THE STORY – Bull, an average, all-around good dog, discovers he’s going to be neutered in the morning! As the gravity of this life-altering event sets in, Bull realizes he needs one last adventure with his pack of best friends as these are the last 24 hours with his balls! What could go wrong…?
THE CAST – Adam DeVine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett & Bobby Moynihan
THE TEAM – Genndy Tartakovsky (Director) & Jon Vitti (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 86 Minutes
In June 2019, at a panel celebrating all things Sony Pictures Animation at the Annecy Festival, studio head Kristine Belson pointed out that, unlike some of their competitors, they do not have an in-house style, thus allowing for a wider range of filmmaker-driven projects. The panel ended quite memorably with a surprise appearance by animator and screenwriter Genndy Tartakovsky, who shared some preliminary information about two films he was working on, the first two R-rated features produced by Sony Animation. The first of those two, “Fixed,” was unveiled at Annecy six years later before a global debut on Netflix, and it is indeed a very R-rated endeavor. At its raunchiest, it puts something like “Sausage Party” completely to shame.
The story revolves around Bull (Adam DeVine), an absolutely adorable mutt with one annoying habit: his compulsive humping of grandma’s leg. The rest of the family throws him a party one night, which he interprets as a telltale sign of impending doom: other canines have described the exact same shindig as the ultimate indulgence before they were taken to the vet the next morning and had their testicles removed. Feeling betrayed, Bull runs away from home and ends up having a night out with his best friends Rocco (Idris Elba), Fetch (Fred Armisen), and Lucky (Bobby Moynihan). The aim is to have as much fun as possible, although one question lingers in Bull’s mind: will he find the courage to declare his love for his neighbor Honey (Kathryn Hahn) before it’s too late?
Having cut his teeth in the feature directing domain with the first three “Hotel Transylvania” movies (and an unsuccessful attempt to bring “Popeye” back to the screen), Tartakovsky is clearly much more in his element on this project, which originated from him as opposed to being his take on Adam Sandler’s brand of humor (in that sense, the third “Hotel Transylvania” film, which Tartakovsky also wrote, explicitly highlighted their difference in approach). It is, in a way, a full circle moment for him, as his first proper job in animation was on the Hanna-Barbera series “2 Stupid Dogs.” Here, these canines are a bit smarter, but the potential for comedic mayhem remains unchanged.
More importantly, and perhaps also the reason the film ultimately ended up being acquired by Netflix (it was initially supposed to be a New Line theatrical release, but then Warner Bros. Discovery’s general attitude towards animation got in the way), it’s a return to hand-drawn animation, the likes of which we rarely see nowadays in feature-length form from a major studio. In fact, while Tartakovsky did consider using computer animation to make the film more commercially appealing, he wisely stuck to his guns about retaining a Tex Avery-inspired aesthetic, which allows for more balls-to-the-wall insanity (pun very much intended).
And it’s no slow-burn when it comes to said insanity: Bull’s addiction to humping leads to a sequence, mere minutes in, that plays like the opening gag of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” with the addition of bodily fluids. This then sets the wild tone for the remainder of the film. Body parts get stretched, sometimes to the limit. Shrieks of pain are shown in agonizingly hilarious close-ups. Lucky, who ends up having arguably the most emotionally satisfying character arc in the whole movie, is introduced as someone so dimwitted he keeps eating what he thinks is chocolate and remains unphased when he finds out it’s a different kind of brown stuff (rarely has the simple motion of chewing looked more disturbing, even in cannibal movies).
Of course, dog people might get more enjoyment out of this, but the overall story has a heartfelt hook that transcends the crude premise. At its core, “Fixed” is a buddy movie, a story of male friendship à la Judd Apatow, albeit one where the buddies are more likely to sniff each other’s butts than smoke weed (and even Apatow would get in trouble if he showed as much genitalia). There’s even a canine equivalent of the classic preppy douchebag antagonist in the shape of Sterling, a show dog so vain his dialogue he practically demanded Beck Bennett’s voice, one of the greatest gifts “Saturday Night Live” has bestowed upon animation in recent years.
The casting is also indicative of how this differs from “Hotel Transylvania“: in the latter case, Tartakovsky had to structure his preferred jokes around predetermined situations involving Adam Sandler’s regular troupe of actors (Kevin James, David Spade, etc.); here, everyone is gamely performing in service of the material, and contributing mainly to the more heartwarming moments, as many of the funniest scenes play out with little to no input from the voice talent (Grey Delisle, who voices the grandma, is basically a glorified extra in the film’s first gross-out extravaganza sequence).
“Fixed” stumbles a little when it tries to rely on more explicitly joke-based banter, highlighting yet again how Tartakovsky’s strengths lie in the visual realm more so than in comedic writing. Fortunately, those less effective moments are few and far between, giving “Fixed” all the space it needs to sell itself as a brilliantly vulgar, amusingly sincere declaration of love to an almost bygone era of animation, one that struggles to survive on a nearly daily basis (the behind-the-scenes troubles of the latest “Looney Tunes” projects come to mind) and yet keeps delivering consistent gags driven by a pure passion for absolute anarchy. As such, while it is good that the movie has found a home, it’s a shame it’s on a streaming service where it can’t be best enjoyed with a crowd.
