In Your Dreams: A New Animation Adventure

Throughout Netflix’s extensive and ceaseless release of original film programming, animation always stood out as an untapped creative market for the streaming service relative to its near-weekly release schedule. Alex Woo’s In Your Dreams yields potential for animation and storytelling quality that emulates the tenacious animation teams at Disney and Pixar. Fittingly a Pixar veteran, Woo left the company to found Kuku Studios – partnering with Netflix Animation to create In Your Dreams as their first feature-length animated film. Collaborating with fellow Pixar veteran Erik Benson to build the film’s spirit, In Your Dreams tackles the fragility and importance of family – attempted through Pixar’s earnest formula.

The film follows the dysfunctional sibling dynamic between Stevie (Hoang-Rappaport) and her younger brother Elliot (Janssen) as they discover the secret to magically travel into the dream world. As their family struggles between their mother (Cristin Milioti) wanting to accept a new job opportunity in Duluth and their father (Simu Liu) wanting to stay in their small Minnesota town, Stevie and Elliot trek through the dream world to find the Sandman (Omid Djalili), in hopes of making their wish to save their parents’ marriage come true.

Immediately apparent through its subtly jarring character designs, In Your Dreams takes immense influence from mid-career Pixar animation while still showcasing its quirky imperfections to highlight a distinctive style. Between their grounded reality and imaginative dreams (often complimented with nightmares), Stevie and Elliot’s wondrous adventures throughout the dream world become exhaustively displayed through their determination to find the Sandman. Occasionally shifting animation styles to present over-the-top fight scenes coupled with playful inclusions of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams and Metallica’s Enter Sandman provide a tongue-in-cheek tone conflicting with their urgency to save their family.

Stevie’s initial resentment towards her brother becomes as abruptly outlined as it is set aside for her tenacity to find the Sandman. Despite her persistence in keeping distance from Elliot and the hankering for her own bedroom away from him, they become linked together in their vivid dreams – forcing them to work together to find the Sandman. Amidst dreams about breakfast food coming to life, faint FNAF and Sausage Party-fueled nightmares, and Elliot’s anthropomorphic stuffed animal Baloney Tony (Robinson), these brief glimpses into this imaginative world provide little aesthetic and narrative impact to the film.

Upon discovering the Sandman is where In Your Dreams becomes enshrouded by Stevie’s pressure to keep their family together, providing ultimatums that heighten this flawed fixation and the dysfunctional relationship with her brother. While conventionally ideal to exhibit the conflicting angles to this sibling rivalry, Stevie becomes heavily immersed into their adventure and underdeveloped in this rivalry that becomes difficult to resonate with her perilous, climactic circumstances as Elliot constantly becomes the sensible sibling to relate with.

Breezing through a brief 91-minute runtime, the film is evidently fleeting in its extravagant animation sequences and underdeveloped in its profound themes that made its Pixar influences such tremendous successes. While aesthetically and narratively lacking, Alex Woo’s In Your Dreams still serves as a comforting film that satisfies the basic level of laughter and wholesome moments that fits the convenience of browsing Netflix for the next family viewing. Though statistically underutilized as a genre, investing in these rich animation art forms can still provide vast potential for the streaming service, displayed through the critical successes of Sergio Pablos’ Klaus and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Costa Christoulas

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