In Your Dreams, 2025.
Directed by Alexander Woo.
Featuring the voice talents of Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Simu Liu, Craig Robinson, Cristin Milioti, Gia Carides, Omid Djalili, SungWon Cho, and Zachary Noah Piser.
SYNOPSIS:
Stevie and her little brother Elliot journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the Sandman to grant them the perfect family.
There are unquestionably some imaginative ideas in director Alexander Woo’s In Your Dreams, but nearly every ingredient feels underdeveloped, and the overall narrative needs some refinement. This is one of those Netflix animated features that close to reaching the emotional highs of a classic Pixar film – there are mature story beats about a dysfunctional family facing uncertainty about their future, fantastical worlds, a talking stuffed animal to keep the kids amused during the more serious parts while also functioning as a glorified merchandising tactic, and even a similar art style prioritizing insane levels of detail above all else – but never quite gets there, clunky along the way even if there is genuine inspiration behind it and reasons to show admiration. By no means is In Your Dreams a bad movie, but rather one that never fully capitalizes on its wondrous ideas.
Co-directed alongside Erik Benson, Alexander Woo’s story (with screenplay credits for both filmmakers and additional credits for Stanley Moore and Rita Hsiao) centers on clashing siblings Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her younger, messier brother Elliot (voiced by Elias Janssen), going about their days with the former listening into levelheaded arguments between her parents about being creatively unfulfilled in life and questioning moving the family from the countryside into a bigger city where a tantalizing job opportunity awaits for mom (Cristin Milioti). Once upon a time, they were in a band together (one has to imagine they named their daughter Stevie after Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks), something that is no longer an option while they are consistently busy raising two children. However, Dad (voiced by Simu Liu) still wishes to play, whereas Mom is more concerned with climbing the ladder at work.
The thought of this happening carries the same weight as a nightmare to Stevie. Coincidentally, she and Elliott come across a mysterious book about the Sandman that turns out to have mystical powers, causing the siblings to enter a shared fantasy dreamworld when they sleep. Smaller subworlds are associated with happy memories, such as morning breakfasts rendered as zombies during nightmares. Meanwhile, Elliot is having fun flying his bed like a hover car and finding his lost stuffed animal, Baloney Tony (voiced by Craig Robinson).
While Stevie mostly tries to hide the truth from Elliot that they might be moving and that their parents might be splitting up, she finds herself required to slightly open up to him as she will need his help to travel across this dreamworld facing Nightmara (a towering cloud of darkness in their path voiced by Gia Carides) to eventually reach the Sandman (voiced by Omid Djalili) where they will be granted one wish. Amusingly, the Sandman even looks like Santa Claus if he were just made up of, well, sand.
There are starts and stops, since the children frequently wake up so afraid that they break into real-world segments, breaking up the fantasy sequences. A montage of Stevie and Elliot’s fears is also included. For the most part, though, there is something weightless and easy about the journey to the Sandman. That’s not to say a kids’ movie needs its characters to come across as if they are in danger, but even the various lands of the dreamworld are somewhat rushed through.
In Your Dreams isn’t just moving through the dream; it’s moving through the film’s ideas without fully exploring them. Perhaps more disappointing is that, in the final act that should be filled with unflinching honesty, the story softens those edges for a happy ending that feels false and hollow. If the filmmakers were striving for Pixar, they certainly failed here, because that studio, in its heyday, would never back down from implementing raw lessons about life for kids. It is still an amusing and, at times, dazzling ride, but could have been dreamed up into something much more vital and meaningful.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
