Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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22 KEYFRAME GENNDY UNLEASHED 22 KEYFRAME Fixed could be just another raunchy romp, but Tartakovsky was interested in the creative possibilities in an adult animated comedy. The hand-drawn art is surprisingly nostalgic, recalling his idols like Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, and the style of humor (if not the ribald content) has a charming vintage feel. He defines his comedic sensibility as Mel Brooks meets Peter Sellers meets Blake Edwards. So, while naughty jokes abound, he says: "I personally don't think I made a filthy movie. That's the crazy part, because it does have heart." The original concept for Fixed dates back more than a decade, when he came up with the idea for a movie featuring characters who were heightened versions of his own friends. "I wanted to bring [their] humor to everybody because they make me laugh so much," he says. He pitched it in 2010 to an executive at Sony, and she liked where he was going with it but told him it had to be about more than a bunch of guys camping or on a road trip. It needed a concept. "It was one of those things that rarely happened, but in the room, within a second… lightning struck me," Tartakovsky says. "I said, well, they're all dogs, and they find out that one of them is going to get neutered in the morning." He says this kind of inspiration had never happened to him before, but it worked. Everybody laughed, and they began developing the project. Unfortunately, the executive backing it moved to another studio, a new executive came into the picture, and the project was scrapped. Tartakovsky, though, wasn't ready to let it die. "I'd try to sell it somewhere else, do a road show for all the smaller independent studios," he says. "[But] it was before its time. Adult animation was just starting." Fortunately, in 2015, Kristine Belson became President of Sony Pictures Animation and got her hands on the script. She loved it. A few years later, all the pieces fell into place, and the time for Fixed had come. Good luck trying to find a throughline in Genndy Tartakovsky's 30-plus-year animation career. His seminal body of TV and film work is eclectic, with each unique project anchored by his innate curiosity. How can he expand the medium's boundaries and still connect with his audience? For a prime example, take a look at his latest project—an animated R-rated movie about a dog's last night of freedom before he gets snipped. by kim fay F E AT U R E Genndy Tartakovsky portrait by Tim Sullens