Fixed (2025)

Genndy Tartakovsky's first adult animated film Fixed has had a long road to the screen. Seemingly rejected by every studio, it eventually ended up being produced by Sony Pictures Animation, although for some reason, they decided against releasing it themselves. The rights ended up at Warner Bros, only to fall foul of the new management at Warner Bros Discovery, who are apparently not interested in being in the adult animation business. Eventually, having been kicked from pillar to post, the film found its forever home at Netflix, who are much more friendly to adult animation.

Fixed is directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, and written by the director alongside Jon Vitti (The Simpsons, The Angry Birds Movie) with Steve Greenberg and Rich Lufrano getting additional story credits. It is produced by Michelle Murdocca, Ashley Postlewaite and Christian Roedel. Music is by Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom. Animation production was by Renegade Animation and Brazilian outfit Lighstar Studios.

The film features the voices of Adam Devine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Bobby Moynihan, Beck Bennett, Michelle Buteau, River Gallo, Michelle Ruff, Kari Wahlgren, Grey DeLisle and more.

The story focuses on pampered pooch Bull (Devine). He's pretty much a Good Dog, apart from his unfortunate obsession with humping Nana's leg. This eventually leads his family to decide to take him to the vets and have him neutered. When Bull finds out he is going to get the snip in the morning, he gets together with his friends to have one last great epic night.

Adult animation has a reputation- ironically- for being juvenile. Too often it leans heavily into gross-out humour, extreme content and sex and violence. Fixed is fixated on balls as well as various other bodily fluids and functions. The dogs are drawn anatomically correctly- although they draw the line at depicting their 'lipstick'. The whole thing is decidedly crude and rude and is full of frank dialogue and plenty of effing and jeffing. It decisively earns its R-rating- and then some. But does that translate into laughs? This is of course, completely subjective, but I found it to be unfortunately unfunny. The jokes, for the most part, fall flat and the crudity quickly wears thin.

On the plus side, on a technical level, this is pretty great. In the hands of animation genius like Genndy the animation always looks good. It has a cartoony look to it, but it leans towards the grotesque rather than the cute. The faces are extremely expressive and full of character. There's no doubt that it's great to see a fully hand-drawn animated feature in the year 2025, and it's a remarkable achievement that Genndy has pulled it off. And that it looks as good as this.

For all the film's flaws, it's not the voice cast's fault. The voice actor ensemble are universally excellent, giving their all. Stand outs are Adam Devine (as Bull), Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn and River Gallo. The latter voices Frankie, a doberman of indeterminate gender who is one of the film's most interesting characters. They have a meet-cute with Lucky, one of Bull's pack in one of the film's most surprising story threads. There is some enjoyable jaunty music, too.

The film quite effectively creates a sort of parallel world inhabited by the dogs, complete with doggie bordellos, nightclubs and a whole canine society. Humans are kept separate and always depicted without a face, kind of like how adults are portrayed in Peanuts.

There's also humour to be mined in the idea of contrasting a typically kid-friendly genre (the talking animal movie) to adult animation. You've rarely seen cute critters that talk and behave like this.

Cards on the table- I really wanted to love Fixed. I so desperately wanted it to be good. And I was left disappointed. It is ultimately let down by its script and relies too heavily on crudity for its comedy. There's some half-decent slapstick humour here too, but for the most part it is lacking in the laughs department. Which is not ideal for a comedy. It's not a complete disaster, and there are good bits here and there. Just not enough to call it a success, or for me to be able to wholeheartedly recommend it. We can only hope for it to lead to bigger and better things.

 FORMAT: MOVIE AVAILABLE ON: STREAMING  FROM: NETFLIX RATING: R/ [US] 15[UK]  RUNNING TIME : 1 hr 27mins

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IN A NUTSHELL:

  Light on LOLs and heavy on gross-out, Fixed is a dog-gone disappointment.

★★☆☆☆