Netflix’s new animated feature In Your Dreams is arriving on the service after a limited theatrical run, bringing a deeply personal family story from director Alex Woo to a global audience. The film, produced with Kuku Studios and running 91 minutes, centers on siblings Stevie and Elliot, who respond to their parents’ looming separation by plunging into the dream world in search of the Sandman and a wish for the “perfect” family.
Inside that fantasy framework, the story tracks fears that many children face when a household starts to fracture. The kids’ journey through surreal dreamscapes, populated by figures like the Sandman and the nightmare spirit Nightmara, gradually shifts the focus from fixing their parents to understanding that no life can match a flawless ideal. Woo has described the film’s key idea as flipping the usual hierarchy between dreams and nightmares, arguing that difficult experiences can build resilience while an obsession with idealized dreams can pull people away from reality.
Woo’s path to this debut feature shapes the film’s ambitions. A former Pixar story artist, he worked on titles including Ratatouille and WALL·E before leaving in 2016 to co-found Kuku Studios. The concept for In Your Dreams dates back to those early days at the new company and draws on his childhood memories of family turmoil. During production he spent roughly a year and a half directing remotely from Hong Kong on California hours, describing long overnight shifts and pandemic disruption, but also a conviction that the project needed to capture a more honest picture of family life.
Early critical response points to richly imagined dream imagery, the emotional arc for Stevie and Elliot, and supporting characters such as talking toy Baloney Tony, with some comparisons to the emotional terrain of classic studio animations and questions about how far the film distinguishes itself from that tradition. Woo has said he hopes the film gives children language for complicated feelings about divorce and change, and encourages viewers of any age to see that imperfect families can still be loving, even when real life refuses to match the dreams they once chased.
