In Fixed, premiering at the Annecy International Festival of Animation in France, Netflix has a nice feature film companion piece for its oh-so-adult animation shows like Big Mouth. This one about a pooch named Bull fetting over the imminent loss of his doggie testicles — or so he thinks — is in the vein of Seth Rogen’s very Seth Rogenish 2016 toon Sausage Party and going way back to the king of the genre Ralph Bakshi’s 1972 Fritz the Cat, which was sold with the ad line, “We’re not rated ‘X’ For nothin’, baby!”
That animated breakthrough announced loudly and proudly that cartoons are not always kids stuff, but quite frankly, compared to Fixed, it might as well have come from Disney.
Credit Sony Pictures Animation for this production, and I am not sure why they unloaded it to Netflix, but you can bet kids will have a lot more access to this movie and they might love it even more than adults. Parents check those parental controls. You have been warned.
With animation that looks probably intentionally just one step above (and not even that) the old Saturday morning 2D-cartoon style, director Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) and his co-writer Jon Vitti (SNL, The Simpsons) might as well have pitched this as Lady and the Tramp meets Deep Throat (reference too old?). At its heart, though, the character design of this one is not that different — the dogs are just as individual and appealing in their own foul-mouthed way as those canines in the 1955 Disney classic.
But this one stakes its claim to its R rating right from the beginning as we hear the sexual ecstasy coming unseen from another room in the house, the camera finally zeroing in on our star, Bull (voiced by Adam Devine), humping Nana’s leg with complete abandon and in vivid detail. This appears to be our four-legged Harvey Weinstein’s main joy in life as we learn his complete obsession with his ever-visible nuts, but there’s also heartache in this place as Bull is smitten but intimidated by towering next-door neighbor Afghan hound and showdog Honey (Kathryn Hahn), to whom he says politically incorrect things as she peers over the fence.
The problem is revealed as Bull, pampered from his puppy days by his loving owners, gets wind that he is about to have the crown jewels — which he has nicknamed Old Spice and Napoleon — snipped. Ruff break. On a visit to Wiggly Field, the dog park, his balls are still the object of affection for a number of hounds who don’t have them anymore. It is also there he meets his match for the ungettable Honey, a narcissistic showdog named Sterling (Beck Bennett) who is being groomed to mate with her. Arrrrrff.
As he meets with his buddies Rocco (Idris Elba), Fetch (Fred Armisen) and Lucky the Chihuahua (Bobby Moynihan), Bull also realizes he has to plot his escape or say goodbye to his pride and joys. Like Lady and the Tramp, this leads to a wild time on the town including a hilarious interlude with street cats and to a sleazy strip club/brothel where we meet one major seducter, Doberman Frankie (River Gallo), who gets it on with one of them while the rest of guys do things that won’t quite sound quite as funny as they are in print. So you will have to see for yourself just how far Tartakovsky, clearly working with no restraints, wants to take this.
Still, to avoid this being just one long one-joke premise, there is a satisfying ending, and the film’s last act delivers in a way that redeems everything. Fixed is fun, if you aren’t offended easily.
Title: Fixed
Festival: Annecy International Festival of Animation
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: August 13, 2025 (streaming only)
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Screenwriters: Genndy Tartakovsky and Jon Vitti
Cast: Adam Devine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Bobby Moynihan, Beck Bennett, Michelle Buteau, River Gallo
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour and 26 minutes
