Genndy Tartakovsky’s R-rated, 2D Fixed has finally arrived on Netflix (streaming August 13) after a rapturous reception at Annecy. The raunchy yet sweet canine sex comedy, from Sony Pictures Animation and New Line Cinema, needed rescuing after Warner Bros. Discovery shelved it. Recall that they did the same with Coyote vs. Acme and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie before Ketchup Entertainment came to the rescue with distribution deals.

In stepped John Derderian, Netflix’s VP of animation series, to save Fixed. But after the tremendous bounce at Annecy, Tartakovsky’s “unicorn” film will now be qualified for Oscar consideration.

“So far, the response has been incredible,” Tartakovsky said. “It was exactly what I was hoping for. There was uproarious laughter and clapping at that screening in Annecy, and the first set of reviews understood what the movie was. It wasn’t just gross, it had different elements to it, and it’s funny.”

Fixed finds the deflated mutt Bull (Adam DeVine) about to lose his balls, who runs away for a night on the town with his buddies: self-assured boxer Rocco (Idris Elba), goofy beagle Lucky (Bobby Moynahan), and wannabe dachshund influencer Fetch (Fred Armisen). Then there’s Honey (Kathryn Hahn), the sweet Afghan show dog who lives next door that Bull has an obvious crush on.

For Tartakovsky (Primal, Hotel Transylvania), the long in the works passion project began with a desire to capture the camaraderie he has with his buddies from high school. This was by way of Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Lady and the Tramp, and Warner Bros. cartoons.

“It all started from the dynamic that we have,” he added. “I wanted to have a lot of character humor in it from the right place, not just from the grossness of it or the raunchiness of it. And so Rocco is based on my friend Mike, who’s always got to be the tough guy with the chip on his shoulder, who’s hiding something underneath. And Rich, who’s kind of nerdy, is Fetch. And Steve is Bull, who seems like he’s real confident but there’s insecurity inside. And Lucky is based on Dave, who sometimes gets lost at the airport and is just the funnier version of that character.”

And what about Tartakovsky? He was in the original script as a Russian husky. “But then I cut myself out because it felt like there were too many characters and the dynamic wasn’t as good as it was without me.”

Meanwhile, the animation was primarily done at Glendale-based Renegade Animation, with Lightstar Studios in Brazil contributing comp and ink and paint. The all-star team included Uli Meyer (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Sandro Cleuzo (Mary Poppins Returns), and Julien Bizat (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers). “Imagine if you’re a lifetime Disney or Don Bluth animator, and then suddenly you’re doing this kind of animation,” said Tartakovsky. “It felt like they just burst. It really was the movement and the energy: the expressions of Tex Avery with the acting and posing of Chuck Jones. The dogs behaved like dogs, except for talking.”

But in the beginning there was concern about animating balls and buttholes. Thank goodness Tartakovsky was able to talk Sony and New Line out of doing it in CG, which would’ve been a lot grosser. “When I started doing the boards, I was thinking about the humor of the gag, not that there were balls and butt holes everywhere,” he added. “Maybe because I was less sensitive about it because they were so caricatured, especially the butthole. It’s just a little circle with an asterisk in it.

“So anyway at our very first animatic review, we got all of the New Line and Sony executives together and it went over pretty well and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God! There’s so many balls and buttholes.’ And then we all started laughing. We had this half-hour discussion. Is it too much? Is it not enough? And so I told them that when you start to see it, that it’s a little shocking. And then, just like in real life, you’re not staring at it the whole time, and it just kind of goes away.”

However, one of the wildest scenes occurs when Bull gets a whiff of weed emanating from a car and hallucinates that his balls (named Napoleon and Ol’ Spice) run off without him. “I wanted to push it to he next level,” Tartakovsky said. “So it starts out pretty normal and then goes off into this trip out thing where he chases after them.

“It’s funny but it didn’t get the biggest laugh at Annecy,” he continued. “That came at the beginning with the first reveal of him on grandma’s leg. Then came the squirrel, which is always guaranteed a laugh, the hump house, and the big [intersex] joke at the end [with Lucky], which was golden. People were clapping at Annecy.”

The director finds Fixed an interesting 2D test case. He firmly believes there is so much more to explore in adult hand-drawn animation through caricature. “It’s a much farther step away from real life than CG is,” Tartakovsky said. “And so we should be doing it, obviously. I’m super proud that people are recognizing the animation because it is special, and I’m hoping it’s going to open doors. That’s my biggest want: more opportunities to do something different in 2D.”