‘Fixed’ fulfills the promise of the ‘Cats’ butthole cut

In 2020, fans of Tom Hooper’s much-maligned Cats clamored for the “butthole cut” of the film, one where the cats’ CGI buttholes were fully on display. Big names like Rian Johnson and Seth Rogen got in on the movement to #ReleaseTheButtholeCut. Members of Cats‘ VFX team even confirmed the cut’s existence in anonymous interviews — although one source claimed that any resemblance to genitalia and buttholes was an accident due to suspicious folding in the simulated cat fur and skin.

After all that uproar, Cats‘ butthole cut remains unreleased. But for anyone who still yearns for it, a new project has come to fill the hole left by Cats‘ biggest missed opportunity. That project is Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed, a 2D animated comedy full of more animal butts and balls than any Cats butthole cut truther could have ever dreamed of.

Fixed is a gleefully NSFW animal adventure.

You may know Tartakovsky for his work on Cartoon Network shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, or Star Wars: Clone Wars; or for his Hotel Transylvania film series. While those projects resonate with younger and older audiences alike, with Fixed, the animation legend is specifically aiming for older audiences.

The film centers on a mutt named Bull (voiced by Adam DeVine), whose hobbies include hanging out at the dog park and humping the hell out of his human Nana’s leg. When he learns that his owners plan to neuter him the very next day, Bull panics and decides to spend one last crazy night out on the town with his friends (and his balls).

Let’s talk about those balls for a second, because Tartakovsky doesn’t leave them to the imagination. Bull’s testicles are always visible, and always bouncing around — a reminder of what he’s going to lose in the morning. Also on display is every dog’s (and the occasional cat’s) butthole. And look, if you can’t handle these 2D renderings of balls and butts, like the many outraged YouTube commenters under Fixed‘s trailer, then there’s no way in the world you were ever ready for the Cats butthole cut! Don’t ask for something you can’t take, internet!

In all seriousness, the animal genitals of Fixed definitely start out as shocking. Tartakovsky aims for this, cutting from a sweet vignette of Bull’s adoption day to his horned-up destruction of his house. But soon, they’re just anatomy, elements of every character’s design along with their floppy dog ears and snouts.

That doesn’t mean Fixed loses its shock factor. The film is wildly crass throughout, upping the ante with scatological humor reminiscent of Pink Flamingos, talking balls, and quite a bit of dog sex. Some of these gags are inspired, like the film’s interpretation of what a dog sex club would look like. Others, like the aforementioned dog sex, move past crass to pure discomfort. Overall, though, the film remains steadfast in its portrayal of a simple truth: Dogs are gross. I love them, and I’m happy to cuddle them, but they’re also pretty darn disgusting.

For a movie about a dog and his balls, Fixed is oddly sweet.

Romance, but make it “Fixed.”
Credit: Netflix

As in-your-face as Fixed can be, the film is more than just its shock factor. The animation, for starters, is delightfully nostalgic, calling to mind Looney Tunes cartoons, or even beloved animated dog movies like One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Fixed even comes with its own Lady and the Tramp-style romance, one between Bull and his Afghan hound neighbor, Honey (voiced by Kathryn Hahn). Bull, intimidated by Honey’s purebred nature, doesn’t think he’s worthy of her, even though she clearly has feelings for him. Much of Bull’s quest in the film involves him trying to confess his feelings, making for a cute storyline that still comes with its fair share of raunch.

Hahn and DeVine are two key parts of Fixed‘s game voice cast, which also includes Idris Elba, Fred Armisen, and Bobby Moynihan as Bull’s trusted crew of friends. (All are great, but Elba’s tough-as-nails delivery of Fixed‘s crass dialogue is downright hysterical.) That crew of friends becomes the glue of the movie, as they’re ride-or-die for Bull as he confronts his neutering. But as the film progresses, they also help him to realize that maybe his balls aren’t the only thing that defines him. It’s an earnest, sweet message in a purposefully crude package, and one that leaves room for more character development and self-discovery than Fixed‘s initial premise may have you think.

The core friendship dynamic has been part of Fixed since Tartakovsky first conceived of the film — then a broader animal road trip comedy named Buds — back in 2009. Since then, the movie has been in and out of development hell, with Warner Bros. and New Line dropping it in 2024, leaving Tartakovsky and Sony Pictures Animation to find a new distributor.

While Fixed was never canceled outright in the vein of other dropped Warner Bros. projects like Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, the fact that it was in jeopardy and still got released is deserving of a victory lap. It’s an original, R-rated, 2D animated film, a kind of project that we don’t see too frequently.

So even if the film’s gross-out comedy isn’t what I’d tend to gravitate toward, I’m more than happy that Fixed exists, and that its blend of brazen crassness and surprising sweetness finally gets its day in the sun.

Fixed is now streaming on Netflix.