{"id":140047,"date":"2025-08-12T15:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140047\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:59:11","slug":"genndy-tartakovsky-talks-16-yr-jounrey-on-r-rated-animated-movie-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140047\/","title":{"rendered":"Genndy Tartakovsky Talks 16-Yr Jounrey On R-Rated Animated Movie Fixed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGenndy Tartakovsky<\/a>\u2019s R-rated animated comedy\u00a0Fixed<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 about a dog on a mission to get his rocks off, before they are chopped off by the vet \u2013 hits Netflix<\/a> this week after buzzy screenings at Annecy and Montreal\u2019s Fantasia Festival over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIts arrival on the platform marks the end of a 16-year journey to get the movie over the line and connected to audiences for Tartakovsky, who is best known as the director of the first three movies in the Hotel Transylvania franchise as well as Adult Swim series such as Samurai Jack and Primal aimed at older audiences.<\/p>\n

\n\tFixed follows the adventures of canine protagonist Bull, voiced by\u00a0Pitch Perfect\u00a0star Adam Divine, who discovers he\u2019s going to be neutered in the morning when his owners reach the end of their tether over his constant humping of grandma\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

\n\tHearing the news, his pack of longtime canine friends \u2013\u00a0\u00a0self-assured boxer Rocco (voiced by Idris Elba); wannabe influencer dachshund Fetch (Fred Armisen), and the goofy Lucky (Bobby Moynihan) \u2013 decide Bull needs one last adventure while his balls are intact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe true object of Bull\u2019s desire, however, is statuesque pedigree show dog Honey, voiced by Kathryn Hahn.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to Deadline at Annecy in early July, Tartakovsky is quick to clarify that his dogs are neutered and that\u00a0Fixed is in no way a critique of the practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was inspired, rather, by his desire to capture the dynamics of close, long-term male friendships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt started with having a group of high school friends, like a lot of people have\u2026 we make each other laugh like no one else,\u201d says Tartakovsky. \u201cI wondered if I could take our dynamic, exaggerate it, caricature it and translate it into animated animal characters and make a movie about relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe first pitched the idea to Sony Pictures Animation<\/a> in 2008 at which point he was best known for directing Cartoon Network hits\u00a0Dexter\u2019s Laboratory\u00a0and\u00a0The Powerpuff Girls, and\u00a0Star Wars: Clone Wars, the latter produced by Lucasfilm Animation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI hadn\u2019t done\u00a0Hotel Transylvania\u00a0at that point. I wasn\u2019t really known\u2026 at least not for movies. They liked it\u2026 but it had nothing to do with neutering or anything. It was just these characters on a journey. One of the executives said, \u2018We like this idea, and I get what you\u2019re trying to do, but you need a high concept to wrap their story round\u2019,\u201d recalls Tartakovsky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRarely this happens, but in that moment, lightning struck me, the idea hit me just like that. It was the craziest thing, and I go, \u2018What if one of them is a dog and he finds out he\u2019s going to get neutered in the morning?\u2019 And that was it. The whole room laughed, and they bought the pitch and then began the journey of trying to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTartakovsky brought two of his friends onto the project to help create the characters and their banter out of his own friendship group, although a character based on himself did not make the cut.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey all kind of correspond, but they\u2019re an exaggeration of my friends. They\u2019ll see themselves in the film a little bit, but it\u2019s pushed a lot further. I was a Siberian Husky named Boris, with a big accent, but I cut him out because we had too many characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe had no inkling of the journey that lay ahead for\u00a0Fixed, and that ultimately it would end up on a platform, having originally envisaged the movie on the big screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAn experience of a lot of people watching something together, especially comedy, where you feed off the laughter\u2026 that was originally the goal, but the business changed a lot from 2008,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tTartakovsky initially took the starts and stops on the project in his stride because animation often takes years to complete, especially when it\u2019s pushing boundaries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was normal at first, but this one took a turn. I knew it was going to be hard to sell because back in 2008, adult animation wasn\u2019t really a thing. There\u2019s always\u00a0The Simpsons, obviously and a few other things, but it\u2019s not like now. I knew it was a longshot,\u201d says Tartakovsky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell it sold pretty quickly, but then it was the ups and downs, like we want it, we don\u2019t want it, we want it, we don\u2019t want it, rewrite, rewrite and then we actually made it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a big casting reveal at Annecy in June 2023, the movie was completed later that year, with a theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures under its New Line Cinema banner lined up for August 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis never came to pass after Warner Bros. dropped the title, reportedly as part of cost-cutting measures by parent group Warner Bros. Discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe business changed and then they didn\u2019t want to release it and now we had to sell it to somebody else, so that was all of \u201924,\u201d recounted Tartakovsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe funny part is, I thought, well, we\u2019ve got a finished movie. There\u2019s no questioning it anymore, either you like it or not\u2026 and then nobody liked it, or rather it wasn\u2019t that they didn\u2019t like it, but they didn\u2019t see it as a business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe admits to hitting a low ebb when Netflix passed on the film first time round in 2024, and other release options failed to materialize.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI understood why it wasn\u2019t right for some studios or distributors, but I thought a small distributor could release it\u2026 my explanation is that it was just too different and unique\u2026 rated R, hand drawn, original.\u2026 those are not all positive things for an animated film\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was going to a dark place, you start to question yourself. I asking, \u2018What did I do wrong? Did I make something that I don\u2019t think I made? Are people seeing it differently than the way I see it?\u2019 Your confidence starts to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe clouds parted in January of this year after Netflix came back and announced it wanted the film after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy understanding is that\u00a0John Derderian, who runs Netflix series animation, saw the film, loved it and pushed it through,\u201d says the director.<\/p>\n

\n\tTartakovsky continues to work within the wider Warner Bros. Discovery group through his longstanding ties with the Adult Swim strand of its subsidiary Cartoon Network.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a big company. TV and features are very segmented. Features don\u2019t really care if they hurt my feelings but to give them credit, Richard Brener who runs adult content comedy for New Line, he called me personally,\u201d recounts Tartakovsky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe said, we\u2019re not shelving it, we\u2019re shelving these other ones, but you\u2019re safe. I\u2019m going to give it back to Sony and that was it\u2026 it wasn\u2019t like, you know, screw you, Warner Brothers, I\u2019m out of here, it wasn\u2019t like that at all. It was like, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, that\u2019s the reality of our business right now\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the face of the challenges of working in the studio system, Tartakovsky says he has never considered going down an independent route, in the vein of the European features being showcased at Annecy, or Latvian Oscar-winner Flow.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI could probably make a movie in France but then it\u2019s going to be a very low budget and only a limited amount of people are going to see it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI used to pitch very inexpensive movies because I came from TV and know how to make a million dollars look like $10 million, and they\u2019d go, \u2018Genndy, we appreciate it but we don\u2019t want to make $50 million on $10 million, we want to make a billion on $200 million,\u201d continues the director, whose three Hotel Transylvania movies grossed more than $1.3 billion on a budget of $245 million. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the film hits Netflix this week, it will also be a test case for the appeal of animation aimed at older audiences, which Tartakovsky suggests has not developed at the same pace in the U.S. as in Europe and Asia. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cComedy is hard, no matter if you\u2019re doing it for family or for adults. I think adults are even harder because they\u2019re more judgy about being funny. If it\u2019s successful and opens the door for more of it, whether that\u2019s a sequel or something else that is R-rated that would be incredible,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have all these adult series but features, it\u2019s pretty much this kind of Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, Marvel model. There are very few things that are different and that\u2019s what\u2019s frustrating \u2013 we should be as different as live action, so you can have a horror animated film, R-rated comedy animated film, or a dramatic animated film. It should be open to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, after the year of self-doubt, Tartakovsky was one of the animators of the moment at Annecy this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlongside presenting Fixed to an enthusiastic industry and student crowd, he was also in attendance as part a celebration of\u00a025 years of\u00a0Cartoon Studios,\u00a0participating in a panel on its legacy.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAdult Swim also took the opportunity to announce new details on\u00a0Heist Safari,<\/a> the series he is developing for the strand about three frog brothers who rob a bank. The director is also working on Motel Transylvania, a Hotel Transylvania series spin-off, for Netflix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the backdrop at Annecy this year, the mood among the 18,200 participants was mixed amid shrinking budgets and concerns over the implications of AI for many parts of the workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTartakovsky acknowledges it is a sea change moment:\u00a0\u201cWe had a gigantic boom with streaming coming alive during Covid\u2026 it was at a height.\u00a0I\u2019ve never seen the industry like that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI couldn\u2019t get people to work with me it was so busy and then it dropped completely. The B and C tier people, they\u2019re always kind of in and out of jobs, but they\u2019re easily surviving. A tier people always have too much work\u2026 now I would say half of the A people I know, don\u2019t have jobs.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been working since \u201992, and I\u2019ve never seen it like that. Everything\u2019s changing, the whole business changes every month now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn AI, Tartakovsky says he has yet to get his head fully around its implications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe big debate is, is it a tool that a creative person uses, or is it a tool for anybody and all of a sudden it becomes a product rather than a creative idea,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMovie making, is an art and a business. They\u2019re trying to make money, so it\u2019s a business, but there\u2019s usually a creative person who has an idea or a thought or a point of view that is their perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe likens the advent of AI to the arrival of the computer and, then CGI, which challenged hand drawn animation techniques for a time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen computers came we were afraid asking, \u2018Is this going to get rid of paper? It did, but we were drawing in the computer, so it\u2019s fine. Then CG came along, and now we\u2019re manipulating puppets to move around rather than hand drawing something, and that killed some of the hand drawn industries and then that industry came back,\u201d says Tartakovsky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFixed is hand drawn and hand crafted. I always believe that there\u2019s a place for that, but because it\u2019s a business, it has to find its way to be successful\u2026 at the end of the day, it\u2019s all about money. I don\u2019t want to sound dark about it\u2026 but it\u2019s a business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Genndy Tartakovsky\u2019s R-rated animated comedy\u00a0Fixed\u00a0\u2013 about a dog on a mission to get his rocks off, before they…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,83694,83695,53,4659,51706,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-140047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fixed","10":"tag-genndy-tartakovsky","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-sony-pictures-animation","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115016628108080977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}