It was two years ago (almost a week apart), yours truly had the pleasure of reviewing the R-rated comedy, Strays (2023), a film obsessed with live-action talking dogs dropping F-bombs and talking about sex like they’re characters in a Judd Apatow comedy. It was painfully excruciating, proving to be one of the laziest films of 2023. Cut to the present and one of the most significant voices in 2D animation and millennial cartoons, Genndy Tartakovsky, has made Fixed, a film cut from the same cloth: an R-rated movie about dogs talking about their nuts, sex, poop, and humping, except it’s done in the style of Tex Avery 2D animation that has been tragically absent in animated films. 

Bull (Adam Devine) can’t stop humping. After an adorable flashback from two years ago when Bull is adopted, we open with Bull incessantly humping his nana’s leg, as he moans pleasurably. With every thrust, we see his hairy balls flop back and forth between his legs. And that’s all before she wakes up and grabs his, well…fuckstick, confusing it for her lipstick. After getting caught by his owner, he runs away (while making a pit stop by dunking his junk in the daughter’s frozen yogurt) before making a mess of the house. 

This introduction serves two purposes. It is the inciting incident that leads his owner to schedule Bull’s neutering, and Tartakovsky throws his cards on the table, communicating exactly what Fixed will be for the remainder of the runtime: an exaggerated 2D-animated film that’s beautifully drawn, depicting the most crass, unapologetic childish humor and sight gags. It’s a real Monkey’s Paw dilemma—endure the most unfunniest jokes and visual gags of the many dogs’ buttholes, but bask in the rare glory of 2D animation that is slowly becoming a lost art in the West. 

Tartakovsky and co-writer Jon Vitti (responsible for writing some of the best Simpsons episodes in the earliest seasons) construct a narrative that galvanizes Bull’s friends, Rocco (Idris Elba), a stern and cocky boxer, and Fetch (Fred Armisen), an influencer daschund, to have one last night out on the town to enjoy his doghood. And for Bull to profess his love to his next-door crush, a Honey (Kathryn Hahn), a borzoi show dog, who may have feelings for Bull. It’s a simple enough plot, yet the narrative feels like an admirable excuse for Tartakovsky and his animators to push the boundaries of adult animation.

Indeed, there’s no denying how distinct and nostalgic it is to see 2D animation made with a sizable budget and Hollywood talent. Even when we get a similar gross recreation of the dog pound escape scene from Strays (just replace the poop with pee set to Nessun dorma), it’s a far more pleasurable visual aesthetic than if it were digitally-animated. That barometer may sound intolerable, and that’s sort of the point—incredible animation can only go so far when the tone and sensibility feel equivalent to what a thirteen-year-old would find entertaining. 

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Some of this raw-dog humor lends notable comedic value in replicating the hyperbolic expressions of the characters and how they interact with the world. Bull is wonderfully designed in his facial expressions, whether it’s his deranged smiling humping Nana’s leg or his cries at the thought of losing his “nut buds” to ripping apart a squirrel—it’s clear Tartakovsky wants to emulate the wicked animation he grew up of combining the sweetness of adorable dogs to the black humor of Chuck Jones and Avery’s cartoons. An extended sequence where the bro dogs head to a dog-equivalent of a strip club, mustering some amusement at the designs of a variety of dogs partaking in some trashy fun. 

The voice actors are fully into the bit. Devine, Elba, and Hahn provide committed vocal works, despite some of the broad humor at play. Hahn, especially, retains her sardonic wit, as she gives key lines of how obsessed humans are with dog sex and stares at her owners having sex to make them uncomfortable. These sound like low-hanging fruit (pun intended), but Hahn makes it sound effortless. Elba sells the gruff, steely-eyed authority type that gives Bull some hard lessons in life, but always has his back when push comes to shove (especially a scene involving hostile alley cats). 

There’s an admirable quality in seeing Tartakovsky try to recreate not just the classic era of cartoon silliness but the deranged expressiveness that transformed a generation of children’s cartoons in the ’90s with the likes of Ren & Stimpy, which was a groundbreaking creation combining deranged, macabre animation with surreal, hyperviolent situations that made you laugh in a discomfiting way at the gross, visceral imagery on display. The narrative highlights the insecurities of Bull losing his testicles, but it’s sloppily done in a haphazard manner that feels glaring compared to Tartakovsky’s previous works. Tartakovsky tries to combine the sick and sweet by focusing on Bull’s tender love for Honey amidst the crazed sexual deviant behaviors.

Those two elements don’t produce anything humorous than what’s on the surface. Compare that to a cerebral sequence in which a dead-eyed Ren and Stimpy dance to a jolly, happy song, as Ren happily smashes his head to a bloody pulp to get rid of a mind control device. It’s uncomfortable in a cerebral way that beckons to the kind of black humor Tartakovsky should’ve mined with Fixed. 

Fixed had been a passion project for Tartakovsky; originally pitched in 2009, the film finally came together when Sony Pictures Animation came on to produce with New Line Cinema acting as the distributor. Suddenly, in August of 2024, New Line dropped the film due to cost-saving measures by Warner Bros. Discovery. Keep in mind that Tartakovsky had a beautiful relationship with the studio, having iconic shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack. 

Fans of Tartakovsky were devastated, as the champion of 2D animation had made a bold, atypical film that would be a welcome surprise in a marketplace saturated with safe, made-by-committee 3D-animated films. Earlier in the year, Netflix came to the rescue and provided it a home. Turns out that background and lore prove to be far more interesting than the tiresome narrative strung along for eighty-five minutes. 

Tartakovsky opted to make the film with 3D animation to sell the project, but he remained steadfast that this film could only work in the medium of 2D animation. “Hand-drawn balls look a lot better than CG balls.” I guess he’s not wrong; 2D balls do look great, and god only knows we don’t need to fathom a digital version of Bull’s balls. But after the tenth time, maybe some creative jokes or a more mature sensibility would have balanced the image of rats chomping on his nuts in an extended sequence. It’s fair to wonder what Tartakovsky saw in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity using the precious medium of 2D animation that’s absent in most studio pipelines. 

Hopefully, the extended climax of a male dog being impregnated by another dog doesn’t turn off a studio executive from wanting to invest in 2D animation. Or perhaps that ship has sailed, along with Bull’s two best friends. (No, I’m not talking about his dog friends.)

Review Courtesy of Amritpal Rai

Feature Image Credit to Netflix via Deadline