Bull (Adam DeVine) is a mutt bulldog who unlike the rest of his friends is not neutered which often leads to him getting in to shenanigans around his household where he tries to find sexual release on either peoples' legs or household objects. Bull carries a crush for his next door neighbor and friend, Honey (Kathryn Hahn), a Borzoi and show dog, but feels inadequate to approach her especially in the presence of his rival Sterling (Beck Bennett), another Borzoi show dog with an impressive lineage. When Bull learns his family plans to have him neutered, he runs away with his friends boxer Rocco (Idris Elba), dashund Fetch (Fred Armisen), and beagle Lucky (Bobby Mynihan) for a debauchery filled night of last hurrahs before he has to say goodbye to his testicles.
Fixed is the long in development directorial project from animator Genndy Tartakovsky, whose prolific work includes the likes of Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and Hotel Transylvania to name but a few of his contributions to animation. The film stemmed from Tartakovsky's desire to do an animal roadtrip movie that would carry a similar dynamic to him and his real life group of friends which served as the basis for what would become fixed and presumably due tot the success of Hotel Transylvania, Tartakovsky was able to start development in 2018 at Sony Pictures Animation. Despite being produced by Sony, the film was intended to be released by New Line Cinema for 2023 only to fall victim to Warner Bros. Cost saving initiatives of canceling completed releases. As the rights reverted back to Sony, they were free to shop for alternate distribution with Netflix taking up the offer having released a number of Sony Pictures Animation films on their platform. After a tortuously road to release, Fixed.....isn't awful, but it's not exactly Tartakovsky's best work either.
Per Tartakovsky's reputation, the animation is very expressive and energized with a lot of energy and good timing. There's a good sense of personality and character in the designs even if I'm more mixed on for what they're used. This brings us to what Fixed actually is, which is essentially The Secret Life of Pets by way of The 40 Year Old Virgin. Animation is certainly no stranger to sexcapades like Fritz the Cat or even the more recent Sausage Party, but despite Fixed being filled with raunch and vulgarity a plenty, I wouldn't exactly qualify it as "adult" animation. While both Fritz the Cat and Sausage Party were filled with plenty of vulgar language and sexual situations, it was also clear they had something to say with Fritz the Cat spoofing the counterculture of the 60s and 70s (somewhat incorrectly according to R. Crumb) or Sausage Party skewering organized religion so there were actual ideas behind what backing up what was presented. Going even broader to sex comedies, movies like 10 and to an extent the first American Pie took shots at middle aged insecurity and superficiality and the vapid understanding by adolescent high school males who had a very base and shallow understanding of sex. With Fixed, it often feels like the joke begins and ends with sex and aside from being slighty more graphic with dog behaviors as it pertains to pee, poo, and even blood a lot of the time it feels like you're watching something like Secret Life of Pets only with more sex jokes. The only moment that really feels fresh or particularly insightful is a brief sequence where Bobby Moynihan's Lucky falls in love with an intersex doberman named Frankie played by River Gallo, and it's honestly a pretty good moment character wise where his friends are supportive and non-judgmental and it makes you realize there was potential for this concept...only for it to be surrounded by material that aims low.
I didn't hate Fixed, but aside from appreciating some of the animation and vocal performances (particularly Elba, Hahn, and Gallo) I didn't feel Fixed really offered much with its mixture of an R-Rating and animation that wasn't done better elsewhere. It's maybe worth a one time viewing for Tartakovsky (depending on your tolerance for a parade of mainly pee, poo, and sex jokes) but not only has Tartakovsky done better, but so have raunchy animations and sex comedies.
