Will audiences watch an R-rated studio animated film about a dog hanging enjoying his last night of testicular freedom? With Fixed, animation veteran Genndy Tartokovsky is about to find out.
“That’s the million dollar question — will Fixed break through?” Tartakovsky says. “Will it open a door? Then if it does for streaming, will then studios look at it and go like, ‘Oh, look, people are showing up to watch it on streaming. Is there a possibility they’ll show up and buy tickets and go to the theaters?’”
The question is actually worth more than a million dollars, because Fixed could pry open a much bigger market for animation if its bawdy approach pays off.
The Netflix comedy follows Bull (Adam DeVine), a Staffordshire Bull Terrier who humps everything he can. Unlike his fellow canine friends Rocco (Idris Elba), Fetch (Fred Armisen), and Lucky (Bobby Moynihan), he hasn’t been neutered. But when he learns that his humans are going to neuter him in the morning, Bull and his friends have a night out of dog-bauchery — and he keeps thinking of his next door neighbor Honey (Kathryn Hahn), an Afghan Hound he’s in love with.
Tartakovsky is the creator of animated hit shows including Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars. He’s been developing the idea for Fixed since before he directed the first Hotel Transylvania in 2012. Sony greenlit the dog film after Tartakovsky directed the third Hotel Transylvania installment, Summer Vacation, in 2018.
Fixed has had a complicated journey to the screen: It was completed in 2023 and was to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros Discovery under New Line Cinema, but was dropped in a cost-cutting move, according to Deadline. The film then returned to Sony, which brought it to Netflix.
The streamer has become the beacon for adult animation with shows such as Bojack Horseman and Big Mouth, as well as the Sony Animation features The Mitchells Vs. the Machines and the platform record breaking K-Pop Demon Hunters.
We talked with Genndy Tartakovsky about finding the balance between raunchy humor and heart, the film’s 2D animation, and his hope for the future of feature-length adult animated productions.
MovieMaker: Can you tell me about the earliest stages of Fixed and what different animation styles and techniques you went through?
Genndy Tartakovsky: I wanted it to start as a 2D cartoony film. Then when it wasn’t selling, I kind of decided, well, I don’t want to sell because we’ve got a rated-R story, it’s original, and maybe if we change one element to be more “normal,” then it’ll sell.
So we tried for a little bit to do it in CG, and so we actually built a CG Bull, one of the original earlier designs, and then it was like, OK, it’s looking all right. And then we started making the testicles, and once you start modeling them and you’re putting hair on it and the amount of wrinkles, it just becomes too gross. Very quickly we stopped just because it didn’t feel right and it would change the whole tone of the movie to be actually gross, rather than kind of still charming and appealing. Then that was it.
We had gone back to the style and I played around with the character design as far as how subversive it was through the different iterations, but generally I always kind of pictured it the way it ended up.
MovieMaker: Fixed does a good job of using these dog characters and evoking these humanistic insecurities and traits. What was the process in finding that throughline of Bull’s arc and developing his very romantic core between him and Honey?
Genndy Tartakovsky: I think Adam’s voice and performance and Kathryn’s voice, they’re both so warm and you wanted the relationship to be unique. She’s not just like the demure girl next door and he’s the handsome hunky guy. It was more about, “Hey, he’s kind of funny and sarcastic,” and they make fun of each other, and so it feels like a real relationship.
My wife and I make fun of each other sometimes in a nice friendly way, and so I feel like it’s a more contemporary depiction of how real couples are. So that was the growth of it, to try to figure it out — how to make it feel more real and substantial. Even in this cartoony setting and in actuality they didn’t have a lot of scenes together, so that was also challenging. How do you establish everything in a couple of scenes, for people to really feel it?
Genndy Tartakovsky on the Music of Fixed
MovieMaker: Fixed has such a strong use of jazz, soul and R&B that’s so perfectly aligned. I still think about the “Me and Mrs. Jones” needle drop.
Genndy Tartakovsky: Well, I always wanted this music because I thought it has a natural warmth and soul to it, and it’s the music that I love. I love 70s R&B and funk and all that kind of stuff. So everything, I think ‘70s, maybe because I was a kid during that time, it connects with me. So I felt like it was a very quick cheat to get the movie to feel warmer because you have these amazing R&B songs.
Then yeah, “Mr. And Mrs. Jones” is one of my favorite songs. We first had an initial music budget and it was really low, but luckily we were able to amp it up a little bit to get these songs that really kind of define it more, and it does it really, I keep saying it, but it really does give the movie a little bit more warmth and a nice color to it. It’s not just normal orchestral music.
And Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom, they did the original music in between, and they tried to put it in those. We used Earth, Wind and Fire, some of their instrumental beginnings of the songs. We used that as the basis for some of the other music.
MovieMaker: Throughout the film you’re playing with so many different hues of light, and it adds so much emotion and weight. What are the conversations that you had with your background artists to give it this beautiful flair?
Genndy Tartakovsky: That’s [production designer] Scott Wills. Scott’s been with me since Samurai Jack and he is the master of color and value and feel. And so with him, I never talk about colors because I know he’s going to deliver what he does. We knew this movie wasn’t going to be as dramatically art-directed, like a Samurai Jack or Primal, because it’s comedic and we wanted to give it a little bit more sense of reality.
At the same time, we still always believe that the color emphasizes the mood and enhances the mood. We talked about where those places are, so that we can enhance. Like the nightmare sequence, where Bull’s tripping out because he’s high. He brought in these bright pinks and everything became a little bit more stylized and graphic. So that was really great. And then the nights were very warm.
That’s the thing about Scott’s color and use of light — you actually feel the lighting. That’s the crazy part. I’ve worked with other painters where it’s nice and you’re painting the light, but you don’t necessarily feel it. And Scott was the first painter I ran across where and I’m like, “Wow, I’m looking at the way the sun hits the trees and I’m actually feeling it.”
And so that kind of changed everything for me. So, this movie, that’s what we did. The way he paints and his artistic choices of the color palette just gives you another level of warmth, which was a great juxtaposition to all the naughtiness that we had around it.
MovieMaker: I love that in this movie the only self-assured character in a sea of everybody else who has so many insecurities is this only intersex dog voiced by River Gallo. Tell me about the character of Frankie.
Genndy Tartakovsky: It started with the Hump House, right? Because the Hump House is this crazy place, strip club, whorehouse, whatever it is. Then we needed a bodyguard. And I was like, oh, well, it’ll be a Doberman, but I don’t want to do the generic “tough guy” bodyguard. And so what would be kind of freaky, cool, and confident, like you’re saying? And we came up with this character.
Then somebody sent me a clip that River did and their voice was amazing. I was like, “Oh my God, that’s such a perfect animation voice.” They were totally into it. So we went to record and River was amazing.
Then I think about the relationship between Frankie and Lucky. When I was drawing the board, I just had them stare at each other and it just kind of hit me like, “Oh, wait a second. This is a perfect love match.” Lucky, he’s kind of misunderstood and Frankie’s very assured and confident, and it was kind of a perfect match. The surprising part, it’s a pretty small part of the movie, and then people clap when they’re reunited. It’s amazing how from something so little, you can get so much.
Fixed is now streaming on Netflix.
Main image: Fixed. Netflix.