The film was first conceived in 2009, and development began in 2018. The cast was announced in June 2023. Warner Bros. Pictures was originally set to distribute the film, but had dropped the film by August 2024 as part of cost-saving measures by Warner Bros. Discovery, canceling its theatrical release. Netflix later acquired the distribution rights to the film, and it had its world premiere on June 11, 2025, at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, before releasing on Netflix on August 13 to mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Bull is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier from Chicago who frequently humps anything that piques his interest to vent his perverse instincts. He is friends with Rocco, a proud, British-accented boxer; Fetch, a wannabe-influencer dachshund; and Lucky, a dim-witted beagle, all of whom except for Bull have been neutered, which makes them a target of ridicule from the haughty, self-absorbed Borzoishow-dog Sterling. Bull also harbors a crush on his show-dog neighbour, another Borzoi named Honey, but is hesitant to reveal his true feelings for her.
One day, Bull's owners pamper him with treats and Kool-Aid-flavoured toilet water. Bull realizes that he is due to be neutered the following morning, as Luther, a Great Dane, had a similar pre-neutered experience. Bull bemoans his experience, alienates his friends as they attempt to comfort him, and soon decides to leave home in order to save himself from being sterilized.
However, he soon reconsiders when he is accosted by a large clowder of alley cats, but is rescued by his friends, who came searching for him when he ran away from his home. Reconciling, Bull and his friends barely manage to escape the cats' territory. As Bull decides to return home and face his impending neutering, Rocco convinces him to have one last wild night on the town to make sure his last night of being intact will be one to remember.
The foursome get into various shenanigans, such as infiltrating a dog show that Honey is competing in alongside Sterling. Bull finally musters the courage to share his attraction to her with her until she and Sterling win, causing him to sadly leave. The group soon visits "The Humphouse", a dog version of a strip club, where Lucky falls for the intersexDobermann bouncer, Frankie. Meanwhile, Bull is seduced by Molasses, an attractive red Borzoi, who reminds him of Honey. Molasses gets Bull to "accidentally" knot her, as Honey, who abandoned the dog show for Bull, stumbles upon the scene and angrily confronts him.
Soon, Bull, Honey and the others are seized by animal control and taken to the dog pound, where Honey is eventually released when her owners are contacted about her whereabouts via a microchip in her collar. Realizing that Honey and Sterling will mate due to them winning the dog show, Bull and his friends escape the pound and venture to Bull's house, though Lucky deviates from the group to reunite with Frankie.
Bull manages to intervene between Honey and Sterling as they're about to mate. However, an oblivious Sterling unknowingly sodomizes Bull, believing that he is mating with Honey and Bull confesses his feelings for her and apologizes. Later at night, after Bull reunites with his family, Honey lures him into a backyard treehouse, where she confesses her love for him and the pair then mate.
Inevitably, Bull is neutered, but not before he becomes the father of his and Honey's litter of thirteen puppies three months later. Meanwhile, Sterling discovers that he also will be neutered, much to his horror as Luther mocks him. Later on, Honey and her own pack of friends visit the strip club from earlier to watch a grizzly bear twerk, to the delight of the audience and to Bull, Rocco, Fetch and Lucky's astonishment.
According to Genndy Tartakovsky, the film was first conceived in 2009, as an animal road-trip film under the title Buds, with Tartakovsky wanting to capture the dynamic of his friend group. The film originally consisted of different types of animals, but after an executive suggested that it needed a stronger hook, Tartakovsky asked "What if one of them is a dog and he realizes he's going to get neutered in the morning?". The film was later titled The Shift before finally becoming Fixed.[9][10][7]
On July 25, 2018, Deadline Hollywood reported that Tartakovsky was set to write and direct the film, with Michelle Murdocca producing it. Sony Pictures Animation was set to produce it, marking the studio's first R-rated film; Tartakovsky previously worked on the Hotel Transylvania films for the studio.[11] More details were revealed about the film in June 2019 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival;[12] Tartakovsky stated, "it's really funny and heartwarming, it's not all about balls, we're trying to make it a character comedy."[13] In July 2022, he stated that despite being a Sony Pictures Animation production, the film would be released through New Line Cinema.[14][15] He reaffirmed the film's focus on character-based comedy in December 2022, saying that it is what makes the film "much more unique and stand out".[16] In June 2023, Tartakovsky stated that the "camaraderie" between the characters was inspired by Judd Apatow films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Knocked Up (2007).[4]
Speaking about the film with Polygon in 2025, Tartakovsky described Bull having "kind of a false sense of security about his balls, like Samson and his hair," with his friends having been neutered and "just normal".[17]
The animation was done by Renegade Animation and the Brazilian studio Lightstar Studios.[14] Scott Wills served as art director, having previously worked with Tartakovsky on Samurai Jack and Primal.[9][14] Production began by July 2022,[14] and was eyeing completion for September 2023 when the cast was announced.[4] While the film was originally intended by Tartakovsky to be made through hand-drawn animation, he later considered using computer animation to "better sell the film". He ultimately decided to keep the film's hand-drawn animation, making it the first hand-drawn film to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation, due to the hand-drawn aesthetic working better for the film's plot.[9]
Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom, who previously collaborated with Tartakovsky, composed the score,[21] which was released on digital platforms on August 13, 2025.[22]
It was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on an undetermined date by Warner Bros. Pictures under their New Line Cinema banner. Animator Jaison Roberto Carvalho, who worked on the film, confirmed on Instagram that the film would be released in 2023.[25] Speaking about the film on the podcast This Is Important on May 7, 2024, Devine stated the film would be released in 2025,[26] while in a June 2024 interview with Animation Magazine, Tartakovsky said that the release situation was being figured out.[27]
On August 9, 2024, it was reported that Warner Bros. and New Line would no longer release the film as part of cost-saving measures by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. The distribution rights returned to Sony Pictures Animation, with the film being shopped to other studios and streamers. First reported by Matthew Belloni of Puck News, the news was a surprising announcement given Tartakovsky's history with WBD's Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Netflix was considered as one of the potential options where Fixed could end up given Sony Pictures Animation's previous collaborations with the company, while Belloni suggested that if negotiations are unsuccessful, the film could be canceled and written off in a similar manner to Batgirl and the then-shelved Coyote vs. Acme.[28][29][30]
On October 1, 2024, while attending the SCAD's AnimationFest to be honored with the Award for Excellence, Tartakovsky reassured Collider's Steve Weintraub that Fixed was completed and "is not dead by any means nor shelved, just waiting to find a distributor he and Sony are trying to get."[31] In an exclusive article from TheWrap, it was revealed that the film was dropped in 2023, after the film was completed the same year. In January 2024, Netflix seemed uninterested, as the streaming service's Animation Film team is focused on family-oriented films. Tartakovsky offered to rent out a theater for three months and pay for it. In early 2025, Netflix's Animation Series team, led by John Derderian (who oversees adult animation for the streamer), became involved, and within a few weeks, the film was sold to the streamer.[10] The film had an advance screening and a Q/A on August 2, 2025, at the Paris Theater in New York City,[32] and closed the 29th Fantasia International Film Festival on August 3, 2025.[33]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 57% of 56 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky cuts a little too loose with Fixed, an aggressively crude cartoon that might just scratch the itch for those who like their comedies frisky."[34]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[35]
Ryan Gaur of Discussing Film gave the film a 3/5 star rating, writing, "Genndy Tartakovsky has provided some of the highest highs in Western animation. Unfortunately, Fixed isn't one of them. The foul humor might work for some viewers on the cusp of adulthood, but it falls into a trap of adult animation where it mistakes 'adult' for 'gross'. Nonetheless, there's enough here to prove that Tartakovsky is still a master, beautiful 2D animation that I pray he's given another chance to flex his muscles in. Not his best, yet I'm glad he gave it a try."[36] Peter Debruge of Variety gave a positive review, stating that "the film proves impressively grown-up about how far Bull must go to atone for his behavior."[6]
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