Raunchy and crude animation may not be for children, but it certainly has a dedicated fanbase all its own. From Sausage Party to Rick & Morty to Big Mouth and everything in between, we are truly living in a golden age of adult animations. Enter: Fixed, the new canine-centric, hand-drawn animation from titan Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory). From an idea that has been floating around since 2010, then bumped to two different studios, Netflix appears to be the perfect home for this hilariously off-color oddity of a movie. We follow a lovable dog named Bull (voiced by Adam Devine) as he discovers his balls are not long for this world. With that simple premise in tow, Tatakovsky goes off to the races with breed puns, doggie whorehouses, puckered anuses, and talking testicles, just to name a few of the rapid-pace gags squeezed out. Laugh out loud funny especially as an animal lover, Fixed grooms maximum comedy from its preposterous premise, coupled with stunning hand-drawn animation.
After living two blissful years with his human family humping everything in sight, Bull realizes, to his horror, that they have imminent plans to get him fixed. How will this affect his crush on gorgeous Afghan hound show dog, Honey (Kathryn Hahn)? Bull spirals—he assumes that he’ll be a lifeless zombie without his balls, even though his group of misfit dog park friends are all fixed anyway. These pals—including self-conscious boxer Rocco (Idris Elba), apparent influencer daschshund Fetch (Fred Armisen), and cat-shit-eating beagle Lucky (Bobby Boynihan)—vow to help “suck every bit of fun out of those balls” before Bull loses them for good. Villainous Sterling (Beck Bennett) taunts the others, whom he views as being beneath him. Leave it to the Borzoi, who gets his asshole bleached every other week, to pass judgment on the normies.
Following this compact group of characters as they go on zany antics around town is a perfect setup for maximum ridiculousness. It also opens up a full universe of zany possibilities. The dogs rip apart squirrels, infiltrate a prestigious dog show with that classic trope of stacking inside a trenchcoat, and end up at “The Hump House.” If there was ever any doubt about this being an incredibly horny movie to begin with, their arrival here, punctuated by offbeat sexual innuendo, truly doubles down. That the creators even manage to find an organic way to fold in a queer character is a marvel—intersex dobermann Frankie (River Gallo) steals the show when they pop up. An extremely shocking yet downright hysterical scene near the end will no doubt leave folks talking.
The animators have a field day, with very expressive character designs and sharp textures. Creative angles emphasize their exaggerated features in that classic 90s cartoon style. Fixed feels closest in visuals to the greats of that time period, with an apt modern equivalent being the sensational The Day the Earth Blew Up or 2019’s underrated Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling. We truly do not have enough movies of this ilk. While Fixed obviously is not family friendly in any way, it should connect for a generation that grew up on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. To think that, at one time, this fully completed feature was destined to be shelved forever in the wake of the terrible tax write-offs of WB head David Zaslav, is infuriating.
There are plenty of ball jokes to go around, but these characters are actually matter. Each of them have clear arcs, but especially Bull and Honey, who give the film a playful rom-com vibe whenever they share scenes together. The voice acting perfectly suits each wildly unhinged doggie and their respective personalities. Despite the overt raunchiness, this is still a character-first comedy with lovely messages about going against the grain and standing out from the crowd. In much the same way as its characters, Fixed emerges as a truly unique feature that should stand the test of time, saggy balls and all.
Fixed debuted at 2025’s Fantasia Film Festival, and premieres exclusively to Netflix globally on Wednesday, August 13th.
