Why Netflix’s In Your Dreams Isn’t (Just) a Kids’ Movie

Animation loves broken families. They are the perfect plot engine: a child, facing a reality they can’t control, dives into a magical world where, hopefully, they can fix it.

It’s a classic roadmap. But let’s be clear, Netflix’s new animated film, In Your Dreams, while using this map, seems to be navigating toward a much more complicated and psychologically astute destination. The story, in fact, doesn’t begin with magic. It begins with anxiety.

The Perfect Fix: A Family on the Brink

At the center of the story is Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), a young girl who has started to notice the cracks in her family’s foundation. Her parents, played by Simu Liu and Cristin Milioti, are distant. The tension is palpable, fueled by financial worries and the ominous prospect of a work-related move that could separate them. Stevie, understandably, fears they are on the verge of splitting up.

But Stevie is not a passive observer. The studio behind the film describes her with a keyword: a “Fixer.” She is a “girl on a mission to save her family.” This isn’t just a character description; it’s a diagnosis. Stevie is a perfectionist who believes her family is a project that can be “fixed,” and that she is the engineer in charge of the repair.

This characterization is the doorway to the film’s thematic heart. Director and writer Alex Woo admits the film is a mirror of himself. “I’m a very typical older brother,” he explains, describing himself as “the obnoxious Type-A guy.” He admits the film is, in large part, him “processing this part” of his own personality and his “perfectionist desire” for control.

Therefore, the quest that defines the film isn’t merely a fantasy. It is a manifestation of Stevie’s Type-A personality. Her goal isn’t just happiness, but perfection: the restoration of the “perfect family.”

The Escape Plan: A Sandman and a Sarcastic Giraffe

If your mission is to fix a broken reality, you need a plan. Stevie and her younger brother, Elliot’s (Elias Janssen), is decidedly otherworldly. The siblings discover they can magically travel to the “dream world.” Their goal is a mythical figure known as The Sandman (voiced by Omid Djalili), a being who, according to legend, can “grant them their wish.”

But Stevie’s mission for perfection is immediately compromised by her team, which is anything but perfect. She can’t go on this journey alone; she’s tied to her “annoying” and “carefree” little brother, Elliot. And as if that weren’t enough, they are joined by a third companion: Baloney Tony.

Voiced by Craig Robinson, Baloney Tony is Elliot’s “sarcastic stuffed giraffe,” brought to life in the dream world. The studio itself describes him as a “coward.” The name says it all: “Baloney” is a walking commentary on the ridiculousness of their own mission.

This team dynamic is fundamental. The control freak (Stevie) is forced to rely on two agents of chaos: her free-spirited brother and a cynical, cowardly stuffed animal. The stage is perfectly set not just for adventure, but for the collapse of Stevie’s need for control.

Welcome to the Subconscious: Building a World from Real Fears

The setting for this quest is an “absurd landscape” and a “surreal dream world.” It’s a place where the siblings must navigate locations like “Breakfast Town” and fight threats like “zombie breakfast foods.” The main antagonist is the embodiment of their fears: the “Nightmare Queen,” a being named Nightmara (voiced by Gia Carides).

At first glance, this seems like standard whimsical fantasy animation. But the creators had a very specific and revealing design rule. “Almost every dream they experience is set somewhere in the real world, and that was really intentional,” the team has explained. To build this world, the story team collected their own “recurring dreams,” “scariest dreams,” and “best dreams.”

This design principle changes everything. The dream world is not an escape from reality; it is a distorted reflection of it.

Think about “Breakfast Town” and its “zombie breakfast foods.” For a child sensing her parents’ tension, where would that anxiety be most palpable? At the family breakfast table. That once-safe morning ritual is now loaded with silent tension.

Therefore, “Breakfast Town” isn’t some random, fantastical video game level. It is much more likely the psychological manifestation of the kitchen table, and the food coming to life isn’t “fun”—it’s the anxiety of that family space turned into a monster.

The landscape is the characters’ psychology. Nightmara isn’t just a villain to be defeated; she is the personification of their deepest fear: their family’s separation.

The Film’s DNA: The Kuku Team and the Ghost of Pixar

To really understand what In Your Dreams is trying to do, you have to look at who made it and why. The film is directed by Alex Woo and co-directed by Erik Benson; both also co-wrote the script.

These are not rookies. They are part of the Pixar diaspora, a group of elite talents who were trained in the most successful storytelling environment in the world. Alex Woo was a story artist on classics like Ratatouille, WALL-E, Finding Dory, and Incredibles 2. Erik Benson has a similar pedigree, having worked on the story for The Good Dinosaur and contributed to Toy Story 3.

In Your Dreams is the first feature film from Kuku Studios, the company Woo co-founded with other Pixar alumni (Stanley Moore and Tim Hahn) after leaving the animation giant.

This professional context is a perfect thematic mirror for the film. Woo has said the film came from a central question: “What do you do when your dreams don’t necessarily come true?” It’s a question about “finding a way forward [amidst] uncertainty and the unknown.”

It’s easy to see the parallel. The filmmakers left the “perfection” and security of Pixar to pursue the uncertain dream of their own studio. Stevie’s journey to accept an imperfect family mirrors her creator’s journey to leave a “perfect” studio and build something new.

If the Pixar pedigree provides the technical skill, Woo’s personal inspiration provides the heart. The film, at its core, is an exploration of his own sibling relationship. Woo identifies with Stevie, the “Type-A.” His real-life brother, he admits, is Elliot: “My brother was always the less responsible one… always joking around and never taking things that seriously.”

This revelation recontextualizes the entire plot. The stated goal—find the Sandman, save the marriage—is a thematic MacGuffin, a red herring. The real story is about Stevie learning to see Elliot.

The film is a dramatization of Woo’s own realization that, although his brother “didn’t take traditional paths,” he eventually “started to see how he was so much better at so many things I was really bad at.”

The real solution to the family’s crisis, Woo hints, is not magic. The key is the sibling connection. “I wanted to reinforce this idea that, when Stevie and Elliot work together, when they hold hands, that’s when things start to go right for them,” Woo says. “That’s when they can take control of their dreams.”

This is where the film becomes truly clever. It is an animated fantasy with a built-in warning against fantasy. Woo himself lays out this tense paradox. “I wanted to show that… dreams can have a dark side,” he states. “If you focus too much on them, you can miss the reality that’s right in front of your eyes.”

This is the film’s intellectual core. Stevie is so consumed by her “dream” (the idea of a “perfect family”) that she is in danger of missing the reality: the tangible, imperfect, but real relationship with the brother right next to her. The film lures us in with a vibrant, magical dream world only to tell us that escapism, taken too far, is a trap.

The Awakening: The Production Team and Thematic Conclusion

In Your Dreams is a production from Netflix Animation and Kuku Studios, with animation handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Produced by Tim Hahn and Gregg Taylor, and featuring a voice cast including Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, and Cristin Milioti, the film presents itself as a family adventure.

However, the entire project seems designed to subvert that very premise.

It begins with a girl on a mission to find a magical solution to a very real problem. But the evidence suggests the film is not about changing your reality. It’s about finding what’s worth saving within it.

The journey into the dream world isn’t to find a wish-granting Sandman; it’s to find the messy, imperfect, human connection with a brother, which is the only thing that can get you through the nightmare.

In Your Dreams premieres on Netflix on November 14.