We’ve all had that dream. There are so many different themes that can take any number of shapes while people are sleeping, and whether or not there’s a meaning ascribed to them, they have the potential to haunt long beyond their manifestations and to guide behavior in waking hours. In Your Dreams puts a fun twist on the tendency to bring real life into the unconscious with its affirming spotlight of two siblings desperate to save their parents’ marriage who turn to another world as their last course of action.
It’s the perfect morning, with Stevie making French toast to bring back precious memories of joy for her parents. While they used to make music together, now Mom is considering a move to a new place for an enticing job opportunity, while Dad is still trying to revive a fading career, and they’re not connecting at all. When Stevie sees that her efforts to get Mom and Dad to remember better times are failing, she enlists her younger brother Elliot and heads into the dream world in search of the mysterious Sandman, whom she believes has the power to make her dreams come true.
This is a wildly imaginative movie that makes excellent use of its animated landscape to show the many ways in which humor ties into how we imagine things while we’re sleeping. There’s a true magic to what Stevie and Elliot get to see as they encounter the many facets – some highly enjoyable and others legitimately terrifying – of what lives inside their heads. Writer-director Alex Woo brings a wealth of experience from his time at Pixar, and this independent directorial debut shows great promise both stylistically and content-wise.
While it’s two children who go on this massive adventure, this is a film that incorporates sufficient mature material to be appreciated by adults. Stevie, though just twelve years old, is able to perceive more than she likely should, as many young children can when their parents think they’re keeping things to themselves but still offer too open a window into the problems they’re having. While she believes a scrumptious French toast can be aromatic enough to conjure up a warm remedy, she’s still up for involving the occult and going to great lengths to salvage something she is convinced more than anything can and must be repaired.
Despite its dramatic underbelly, which features scary scenes of nightmares come to life and the terror of being trapped forever within a harrowing and inescapable mental prison, this movie does feature a great deal of comedy. Key to its humor is Baloney Tony, a stuffed giraffe with only one eye who Elliot is overjoyed to be reunited with who harbors tremendous resentment towards Stevie, the older sister more than happy to leave him lost wherever he fell. Voiced by Craig Robinson, he’s emblematic of the entertainment value of so much within the dream world, which is all best appreciated without much preview.
The voice cast also features Simi Liu and Cristin Milioti as Dad and Mom, who have minor roles but infuse appropriate conflict and emotion into navigating their marriage while trying to be there for their kids. The real finds are Jolie Hoang-Rappaport and Elias Janssen, who have amassed an impressive list of credits despite being young and relatively new to the industry but who give so much heart and soul to Stevie and Elliot. It’s especially fun to see their sibling rivalry play out in immature ways and transform into a deep bond rooted in achieving the same goal. In Your Dreams offers much to ponder in the most enthralling and inviting way possible, a visual feast for the eyes that, like your own dreams, is sure to linger long after the credits roll and audiences return to real life.
Movie Rating: 8/10
