What’s beautiful about art—especially movies and television—is that the possibilities of what can be imagined, filmed, and shown are almost limitless. Things that are impossible in our lives can exist in these visual forms, and it’s incredible to witness. Dreams also push beyond the limits of our world, letting the best or worst parts of our lives play out in our minds. Combining those two ideas gives us Netflix’s newest animated movie, In Your Dreams, which follows two siblings, Stevie (Jolie Hiang-Rappaport) and Eliot (Elias Janssen), as they search for the Sandman (Omid Djalili) in their dreams to save their parents’ marriage.
One of In Your Dreams‘ strongest selling points is that it is not afraid to deal with extremely mature subject matter. Despite the opening scene depicting a happy marriage between Stevie’s parents, who perform together in a band, time passes, and Stevie’s parents quickly become shells of their former selves. They barely spend time with one another, and Stevie has to lie about them making breakfast for each of them just to keep a sense of cohesion in the household. Her mom has moved on from playing music, but her dad continues to perform despite struggling financially. It’s a point of tension between them, one that only grows when her mom is given the opportunity to teach in another city, potentially requiring the family to relocate.
Our main characters, siblings Stevie and Eliot, have their consciousnesses collide when they dream together and enter their imaginary world. They share a typical sibling rivalry, where Stevie believes Eliot ruins her life simply by existing. She thinks he’s gross, annoying, and always in her way, but she eventually realizes that she loves him, despite all of that. Unfortunately, no other aspects of their relationship are explored, leaving them as basic child archetypes.
There are some potentially beautiful set pieces in In Your Dreams that are on a grand scale and showcase the limitless potential of dreams. There are giant castles, towns full of food and creatures, but none of it goes beyond basic childhood fantasies, such as giant hot dogs and flying beds. Combined with the fact that most of these dream sequences are dominated by either yellow or dark blue palettes, and there is much left to be desired in terms of visuals.
Unfortunately, what scenic beauty can be found is about all In Your Dreams has going for it. The story follows the same beats as many famous family movies: a child is unhappy with something in their life, so they find a way to make everything better. While everything seems perfect at first, things begin to go awry, and they realize they want to return to their normal lives. It’s more or less a lighter version of Coraline (2009).
In Your Dreams plays it too safe to stand out among other strong animated children’s movies with similar storylines. None of the characters or story elements will stick with viewers for long, which is a shame since the movie does touch on some adult-centric themes that had real potential.
In Your Dreams is now streaming on Netflix.
