\n\tThe thematically linked needle drops come fast and furious in In Your Dreams. One of the main characters in Alex Woo\u2019s feature animation directorial debut is the mythical Sandman, so naturally you hear the Chordettes\u2019 pop hit \u201cMr. Sandman.\u201d Then there\u2019s \u201cSweet Dreams\u201d (Are Made of This)\u201d and even Metallica\u2019s \u201cEnter Sandman.\u201d Should this film spawn any sequels, those in charge of the licensing rights for \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me\u201d and Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cDreams\u201d should start preparing the paperwork now.<\/p>\n
\n\tFortunately, this Netflix animated film mainly shows more originality than that, continuing the streamer\u2019s winning streak that includes the cultural juggernaut KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>. While this gentler effort is unlikely to be similarly impactful, its witty humor and genuine emotionalism recall the best of Pixar<\/a>, where its director worked as a story artist on such films as Wall-E<\/a> and Incredibles 2.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tIn Your Dreams\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n \tA winning blend of fantasy and emotion.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelease date: Friday, November 7 \n\tWritten by Woo and co-director Erik Benson (based on a story by them and Stanley Moore), the film revolves around 12-year-old Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her little brother Elliott (Elias Janssen), who become increasingly worried when their musician parents (Simu Liu<\/a>, Cristin Milioti<\/a>) begin experiencing marital difficulties. So when the kids encounter a vintage book entitled Legend of the Sandman in a thrift shop, they become convinced that they can use it to enter a magical kingdom inhabited by the titular character, the Sandman who can make their dream that their family remain intact come true.<\/p>\n \n\tTheir dreams provide the portal to the other world, where they encounter a litany of outlandish environments and figures, including a land inhabited by living breakfast foods. Accompanied by an incarnation of Elliott\u2019s favorite stuffed animal, wisecracking giraffe Baloney Tony (a very funny Craig Robinson<\/a>), named for the slices of processed meat Elliott frequently stuffs into a hole in his side, they are faced with numerous obstacles \u2014 including the scary Nightmara (Gia Carides), a giant teddy bear that nearly crushes them, and an oversized hot dog (Jorge Diaz) \u2014 as they search for the Sandman (Omid Djalili).<\/p>\n \n\tNeedless to say, important life lessons are made clear during the course of their adventures, with the siblings learning to work together and \u2014 spoiler alert \u2014 the parents, who eventually join them on their dreamscape adventures, realizing that they need to overcome their differences.<\/p>\n \n\tFeaturing enough slightly rambunctious humor to amuse younger viewers while providing a relatable, moving portrait of adolescent angst, sibling bonding and marital tension, In Your Dreams showcases consistently imaginative computer animated visuals (with one segment reverting to hand-drawn) and the sort of original storyline that\u2019s increasingly rare in animated films. The character animation is frequently a hoot, especially in the breakfast foods segment that might inspire trips to the kitchen when viewing. While there are some moments of excessive silliness, the filmmaker mainly finds the proper balance throughout, resulting in a winning movie that should satisfy a fairly wide age group.<\/p>\n \n\tThe voice performances are consistently excellent, with young Hoang-Rappaport and Janssen amusingly energetic and Liu and Milioti conveying understated emotion as the parents going through a rough patch. The latter pair even get to perform an original song together, with Milioti demonstrating the vocal chops that helped earn the cast album for the Broadway musical Once<\/a> a Grammy Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The thematically linked needle drops come fast and furious in In Your Dreams. One of the main characters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[29118,24851,88,206,13774,84500],"class_list":["post-277502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-craig-robinson","tag-cristin-milioti","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-pixar","tag-simu-liu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Cast: Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen,\u00a0Omid Djalili, Gia Carides, SungWon Cho, Zachary Noah Piser
Director: Alex Woo
Co-director: Erik Benson
Screenwriters: Erik Benson, Alex Woo
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRated PG,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 31 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n