A fantastical family-friendly flight of fancy into the wild realm of unbridled imagination
In Your Dreams
With voices by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Craig Robinson, Simu Liu & Cristin Milioti
Directed by Alex Woo
Rated PG
Limited release in theaters Friday, Nov. 7 / On Netflix Friday, Nov. 14
“I have a dream,” said Martin Luther King.
But the late, great civil rights leader wasn’t dreaming about carnivorous hot dogs, deranged muffins, a bed galloping across the sky like a bucking mustang, or a stuffed giraffe farting laser-beam fireworks.
They’re all part of this clever, wildly imaginative animated flight of fantasy about a young teen girl, Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), and her kid brother, Elliott (Elias Janssen), who take a deep dive into the realm of dreams hoping to meet the legendary Sandman. They’ve read that his mythical powers can make dreams come true. In Stevie’s case, she dreams about keeping her family together when she finds out her mom (Cristin Milioti, from HBO’s The Penguin) and her dad (Simu Liu, “Rival Ken” in Barbie) might be separating.
Alex Woo, making his directorial debut, clearly knows his stuff when it comes to animated romps; he learned the ropes working on the creative team at Pixar for Finding Dory, WALL-E, Cars 2 and other projects. In Your Dreams is a visually splendid, fabulously engaging “kids adventure” with a surprising amount of heart, as Stevie comes to see her little bro as less bratty slob and more sibling soulmate—and that there’s nothing more important than having a happy family.
It’s also flip, fun and even funky, with needle-drop musical moments from Eurythmics (“Sweet Dreams,” what else?) to Weezer’s cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The Sandman himself (Omid Dialili) even gets his own razzmatazz song-and-dance number, down a big sandcastle staircase, belting an updated version of The Chordettes’ classic “Mr. Sandman.” A pizza-parlor chorus croons a pizza-centric version of Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha.” And Milioti and Liu even get to duet on a cozy number, “The Holding On and the Letting Go,” which is already getting Oscar buzz for Best Original Song.
And you can’t have dreams without a few nightmares. In this case, it’s the shape-shifting Nightmara (Gia Carides), who’s handy with some words of not-so-scary wisdom.
But the real scene stealer is Craig Robinson (whom you probably came to know from his recurring role on NBC’s The Office) as the voice of Elliott’s well-worn, stuffed-toy lovie. You’ll find out why the scuffed-up giraffe is called Baloney Tony, and you’ll chuckle throughout at his rapid-fire wisecracks—and his “colorful” gaseous discharges. And Baloney Tony will likely remind you of a favorite stuffed animal, for yourself or your kids, that became an inseparable childhood companion.
Stevie, Elliott and Baloney Tony’s wide-ranging nocturnal wanderings take them to some far-out, fantastical places, like a corrugated-cardboard city, an angry mob of zombie-fied food, a raging sea, a ball-pit river, a malevolent teddy bear and the swirling eye of a maelstrom. But in the end, back in the real world, Stevie comes to realize that there’s no place like home, even when it’s not neat and clean and calm and perfect.
In Your Dreams is a sweet, freshly original, eye-popping tale for the whole family—and especially for your farting giraffe.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 