One sequence in FIXED almost neutered the movie before Bull ever got to the vet, but director Genndy Tartakovsky wasn’t having it.
The Climax Controversy
Tartakovsky revealed during a post-screening Q&A that the film’s most outrageous scene, the one you know if you’ve seen it, sparked panic among executives. “They said, ‘Maybe we’ll do the movie, but you gotta cut that scene.’ And I said, ‘Then you don’t understand this movie.'”
He wasn’t bluffing. That gag-heavy, boundary-pushing moment wasn’t just a set piece. It was a mission statement. A test. As Tartakovsky put it, “The goal is to have a sequence where everybody’s laughing from beginning to end… and those are really hard to come up with.”
A Line in the Sand (and Fur)
The scene in question was written as a tonal line in the sand. If you laugh, you’re in. If not, FIXED probably isn’t your breed of humor. And that was intentional. As Tartakovsky noted, “Those first 10–15 minutes are a test. Do you think this is funny? Can you commit to it?” If yes, you’re rewarded with a character-driven comedy that also happens to be crawling with cartoon anatomy.
Why It Had to Stay
Beyond the laughs, Tartakovsky believes in pushing boundaries to open doors. “This is the first step,” he said. “Let me show you this can work. That we can do funny, character-based, hand-drawn, R-rated animation… and maybe open the door for other types of adult stories.” That moment, as wild as it is, is a gateway.
The Risk That Made the Movie
FIXED is not like the typical adult animation. There are so many that rely on pop culture references or nihilism, FIXED but stakes its claim with visual gags, emotion, and full-throttle absurdity. The BIG SCENE might make some viewers clutch their pearls, but it also makes them laugh, and that’s the point.
Sometimes, one dogfight over a single scene is the hill worth dying on. For Tartakovsky, it was the soul of the movie.
