IN YOUR DREAMS: 3 ½ STARS. “a surreal adventure delivers some kid friendly thrills.”
SYNOPSIS: In the animated family comedy adventure “In Your Dreams,” now streaming on Netflix, siblings Stevie and Elliot must navigate their dreams—and a snarky stuffed giraffe, zombie pamcakes and the queen of nightmares—in hopes that The Sandman will grant them their ultimate dream, saving their parent’s marriage.
CAST: Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Gia Carides, Omid Djalili, and SungWon Cho. Co-directed by Alex Woo, and Erik Benson.
REVIEW: A story of a fractured family wrapped up as a surreal adventure delivers some kid friendly thrills, but at its heart is a grounded story of acceptance and the understanding that not every family has to be perfect.
When perfectionist Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) learns that her mother (Cristin Miloti) is considering taking a job in another city, she assumes it means her parents are getting a divorce. In hopes of keeping them together she drags her rambunctious younger brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) into her dreams in the hopes of being granted a marriage saving wish from The Sandman (Omid Djalili).
In the dream they are thrust into a surreal world where they meet a disco-ball moon with trust issues, a glibly sarcastic stuffed giraffes and zombie pancakes who guard The Sandman’s filing system. If they are to get to the all-important Wish Desk they must learn to work together to solve their problems.
In its heart “In Your Dreams” is a kindhearted movie about reality, not dreamland. The dream sequences, from co-directors Alex Woo, and Erik Benson, are beautiful, populated with imaginative characters kids should enjoy, but Stevie and Elliot‘s journey is a personal one, not strictly an otherworld one.
The messages of accepting imperfection, teamwork and resilience are mixed with eye popping visuals and fun needle drops. It may be a little too intense in its representation of the nightmare scenes and the frankness of its depiction of divorce for the under 7 set, but it contains the kind of heart and soul usually associated with Pixar, which is enough to earn a recommend.
