Director: Alex Woo
Cast: Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Gia Carides, Omid Djalili, SungWon Cho
Screenplay: Alex Woo, Erik Benson
91 mins. Rated PG for thematic content, scary images, action/peril, and some rude humor.

I was just remarking to a friend earlier this week about the lack of meaningful films for children and families in 2025. Kids are smart and challenging, and they deserve their film output to do the same. While the upcoming Netflix release In Your Dreams tries to face themes of divorce and family identity, it’s unfortunately missing a spark, resulting in a pretty forgettable little inoffensive offering that will sadly give little for young ones to chew on.

Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, The Monkey King) and her little brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) are seeing the signs of distance between their mother and father and, not wanting to see an eventual divorce, they concoct a plan to journey into their own dreamworld and find the mysterious Sandman (Omid Djalili, Gladiator), being capable of granting their dream to save their parents’ marriage, but first they must get past Nightmara (Gia Carides, My Big Fat Greek Wedding), a villainous being that vows to stop them from realizing those dreams.

I can appreciate the idea that director/co-writer Alex Woo (A Go! Go! Cory Carson Halloween) is going for with this feature debut, dealing with the ideas of divorce and how easily the ideas of separation or altering the family dynamic can wrap up young minds with concern and confusion. It’s a scary idea, at a higher level than the concern over adding a new brother or sister to the mix, and this confrontation at the core of In Your Dreams is admirable, but I don’t think he surrounded these ideas with a memorable or engaging story.

Woo came from Pixar, and he eventually left the company and founded Kuku Studios, an independent animation studio, and this first feature really feels cobbled together from things we’ve seen before in with Pixar, and neither the dreamscape nor the quite notable Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson, This is the End) have a distinct enough identity to make them memorable in a crowded but very generic field of children’s cartoons. Woo has his heart in the right place, but I couldn’t help feeling the drifting away memories of this film almost immediately after seeing it.

It should be noted, however, that Kuku Studios produces some solid animation out of the gate, and while it lacks identity, I was impressed by the quality of the work from a smaller independent animation studio. Compared to other studios trying their aim with an animation arm, I’m interested to see where this animation studio can go, even if In Your Dreams ultimately didn’t WOW me.

Alex Woo’s In Your Dreams tackles some meaty concepts in a lackluster and ultimately forgettable film. Still, this is inoffensive and perfectly watchable for families and younger viewers going through an uncomfortable and often confusing part of childhood. I just wish there was more to cling to, especially once Stevie reaches the Sandman and has the opportunity to have her dreams come true. There’s an interesting story wrinkle there that I would’ve loved to have explored more and experiment with, but We didn’t get that. In a landscape of underwhelming 2025 animation, I can’t recommend In Your Dreams, but I still think kids choosing this for family movie night will get something out of it, and parents won’t dread the experience either.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe