algorithm and not very emotional. He called the approach unusual, since directors had never asked him for “less” emotion before. Smith praised Helms’ performance as Graham, noting he improvised lines and added touches that made the film funnier.
Grazer first recorded lines for Barney in 2017, when he was 13. He didn’t finalize the role until early 2021, by which time he was 18. It became difficult to hold onto his 13-year-old voice over the years of recording. He was introduced as a test voice for early animatics, but Smith kept him on after being struck by the range of his performance.
The chemistry between the two leads is the engine of the film. Ron is the wrong robot in every way — glitchy, blunt, and unfiltered — and Barney is the wrong kid, the one who can’t find friends anywhere else. Their bond grows because neither fits the mold the world expects.
The World of Nonsuch
The film is set in a world where robots are common, and the townspeople treat them as normal. Savannah shows Ron something that triggers a response, though the scene cuts off before the full effect is shown. The film doesn’t spend much time on the wider world beyond Nonsuch, focusing instead on Barney’s small circle of family and classmates.
The animation comes from DNEG Animation, with Locksmith Animation producing the feature for the first time. Voice work and animation were all done remotely during the pandemic, with funding support from TSG Entertainment. The film premiered at the 65th BFI London Film Festival on 9 October 2021, then opened in the UK on 15 October and the US on 22 October, distributed by 20th Century Studios.
Where It Falls Short
The premise is simple and effective, but the execution leans on familiar beats. The taunting scenes, the chase with the police, the rescue mission — none of it surprises. The film repeats its own jokes, especially around Ron’s glitches and Barney’s attempts to hide him.
There’s also a tension between the film’s message about being different and its treatment of the bullies. The movie is clear-eyed about how lonely Barney is, but it handles his tormentors with broad strokes rather than nuance. Rich and his friends are cartoonish villains, not complicated figures who might learn something themselves.
The tagline sums up the problem: “Best Friend Forever (battery life may vary).” It’s funny, but it’s also a reminder that the film’s stakes are limited. Ron is a defective robot, not a real person, and the film treats his fate as a minor setback rather than a tragedy.
A Defective Robot Worth Keeping
Ron’s Gone Wrong is a film about belonging, but it’s also a film about accepting the flaws that come with it. Ron isn’t a perfect friend — he glitches, he misreads social cues, he fights back when taunted — but Barney sees past those defects. That’s the point.
The film’s strength is in its specificity. Ron isn’t a metaphor for human connection; he’s a literal robot with a faulty algorithm. Barney isn’t a symbol of the outsider; he’s a lonely boy who finally finds someone who doesn’t care about fitting in. The movie trusts its audience to sit with that simplicity.
It doesn’t need a deeper message to land. It just needs to let the relationship breathe.
Key Facts
– Runtime: 107 minutes
– Directors: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine
– Writers: Sarah Smith, Peter Baynham
– Tagline: “Best Friend Forever (battery life may vary).”
Ron’s Gone Wrong is a solid, occasionally uneven film about friendship and being different. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it commits to its central relationship with genuine warmth. Ron is a defective robot, and Barney is the only person who sees that as a feature, not a flaw. The film earns its ending because it spends its runtime building that bond, even when the plot leans on familiar beats.
It’s not a great film, but it’s a good one, and it knows exactly what it wants to be.
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