Netflix's latest animated feature, “In Your Dreams,” offers a deeply personal and fantastical journey into a dream world, crafted by first-time director Alex Woo. The film follows young siblings Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (voiced by Elias Janssen) as they embark on a quest through a magical dreamscape to find the mythical Sandman. Their heartfelt mission is to ask the Sandman to intervene and mend their strained family, specifically their parents’ (voiced by Cristin Milioti and Simu Liu) impending separation. The story delves into the emotional turmoil of the children, as their mother contemplates a move to Duluth for an assistant professorship, while their father wishes to remain rooted.

The genesis of “In Your Dreams” is rooted in director Alex Woo’s own childhood experience. Having previously contributed as a story artist for Pixar’s “Cars 2” and “Incredibles 2,” Woo drew inspiration from a poignant moment at age six or seven when his mother explained she was leaving to “figure things out” for the family. This deeply personal narrative became the emotional core for his directorial debut, conceived shortly after he departed Pixar in 2016. Woo acknowledged the inherent challenge in creating a dream-based movie with genuine stakes, a feat often tackled in live-action but less explored in animation.

To bring the vibrant and imaginative dream world to life, Woo collaborated closely with production designer Steve Pilcher. Their creative vision resulted in a fantastical realm populated by flying beds, animated breakfasts, whimsical sand creatures, and even a floating river of ball pit balls. Each element in the dream world was meticulously grounded in a real-world counterpart. For instance, the film's Polly’s Pizzeria drew inspiration from Woo’s childhood visits to Chuck E. Cheese, while the unsettling, nightmare-inducing ball pit river was a deliberate nod to the sometimes-terrifying experience of Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride from a child's perspective.

The film showcases distinct dream locations, each with unique design philosophies. Breakfast Town, for example, is depicted as a colorful and joyful place teeming with animated food, inspired by Woo’s mother’s Sunday morning french toast. Pilcher and his team envisioned it as a craft-based, French medieval-themed world, where elements like waffles form a castle and buildings are constructed from milk cartons, reinforced by child-like materials such as white glue, popsicle sticks, and crudely cut construction paper. Art director Rachel Daniels even built a physical, craft-based model to ensure authenticity.

One of the significant animation challenges lay in rendering the Sandman, the sandlings, and their sandy environment without it appearing as a monotonous "brown mush." Woo and Pilcher overcame this by differentiating the curve-based characters of the Sandman and sandlings with an inner glow, which effectively separated them from the more cube-based, static sandcastle environment. The design of the sandcastles themselves was derived from the simple, iconic pyramid shape created by filling and inverting sand buckets.

“In Your Dreams” also bravely addresses the complex and often difficult subject of family separation and divorce, an issue that Cristin Milioti found profoundly moving when she first read the script in 2021. Milioti emphasized that animation is a powerful medium for initiating "nuanced conversations with kids" about hardships and changes, drawing parallels to how classic Disney films like “The Lion King” (which echoes “Hamlet”) and “Bambi” tackled similarly weighty themes. She believes the film reassures children that while changes can feel scary, they are not insurmountable.

For keen observers, the film is peppered with Easter eggs. Production designer Steve Pilcher points out the “Go! Go! Cory Carson” rides in the pizza place, a nod to another Netflix property. Alex Woo adds that “Go! Go! Cory Carson” stickers adorn Elliot’s bed, suggesting his past viewing habits. Another notable detail is Stevie’s search for her retainer, initially seen as a post-it reminder on a lucky cat, which she eventually locates behind a fridge in Breakfast Town. “In Your Dreams” is currently available for streaming on Netflix, offering both a visual spectacle and a touching exploration of childhood coping with significant family change.