Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky had to censor dog butts to get his new animated movie made

Fifteen years after Emmy-winning Samurai Jack, Primal, and Star Wars: Clone Wars creator Genndy Tartakovsky sold his raunchy animated comedy Fixed to Sony, the movie will finally be released on Netflix on Aug. 13. The long journey to make the film, which Tartakovsky describes as an R-rated version of Lady and the Tramp, involved changing production studios — and fighting for the prominence of his canine characters’ genitals.

Fixed was produced by Sony Pictures Animation, where Tartakovsky completed the work in 2023. Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema was scheduled to release it theatrically in 2024, but Warner Bros. Discovery shelved it as part of the same cost-cutting wave that stopped the releases of Coyote vs. Acme and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. Tartakovsky pitched Fixed around to other distributors, and he says John Derderian, Netflix’s vice president of animation series, saw the film and loved it.

“I think you always need a champion in these kinds of instances,” Tartakovsky told Polygon via video call. “If you look at streaming, Fox, or Adult Swim, adult animation is probably the most successful it’s ever been. But that hasn’t translated over into theatrical. Because [mainstream adult animation in America is] new, everybody’s kind of unsure of how to take the risk. I think the audience that would watch it on TV would watch it theatrically, but I don’t have the focus groups or testing to back it up.”

The R-rated film follows Bull (Adam DeVine of The Righteous Gemstones), a mutt who learns he’s scheduled to be neutered, and decides he needs one last wild night out with his best friends.

“He has kind of a false sense of security about his balls, like Samson and his hair, like it’s what makes [him] funny,” Tartakovsky said. “His friends have been neutered, and they’re just normal, but if I was going to get that surgery, I’d be pretty freaked out about it too.”

Because Bull’s testicles are so important to the plot, they’re also pretty visible in the film, which Tartakovsky said he had to fight for.

“My theory is that it’s going to be a little shocking in the beginning, but then you get used to it, like going to a nude beach,” he said.

Tartakovsky did have to tone down the genital animation a bit, along with how the dogs’ rectums are depicted.

“After our first test screening, we had a very serious discussion about it,” Tartakovsky said. “Our butthole is just a circle with a little X in it, or an asterisk, not drawn like a disgusting anus or anything. It’s like in real life, where the dog’s tails are up and you see the butt. So we colored them a bit more subtly, so you wouldn’t have a dark butthole on a white dog.”

The stylized, over-the-top animation is reminiscent of John Kricfalusi’s The Ren & Stimpy Show and its many stylistic followers. Tartakovsky says he’s a fan of that series, but any similarity between Kricfalusi’s work and Fixed goes back to the inspirations he and Kricfalusi share: classic Warner Bros. cartoons and characters, including Popeye and Tom & Jerry. Tartakovsky assembled a team of animators from around the world to mesh that Warner Bros. look with the work of Tex Avery, who helped create core Looney Tunes characters like Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. Tartakovsky’s childhood favorites included Avery’s deadpan basset hound Droopy, and his 1950 short Ventriloquist Cat.

“It’s one of the styles that I trained in when I was first starting out, and that I love to do,” Tartakovsky said. “We don’t have big googly-eyed takes or anything like that. It’s much more controlled. And it’s a very different language, because our dogs walk like dogs. I didn’t want hand gestures. I didn’t want to make a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.”

Beneath the adult humor, Fixed is a love story about Bull finding the courage to share his feelings for Honey (Agatha All Along star Kathryn Hahn), the beautiful show dog next door.

“She’s like twice as tall as him, so he doesn’t think he could get her,” Tartakovsky said. “He thinks they’re just friends. It’s kind of heartfelt. This movie has raunchiness, really funny characters, and great hand-drawn animation. I think it’s really unique, and I’m excited for it to get out there.”

Fixed will debut on Netflix Aug. 13.