Genndy Tartakovsky’s Raunchy Netflix Animated Feature

Not since Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat and its sequel have cartoon animals gotten so down and dirty as they do in the latest animated effort by director Genndy Tartakovsky. Depicting the travails of a dog facing the fate alluded to in the title, Fixed plays like a canine version of The 25th Hour, except that instead of going to prison the next day, the main character is about to be neutered.

Those who are easily offended may want to steer clear of this Netflix movie, co- scripted by Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania) with Jon Vitti (The Simpsons). But if, let’s say, South Park is a regular part of your animated diet, you’ll find plenty of amusement in this relentlessly raunchy and vulgar comedy.

A perfectly cast Adam DeVine plays the central role of Bull, who is clearly experiencing the male dog version of heat. He’s relentlessly horny, humping everything in sight, including the leg of his beloved human, the elderly Nana. The solution is obvious to us although not to Bull, who’s horrified to learn of his fate. “They inspire me,” he says of his beloved testicles. “They’re like my hairy, dangling muses.”

Bull, who’s long had a crush on Honey (Kathryn Hahn), the Afghan hound next door, decides to enjoy one last evening while still in possession of his inspirations, with his best friends Rocco (Idris Elba), Fetch (Fred Armisen) and Lucky (Bobby Moynihan). Their night on the town begins in rather violent fashion, as they tear to shreds a squirrel who’s had the misfortune of crossing their path.

Fetch is horrified: “We just mutilated that poor little squirrel,” he laments.

“Why do you think we were chasing it?” replies Rocco.

The group winds up at a canine under- ground sex club whose greeter, Frankie, is an intersex Doberman (played by intersex actor River Gallo) who dazzles Lucky by introducing him to a whole new world of sexuality. “You’ve got a pea pod and a zucchini?” he marvels.

Meanwhile, Bull winds up in an unintended liaison with the randy Molasses (Michelle Buteau), which proves unfortunate when Honey unexpectedly bursts in on them. His desperate attempt at explaining it away is laugh-out-loud funny.

As should be obvious by now, Fixed doesn’t hold back when it comes to raunch of both the verbal and visual variety, with the numerous laugh lines made even funnier by outlandish hand-drawn animation that would make Robert Crumb blush. From Bull’s talking testicles (they speak, for some reason, with Scottish and French accents) to the bleached anus of Sterling (Beck Bennett), the preening show dog who considers himself God’s gift to “bitches,” the film doesn’t hold back from depicting the physical attributes of its canine characters. Nor from showing how Bull unselfishly and painfully gets in the way when preventing Sterling from mounting his beloved Honey.

The voice performances really enhance the proceedings, with Elba in full macho mode
as the British-accented boxer with mother issues, Hahn a comic delight as the Afghan hound with show dog aspirations and Bennett hilarious as the egotistical borzoi.

Although its very R-rated humor inevitably starts to wear thin during the course of its feature-length run time, Fixed manages the neat trick of injecting some genuine heart into its nonstop offensiveness. By the time it’s over, you’ll be rooting for Bull and Honey to live happily ever after — even if their chances of having a family have been drastically diminished.