Genndy Tartakovsky’s 17-Year Odyssey to Get the R-rated Fixed Made

Paste: You assembled some of your closest collaborators to make Fixed with you, including Stephen DeStefano (Unicorn: Warriors Eternal), Scott Wills (Primal), producer Michelle Murdocca and editor Mark Yeager (Hotel Transylvania trilogy) and composers Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom (Primal). What did that afford you creatively?

Tartakovsky: It’s all of it from Craig Kellman’s character designs, who is probably the best designer in the industry. I want to create stuff for him to draw because I know he’s going to draw it so much better than I ever can, and so much funnier and full of uniqueness to himself. We try to compromise on something, but generally his stuff is so great, I’m like, “Yeah, that’s it,” and then we go. At this point, the making of something is kind of fun and easy because, like you’re saying, all the people that I surround myself with, I am fans of theirs. So Scott’s painting, I don’t give him any direction. I just go like, “It should be scary” and that’s it. And then he delivers something beyond what I imagine, and that’s what makes it so fun. If it’s just me locked in a room, it’s fine to a degree. But they enhance everything that I do because they are the best at what they do and so all the projects that I work on are like that.

Paste: Is there a specific sequence in Fixed that’s the best representation of your collaborators plussing something where what you envisioned in your head to what’s in the movie is so much more than you expected?

Tartakovsky: The whole movie is kind of like that, because the animation is so strong. But the climax scene in the third act, where everything is resolved, was probably the epitome of our work. I’ve had that since we wrote it in the first draft; that sequence defines the movie. I storyboarded it and then Craig Kellman laid it out. And then this guy, Uli Meyer, animated it. Scott did the backgrounds and, to me, it’s perfect. And when we watch it, people start laughing from the beginning with bigger laughs, giggles, and then big laughs. To have a sequence where everyone’s laughing, that’s what we’re all after rather than just one clever joke, or a one liner.

Paste: Fans of animation will see a lot of fun, softly subversive inclusions that rib plenty of classic animated features including the dog-centric, 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp. Was there a favorite inclusion that either yourself or one of your collaborators put into Fixed?

Tartakovsky: In a funny way, it’s the movie itself because it’s following the rules and aesthetic of Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians where the dogs have to walk on all fours, and they have to behave like dogs, but their faces are more emotive and they talk. And so those two conceits are very much from those movies and we love the way they feel. So, here’s our kind of raunchier Looney Tunes execution of it. Like the dogs walking into the dog show, we did the 101 joke where the dog looks like the owner and there’s little things like that. But generally, as a whole, we wanted to feel where it’s inspired from even though it’s so vastly different.

Paste: Fixed also features very specific R&B needle drops along with the original score. How did they inform the overall score?

Tartakovsky: It was kind of twofold, where, number one, I feel like an adult comedy needs to have some needle drops to make it feel somehow that it’s legit because all of the rated R comedies have it. And so I thought, for people to take us seriously in an adult setting, we need to have that too. I think it grounds you. And for this movie, I specifically picked the kind of the ’70s R&B soul type stuff because I feel like it brings a warmth. And because we’ve got lots of dirty stuff, I thought it would bring warmth to the characters and to the feel of the movie. Tyler and Joanne followed suit with that ’70s instrumental vibe. Imagine if we had hard rock, which could work but it would make things colder and push it edgier. We wanted the visuals to be edgy, but then everything else is juxtaposed and making it a little softer, which was the inspiration. And that’s some of my favorite music anyway, so it’s nice to bring in my sensibility.

Paste: You’ve been making this film over seven years and during that time the animation industry has gone through some major changes, from budget cuts to studio closures and offshoring, and everyone is still grappling with it today. Did that create a resolve in you and your team, or some fear which is the antithesis of the vibe you want while creating?

Tartakovsky: Well, it’s interesting you bring that up because it was New Line that bought it from Sony, and basically they were looking for a Rated R animated comedy. And I was like, “Boy do I have the story for you!” They really were the first ones to really get it, to push it, and not be like, “This is too much!” They were like, “Push it more,” because they were Rated R comedy people, Richard Brener at New Line Cinema. They were very supportive, so that process was great. Now, they’re paying for it so for me, in my experience, if there’s money coming out, that’s the sign everything’s okay. So even though — almost comically, every week after each big review — people would ask me, are they canceling this movie? It was so different: 2D, Rated R, and back then it was theatrical.

And so, we finish it! We make it across the finish line. We sold it and we finished it. The hardest part is done. Then two months later, that’s it. I get a call, “They’re gonna shelve your movie for a tax write off. I can’t believe it. And then Richard Brener calls me, and he goes, “We love you. We love the movie. We were gonna save it and then they sold it back to Sony.” So it was a very different process, because I never needed to have that fear because it’s never happened to me. And because they’re paying for it, why would they sell it? It was a kind of a crazy end to it.

Paste: A lot of your peers in animation have experienced similar public roller coasters with Coyote vs. Acme and The Day the Earth Blew Up, and then the countless other projects axed but never announced. Also, there’s been the recent downsizing of your long-time homes of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. You could come out of all this change bitter. How do you feel now?

Tartakovsky: I think I came out with more fight. There’s the potential of Fixed becoming a hit and opening doors. If that happens, I don’t think I’ll have that fear as I make it. It’s definitely not my personality to look in the past. If I get something greenlit, I’m gonna believe it’s gonna be greenlit, and it’s gonna have a home. Even though I went through this horror with this movie, we still ended up with a home. It just took an extra year, basically. I’m gonna be okay. I knew from day one that I started working in the industry that it’s a business. I knew we were trying to do art, but it’s a business first and art second. So, I’m always very realistic about it. I know people want to make money and they want to succeed. That’s what everybody’s here for, right? And I want to tell stories and do the things that I love to see. I think I would go into my next project without that fear, still with the confidence that I’m doing something of high quality, and I’m going to make people happy. Luckily, for the most part, everything I’ve done has been successful at different levels.

Paste: Is Primal Season 3 still going to come out?

Tartakovsky: We’re going to make an announcement in the next couple of months. It’s all finished and it’s coming.

Paste: Lastly, it almost feels that Fixed has too much riding on its shoulders because of its journey and because it’s so unique in the marketplace. Do you feel like it’s got a fair shot to prove its thesis about adult animation features?

Tartakovsky: I never want to put that pressure on me that it’s going to change the face of animation; that’s a lot. Unless you’re introducing a brand new medium, like Toy Story or you’re saving the industry like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, it’s different. Our industry is thriving, even though there’s not as much work and maybe we’re struggling with the IP question and not everybody’s firing on all cylinders at the same time. Everybody’s searching for something new and something that can guarantee them success, right? And so, if this opens the door and it’s successful, it’ll free up some of the thinking that it’s not an anomaly. It’s like, “Oh, this is viable.” When you think about the studio system, the conversations that we have about Rated R, who is the audience? Especially in theatrical, who’s going to leave their house, pay money, pay for popcorn to go see a cartoon movie that’s for adults? Is it going to be a date movie? It’s antiquated thinking, in a way. They used to talk about Marvel movies that way, that all the fanboys are gonna go see it, but nobody else. And they were completely off. Everybody went to see them, so that’s what I’ve been trying to pitch, movies that can be different are for a big audience. And then because of all the adult shows and the series that are so successful, even like The Simpsons and South Park, these huge shows, why can’t that audience go to the movies or go to streaming and watch a long form? But that’s [only] if it’s giving them something new, and that’s the difference. To answer your question, I have big hopes for it. Big dreams and fantasies. The reality is it’s got to have an audience and a big audience. People have to start talking about it. And the advantage of being on Netflix is in an instant 300+ million people have the potential to watch it.

Fixed streams Aug. 13 on Netflix.

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, IGN and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the latest, The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett, Bluesky @tarabennett.bsky.social, or Instagram @TaraDBen.