Genndy Tartakovsky is one of the most important animated voices of his generation, whether it’s producing children’s classics like “Dexter’s Laboratory,” working on beloved properties like “Samurai Jack,” “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” and “Primal,” or making Sony a fortune with the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise. The thought of this wildly successful creator working within the studio system at Sony to deliver an adults-only animated offering in the vein of “Fritz the Cat” or even “Sausage Party” was exhilarating. The reality of “Fixed” is a different story. After Warner Bros. kicked this mangy mutt out of the house, Sony Animation shopped it around, and Netflix took in the stray, but no one bothered to teach it any new tricks.
“Fixed” opens with a terrier named Bull (Adam DeVine, giving it his vocal all throughout) humping away on the house’s eldest citizen, a caricature known only as Nana (Grey DeLisle). In what could be considered a tone-setting bit of comedy, Nana loses her glasses and accidentally takes grip of Bull’s “lipstick,” mistaking it for actual make-up. And “Fixed” is off, getting as much mileage as possible out of canine body parts and fornication, but more often than not mistaking gross for subversive.
Bull has a crush on a nearby Afghan hound named Honey (Kathryn Hahn) and a friend group that includes a boxer named Rocco (Idris Elba) and a dachshund named Fetch (Fred Armisen). A neighbor Borzoi (Beck Bennett) forms a triangle with Bull and Honey, the spoiled snob who is Bull’s rival in life and love. But all of this is a mere backdrop for a journey of the soul that Bull undergoes when he learns that he’s about to get snipped. Convinced that being neutered will destroy any romantic prospects he may have with Honey, Bull goes on an adventure to sow his oats one final time before a life of dick-less misery.
Tartakovsky was reportedly inspired to make an animal road-trip film in which his buddies played different domestic companions, a sort of “The Truly Secret Life of Pets,” but then shifted to just dogs when he got the idea that his protagonist was going to get snipped the next day. To his credit, rather than follow the trend of soulless CGI, Tartakovsky collaborated with Renegade Animation and Lightstar Studios to develop an old-fashioned aesthetic, one that recalls the classic Disney and Looney Tunes animation, especially the work of Tex Avery. All of this sounds great, and the best thing about “Fixed” is the expressive animation, even when what’s being expressed are Bull’s talking genitals.
The problem with “Fixed” is the inconsistent and largely laugh-free script, one that thinks an underground dog sex club that plays “Candy Shop” is edgy. It’s hard to believe Warner Bros., Sony, or anyone was ever going to release this mess in theaters. Desperation destroys comic timing, and this thing is drenched in the flop sweat of a stand-up comedian who knows he’s losing his audience. In an era when “South Park” is going HAM on the President of the United States, creators have to do more than end the writing at “dog sex”. And the film is constantly doing that thing where gross-out comedies turn to the camera and say, “Can you believe we’re getting away with this??!?!” Sure, now do something interesting with it.
