In Your Dreams Review: A Whimsical Adventure That Will Wish You In A Good Sleep

 

Copyright © Netflix, Netflix Animation, Kuku Studios


Title: In Your Dreams

Director: Alex Woo 

Release Date: November 14, 2025



    Netflix is keeping their streak on animated films lately. This year, the genre transformed into a kid-friendly powerhouse for them, thanks to the smashing success of KPop Demon Hunters. So, what if they keep going this time? Today's movie is In Your Dreams, the new original animated film about dreams and nightmares. Like with Back to the Outback, the film gained a limited theatrical release before entering the streaming service after a week. Critics and audiences were positive about its creativity, visuals, and emotional depth. As part of the continued animated film streak, In Your Dreams is a stellar adventure that should be labelled as a "dream come true."


Summary

   "Stevie and her little brother Elliot journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the Sandman to grant them the perfect family." - Google


Reasons

    The best wishes from In Your Dreams are the emotional story, interesting concept, and lovable characters. This movie may make silly jokes and gags, but it is there to utilize well-written emotional depth. In addition to the storytelling, the lesson is that the imperfect real life is better than a perfect idealistic life. When an animated movie has emotional depth and a message, then that shows it is a good story. Next thing, the concept is interesting. The concept of entering into dreams and nightmares is something we needed to see again. Netflix has done this before with Orion and the Dark and Slumberland, but with a deeper dive into how our sleeping thoughts operate. This time around, they use the concept as a motif first, and then it shows that it was a narrative device all along. Moving on, the characters are lovable and entertaining. Our two main leads, Stevie and Elliot, are realistic child protagonists who go through clear character development along the way. The fantastical figures, the Sandman and Nightmara, represent who they are without needing to be evil. Even the comic relief sidekick, Baloney Tony, serves his importance by helping the leads in this adventure.
    More great wishes of In Your Dreams are the wonderful animation, punchy humor, and fun soundtrack. Both the reality and fantasy sequences look that pretty. The animation uses the dreamscape landscapes as their visual language to convey the message. Similarly to Over the Moon, the art style is semi-realistic, but it borrows some of the same animation elements from Disney. Besides being an emotional story, it still tends to be funny. The jokes are either sibling-rivalry related, character-driven, or references from prior scenes. Fortunately, most of them are meant to drive the plot forward, while a few are there to be silly with heart. Finally, the soundtrack is fit for the film. It uses the right songs to fit the points in the story. Besides the songs, the score composed by John Debney is nice.
    Sure, In Your Dreams is an amazing movie, but the only unwanted things are the predictability and pacing. Like with many other Netflix original animated movies, you can tell what's going to happen next, but that winds down in the final act. Besides, predictability is not really a big matter anyway. Also, the pacing tends to slow down in the middle. The drag was only for one time, thankfully.


Conclusion

    In Your Dreams is a "dream come true" for the whole family. In this movie, you'll see why dreams and nightmares play an important part of our world. It all boils down to having an imperfect real life with your loved ones and mishaps. Yes, it does have the older-sister-and-younger-brother cliché, but this one did it better than The Twits did to be different from the source material. Be glad that Netflix is still making original films, like this and KPop Demon Hunters, that are not based off of obscure source material nor connected to a popular franchise IP. Furthermore, Hollywood should make more kids' films, like this and IF, that use imagination to make both emotional depth and a strong moral. For those who have Netflix, take a look at this if you need an animated movie to cheer you up.


    Score: 9/10 (i'm a perfect princess!)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kung Fu Panda 4 Review: Skadoosh Your Way from Home, To The Spirit Realm, and To Juniper City!

Image
  Copyright © DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures Title : Kung Fu Panda 4 Director : Mike Mitchell Sequel to: Kung Fu Panda 3 Release Date : March 8 2024      Do not worry anymore! Po returns in "Kung Fu Panda 4," the newest installment of the all-time famous Kung Fu Panda movie franchise. In this sequel, Po has to transition from Dragon Warrior to the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, but he is not sure about it yet. Suddenly, he partners up with a fox, Zhen, in order to defeat the Chameleon who is a shape-shifting sorceress unlike any other. Packed up to the brim with messages, splendid characters, and outstanding animation, "Kung Fu Panda 4" is definitely your go-to return to the Valley of Peace. Summary     Po (Jack Black) to step up from the Dragon Warrior to the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. However, he does not know which worthy successor should be his successor. When the shapeshifting sorceress, the Chameleon (Viola Davis)...
read more »

Sing (2016) Revisit: A Singing Competition Full of Money, Talent, and Emotion

Image
  Copyright © Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures Title : Sing (2016) Director : Garth Jennings Release Date : December 21 2016      Get ready to sing along! The movie that we are going to revisit today is the musical animal adventure called Sing (2016)! Sing is one of the two films Illumination released in 2016 along with The Secret Life of Pets. Both of these films were commercially and critically successful. The other film has the higher box office gross, while Sing has the higher critical acclaim, especially when you look at its Rotten Tomatoes score. Because both the first and second films were successful, the CEO of Illumination, Chris Meledandri, confirmed that Sing 3 is in development. Even with its formulaic pitch breaks, Sing proves that it is a singing competition worth the $100,000 prize! Summary      After a childhood experience with theater, optimistic koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), with a love for showmanship, ...
read more »

Dragonkeeper Review: Chinese Animated Adventure is More Than a Box-Office Flop

Image
  Copyright © Viva Pictures, China Film Animation Title : Dragonkeeper Director : Salvador Sim ó, Li Jianping Based on : Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson Release Date : May 3, 2024     Viva Pictures may be a nuance in today's animated film library. One of their films this year, Epic Tails , is not so bad but it should have done better in its writing and execution. In November, they are going to release Hitpig , which will be a film that uses pop-culture references and a star-studded cast for attention. Nothing else is good in the matter. For today, this review will be about Dragonkeeper , a Spanish-Chinese animated film based on the book of the same name! Its first releases were in Spain and China until Viva Pictures got the rights to release it in the United States this May. Against a budget of €24 million equaling around $31 million, the movie has done so terribly at the box office with a gross of $3.8 million. Albeit it does have its issues in both the animation ...
read more »