Alex Woo’s “In Your Dreams” is a CGI animated family comedy that comes close to being on the level with the likes of “The Mitchells Vs. The Machines” (2021), but falls short of hitting that mark.
On the plus side for the filmmakers – this has been such a bad year for Pixar (actually, a bad couple of years) that the film’s Pixar-esque qualities are a positive aspect and won’t make the viewer wish they were watching something else.
The story: Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her little brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) discover a book that details how to summon The Sandman in their dreams. Their homelife takes a hard turn when their parents (who used to be successful musicians) are contemplating splitting, both for work and personal reasons.
Believing The Sandman can alter this trajectory, he is brought to life, but this is immediately revealed to be a bad idea. Far more helpful is a beloved toy, Baloney Tony, who comes to life in the dream world and helps Stevie and Elliot make their way through fantastic realms.
The dream sequences work best when played as a big joke, like variations on the old, dreaded dream of being naked in a department store, crashing a car that is out of control, or experiencing claustrophobia, etc. Among the strongest portions here are when the dream world creates a scenario so persuasive that Stevie struggles to be interested in the reality of her waking life.
Elliot, the younger brother, steals the film and has the best lines. Although Simu Liu and Craig Robinson are in the supporting cast, there are no celebrity voice turns that dominate the proceedings, which works to the film’s benefit.
Woo’s prior film contributions include being Story Artist on a handful of great Disney/Pixar films, including “Ratatouille” (2007), “WALL-E” (2008) and the eternally underrated “The Good Dinosaur” (2015). “In Your Dreams” is Woo’s first film as director and co-writer, and he demonstrates a gift for maintaining a sustained comic tone in the midst of a far-out premise.
There are lots of other movies this borrowed from, ranging from “Inception” (2010) to “Labyrinth” (1986) to any number of “Nightmare on Elm Street” installments. The tone and consistency as a comedy and visual enchantment derived from the best scenes are why I thought of “The Mitchells Vs. the Machines.”
I doubt this one will hit as big as that one did.
Nevertheless, I liked this clan and was struck by how well the issue of a broken family is addressed – it hits hard enough to become a real dramatic sticking point but not so much that it tonally derails the film and becomes something emotionally unbearable.
Come to think of it, a recent Pixar movie that I didn’t like as much as “In Your Dreams” is “Inside Out 2” (2024), which has a heavy-handedness that Woo wisely avoids. For an effective but small-scale film that most haven’t heard of before it got a Netflix push, “In Your Dreams” is better than expected and yes, pun intended, a real sleeper.
Two and a Half Stars (out of four)
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