In Your Dreams Review: Netflix Animation Delivers A Beautiful Testament To Siblings and Dreams

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Alex Woo’s In Your Dreams is a beautifully imaginative animated film now streaming on Netflix. It’s a heartfelt and magical story that gently explores the sensitive side of growing up.

As a film lover, I’ve always been struck by how often childhood shows up in movies, and for good reason. There’s something inherently compelling about seeing kids navigate a world that feels huge and sometimes scary. That vulnerability is perfect for all sorts of stories – you see it in fun, adventurous films like The Goonies, but also in genuinely terrifying horror like the IT films and the Welcome to Derry series. Plus, childhood is often filled with dramatic stuff – whether it’s dealing with bullies, tough family situations, or just the challenges of growing up – which makes for really compelling stories on screen.

Childhood is often a time of incredible imagination. Kids tend to daydream, create, and sometimes experience scary nightmares. This period allows for limitless creativity, whether through exciting adventures, fantastical dreams, or even frightening ones.

In Your Dreams is a fun and imaginative animated movie for families. It cleverly blends adventure and heartfelt emotion, tapping into the common fears children experience and bringing them to life through colorful, dreamlike visuals. While the movie tries to do a lot and feels a bit crowded at times (unlike its charming plush character, Baloney Tony), it’s still a beautiful and captivating film that explores childhood vulnerabilities in a fresh and inventive way.

In Your Dreams Is a Beautifully Imaginative Ride

The new movie, In Your Dreams, centers on 12-year-old Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), who finds her little brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) – an aspiring magician – to be a bit much. Their dad (Simu Liu) is a fun-loving father who still hopes to make it big as a rock star, while their mom (Cristin Milioti) prioritizes a secure life. When Mom gets a great job offer in Duluth, the family faces increasing conflict, threatening their previously happy home life.

Stevie and Elliot stumble upon an old book called The Legend of the Sandman in a quirky antique shop. The book claims that anyone who reads a special message and then finds the Sandman in a dream will have their greatest wish granted. They soon discover they can both control their dreams, and that those dreams connect them. This leads them on a quest to find the Sandman (played by Omid Djalili) and save their family, but Stevie faces serious risks along the way.

Since In Your Dreams is set within a shared dream world experienced by children, it needs to be imaginative and limitless – just like a child’s dreams. And the film delivers on this spectacularly. The dream arena created by The Sandman is both vast and inventive, and the larger dream world is filled with smart and well-crafted echoes of childhood memories.

The film boasts a wonderfully imaginative world filled with quirky details – think beds that can run, rivers made of colorful balls, enormous hedge mazes, and even talking toys like Baloney Toney (voiced by Craig Robinson). The animation is beautiful, primarily using high-quality CGI, but also features some striking anime-inspired sequences when the characters fully connect within the dream world.

In Your Dreams Needs Cleaner Focus, but the Performances Excel

As a movie fan, I was really struck by the performances in this film. Jolie Hoang-Rappaport is fantastic as Stevie – she’s so relatable and brings a lot of emotional depth to the role of someone just trying to hold her family together. She’s also genuinely funny! Elias Janssen as Elliot is full of energy, though sometimes his character felt a little too much like an annoying younger brother for my taste, but overall he did a good job.

Simu Liu plays a dad who is both warm and a little bit immature, and Cristin Milioti provides a grounded, loving counterpoint. Their family feels realistically complex, creating relatable challenges for the main character, Stevie, while still maintaining a hopeful and satisfying resolution.

The movie moves at a good pace and feels complete overall, but the ending feels rushed. We see the family work towards their goal, but the final scene happens too quickly after everything they’ve been through. A little more screen time at the end would have made it more satisfying. The film also tries to balance focusing on supporting characters like Baloney Tony with the central relationship between Stevie and Elliot.

Netflix’s ‘In Your Dreams’ is a captivating and well-made animated film. It boasts a fantastic lead performance, a creative story and world, and visually stunning animation. While the film struggles a bit to balance its different themes, and the ending feels rushed considering the build-up, it’s still a truly beautiful adventure.

Final Rating: 8/10

In Your Dreams is streaming on Netflix.

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2025-11-26 21:05