For the second year in a row, Netflix has graced the holiday season with an animated adventure about a family grappling with divorce. While the subject is one worth exploring, and it feels like some chains are being broken with how theatrical animators are breaking out with such films, In Your Dreams doesn’t live up to addressing this topic in a meaningful way. Family issues become more of a thin lattice than a narrative force, where the whimsy overwhelms the story and underwhelms with the emotional stakes.

Siblings Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (Elias Janssen) are typical children who have an ideal life, where the biggest concern for Elliot is tracking down his beloved stuffed giraffe, Baloney Tony. Sadness sets in for Stevie when she overhears her parents (Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti) arguing about money and possibly moving out. Pay attention to how quiet the monetary discussion becomes and how reluctant the couple is to decide on a divorce. This is more of a sugar-coated spat that might serve well for kids as young as Elliot, but comes off melodramatic for tweens like Stevie.

That softening would be fine if there were a greater sense of wonder that takes over when the brother-sister duo connect through their dreams via a spell. This is a fascinating idea for how the two could reveal more about themselves through their fears and desires in dreams. But, again, there’s a softening present. The dreams of these children fall back on the simplest of surrealism: a town of sentient breakfast foods, falling out teeth, man-eating hot dogs, Stevie’s crush, etc. There’s got to be more to dreams than these cliches, making these trips to the dream world feel more routine than wondrous. Even the dream ally of a snarky Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson) doesn’t add much beyond ho-hum quips and laser farts that can only delight so much with brightly-colored vulgarity worthy of Nickelodeon-nasty comedy.

The film’s conflict, about family togetherness, is ultimately hijacked when Stevie and Elliot meet the magical Sandman (Omid Djalili), who can make dreams a reality. With Stevie desiring her parents to stay together for good, she makes a wish for a permanent, happy family. Unfortunately, Sandman operates by Twilight Zone rules, with the catch that you can never wake up from an ideal dream. It’s sinister, sure, but ultimately robs the film of the opportunity to stress that forcing families together is not a healthy thing to enforce when the parents’ feelings are not considered. Thankfully, the parents, never given names in this picture, are treated more like props, considering how they spring into action for the big climax without question.

There is so much potential here and all of it feels sanded down for the safest of family movie nights. The kids are amusing more in their timing and mannerisms than anything more in their personalities, boiled down Stevie’s crush on a boy and Elliot’s obsession with luncheon meats. The parents have no agency in this plot as they snap back into being ideal parents like rubber bands. The Sandman is also such a forgettable villain, where the two most predictable songs attributed to his name are presented without much altercation in the lyrics. Every thematic route of divorce, sibling rivalry, and the duality of dreams and nightmares is cut off quick so the film can feature another slapstick sequence of a flying bed or farting hot dog. And if you think a film like this won’t exhaust those jokes, you’d be wrong.

In Your Dreams rarely explores much in either its dreamworld fantasies or family drama, coming up short on both. Though the animation is competent, it also feels very artificial in the realms it traverses, holding about as much emotional heft as a TV commercial. While this harmless fluff may suffice for wholesome family viewing, its machinations are so hollow and bereft of meaningful development that the whole plot might as well be all a dream.

hd

Netflix

Flatrate

hd

Netflix Standard with Ads

Flatrate

Source: