Adult animation is hitting a new high on Netflix, but Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed goes fully off-leash in the best way possible. This feature-length, raunchy animated film follows Bull (Adam Devine), a scrappy mutt who finds out his freedom is about to be permanently cut short. With the clock ticking on his manhood, Bull rallies his pack for one last night of unfiltered chaos. From chasing tail and avoiding danger to finally shooting his shot with the pretty pup next door, Honey (Kathryn Hahn), it’s a balls-to-the-wall adventure that proves you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s almost gone.
Joining Devine and Hahn on Bull’s untamed one-night bender is a starstudded voice cast. Idris Elba plays Rocco, a confident boxer; Fred Armisen appears as a dachshund seeking social media fame; Beck Bennett portrays a Borzoi who is Bull’s frustrating love rival; also from Saturday Night Live, Bobby Moynihan takes on an anxious beagle named Lucky. Other key voice actors include Michelle Buteau, River Gallo, and Grey DeLisle.
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At an exclusive screening of Fixed, Den of Geek contributor and X-Ray Vision host Rosie Knight sat down with director Genndy Tartakovsky to dig into the madness behind his R-rated canine comedy. In the Q&A, Tartakovsky opens up about pitching a dog movie that’s definitely not for kids, the influences that shaped its style, and why it was crucial to keep the film irreverent. He also shares his deep love for 2-D animation. And though there might be visual similarities, Fixed is no Looney Tunes.
Check out select highlights from Knight and Tartakovsky’s conversation, but make sure you catch the full Q&A for a complete look at how the film came to life, straight from the director himself.
Rose Knight: How does it feel to have an audience watch this and know it’s going to be available all over the world soon?
Genndy Tartakovsky: I keep waiting for it to get cancelled. Every review that comes out, every screening – I’m always worried that someone’s going to pull the leg out from right under me. While we were making the movie, it was like, every week [we thought] “We’re still making this, right?” And every time we would get a story note, we thought “Are they going to cancel it?” Because it’s so unusual to [make an] R-rated, hand-drawn, well-animated, character-driven, original movie.
Could you talk a little bit about your influences while working on [Fixed]?
My sensibility is Tex Avery – without the buggy eyes – but just that style of animation. Warner Bros., Popeye, Hanna-Barbera – ‘50s Disney especially – it’s all part of things that I really love. When we got to do [Fixed] – that’s the animation that I love. I’m very comfortable with it. We did the movie, and the animation– because it was successful – felt nostalgic. So, it gave this accessibility to this movie because everything isn’t new. That animation is somewhat familiar to me because it’s cartoony and expressive and extreme – it’s something that I’ve seen before but then this material is a little bit more pushed. I always felt that it made the audience more comfortable accepting the balls and the butts and all that stuff.
Was there a specific gag that made it into the film that just absolutely killed when you were talking about it with the crew while making the movie? Do you remember one where people were losing their minds?
Well, the climax.
Pun very intended.
That scene was my test, basically. I don’t know how many executives, when they read the script, said, “Well, maybe we’ll do the movie, but you gotta cut this scene up.” And I go, “Well, then you don’t understand this movie,” because it literally is all about this scene. For myself as a director, my goal is to have a sequence where everybody’s laughing from beginning to end, and those are really hard sequences to come up with. That’s one of the few sequences where people start to giggle, and then when they get it, they start to laugh, and then [they’re] squirming and laughing all through [it]. For our first screening (with Sony Animation), they watched the first act, and the first thing they said was, “Wow, there’s so many butts and balls and butt holes,” and we had this 30 minute intellectual conversation about – “Is it too much? Is it not enough?”
How did you land on the right amount of buttholes?
We had to count.
I’ve been saying to people, “The first 50 minutes – that’s a test” It’s like, do you think this is funny and can you commit to it? And if you do, I was very surprised by how much heart and sweetness is in this story of acceptance between these friend groups. Could you talk a little bit about why that was just as important as the gross, crazy, kind of saucy stuff?
If the characters didn’t work, then the movie would fall apart. If the characters and emotions and the relationships between the characters can make the audience feel it, then it was successful. I kind of take for granted that – to me– this is kind of soft. We could have made it so gross and show every wrinkle and nook and cranny. Everything could have been disgusting. So, we kind of controlled ourselves.
Not only did you get to this incredible level with animation, but the voice cast is also pretty incredible. So, could you talk a little bit about getting to hear those characters brought to life by these incredible actors?
It was great. It was very nerve wracking once we started the casting process because it’s an R-rated movie. It’s not everybody’s thing, and we would get some rejections. Once we sent it to Adam [Devine], he totally got it. So, that was the perfect fit. Then, we had a short list for Rocco, and Idris Elba was on [it]. I was like, There’s no way. They’re talking about him becoming James Bond. How is he going to do this movie? We had sent him some drawings, and we sent the script, and he loved it.
The best story of all was [casting] Kathryn Hahn. We know Honey as the awesome girl next door, and she’s also one of the guys as Bull’s best friend, but we were holding back a little bit. So, I sent her the script, and she calls me [and says], “I love this, but I’ll only do it if you write me as funny and raunchy as the guys.” When she gave me that permission, and we wrote all her lines, she just went crazy with it.
Now that the movie is about to be out in the world, and we just had this incredible audience watch it, are you excited to see what gags really connect?
Yeah. I was talking about the climax reaction. I think I’m excited to see if there’s going to be anger or just laughing. The biggest thing, and this is a big hopeful dream, is it opens the door. Whether there’s another movie like it, or a different adult movie, but just kind of nudging the industry forward.
Fixed premieres Wednesday, August 13 on Netflix
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