Netflix's In Your Dreams Is The Best Pixar Movie They Never Made

The first movie I ever saw in a theater was Pixar's "Toy Story," which introduced me to movie magic and the power of cinematic storytelling. In some ways, 30 years later, I'm continuously trying to find films that evoke the same wonder I felt when I saw Woody's face stretched over a wall-sized screen, looking down on kindergarten-aged me with a message about why change is important, growing up is not something to be afraid of, and finding purpose is a journey for us all. The state of all-ages entertainment these days is dire, with a serious decline in quality media available (and easily accessible) for young audiences, and each year signals more and more children outgrowing "Bluey" without anything to fill the void. Fortunately, in recent years, Netflix has established itself as a formidable force in this arena.

Films like Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio," Chris Williams' "The Sea Beast," Henry Selick's "Wendell & Wild," Troy Quane and Nick Bruno's "Nimona," and my personal favorite, Mike Rianda's "The Mitchells vs. The Machines," are just a handful of the stellar animated films that audiences of every age are just few clicks away from being able to enjoy. The big story out of Netflix Animation this year has been "KPop Demon Hunters," the musical phenomenon that quickly became Netflix's most-watched original film, ever. But now, Netflix is closing out its original animated offerings for 2025 with Alex Woo's "In Your Dreams," which feels like the best Pixar movie that animation studio never made.

That's because a film like "In Your Dreams" needed the backing of a company willing to tell complex, nuanced stories that even the youngest movie fans can enjoy, which our current timeline has demonstrated to be Netflix.

Based heavily on Woo's own childhood in the Midwest, "In Your Dreams" centers on pre-teen sister Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her pesky elementary-school-aged brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) as they tackle the trials and tribulations of sharing a bedroom during their most formative years. Stevie values organization, cleanliness, and maintaining order, while Elliot is a messy, magic-obsessed agent of chaos. But the biggest familial turmoil has to do with their parents (Cristin Milioti and Simu Liu), who are dealing with marital strife and failing to hide it from their children as well as they think they are.

Stevie, in traditional eldest-daughter fashion, takes on this weight as a problem for her and her alone to solve. This gives "In Your Dreams" its avenue to bring the personal into the improbable, with Stevie and Elliot discovering an enchanted book that allows them to interact with the world of their dreams, and the promise that if they can find the Sandman (Omid Djalili), he will make their dreams come true.

This kicks off a colorful, hilarious, and sometimes terrifying adventure through the shared subconscious of Stevie and Elliot, as they embark on a quest to mend their parents' marriage and save their family. The visual storytelling on display as Woo and co. incorporate details of Stevie and Elliot's waking experiences into their dreams is wonderful. There are a few stand-out sequences like the sugary paradise of Breakfast Town (with my new favorite character, Delilah the princess muffin with her retainer tiara) and an "It's a Small World" ride inspired by the cursed Chuck E. Cheese-esque playplace set to the haunting tune of a children's choir singing "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls.

When the scary Nightmara (Gia Carides) corrupts the dreamworld, the creativity of "In Your Dreams" really gets to shine. When the foods in Breakfast Town begin to mold, it looks like something out of a zombie movie. The singing animatronics turn into the "Whack-a-Badger" animals, hell-bent on whacking our kiddos, and universal puberty classics like "naked and afraid," "all of your teeth fall out," and "here's a test you didn't study for" are unleashed to scare them awake. Netflix collaborated once again with Sony Pictures Imageworks for the film's animation, and the gorgeous execution is yet another reminder that the House of Mouse is not (and should not) be the only game in town.

Given Woo's history working at Pixar, there are a handful of elements baked into the DNA of "In Your Dreams" that evoke feelings of previous Pixar films, but this is a feature and not a bug. Just as "Inside Out" taught us that Sadness must exist alongside Joy for us to achieve a healthy emotional balance, "In Your Dreams" rethinks the purpose of nightmares and warns us of the fine line between following your dreams and falling into delusional fantasy. Just as "Onward" taught us to appreciate the love and support that already exists in our lives instead of yearning for what's already gone, "In Your Dreams" wants audiences to learn to be okay with our ever-changing lives.

And like countless films that came before, there's an animal sidekick. Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson), the beloved stuffed (literally, with bologna) giraffe of Elliot, is a cross between Donkey in "Shrek," Pumbaa in "The Lion King," and Iago in "Aladdin." He'll be grating to anyone over the age of 15, but that's kind of the point, and exactly why I love him.

As eye-poppingly fantastical as Dreamland is, this is still a movie about a struggling marriage, sibling conflict, and a family potentially needing to move to a new city for a fresh start. Those are heavy themes to juggle, even without adding in convolutions of literal and metaphorical dreams coming to "life." But the film never falls off course because it refuses to talk down to children. Life is tough, and "In Your Dreams" wants to validate that reality for everyone. Stevie's perspective on what's going on with her family is unreliable because she's a 12-year-old girl desperately trying to fix something far beyond her control. Elliot doesn't have a great grasp on the severity of what's happening because he's still at the age where he needs a turtle-shaped noise machine to help lull him to sleep.

Dad isn't a bad dad because he's still trying to relive the glory days of when he and Mom were chart-topping musicians by continuing to pursue a career in the arts, and Mom isn't a sell-out buzzkill for taking a more "traditional" job to help provide for their family. They're realizing that the middle-class American dream is a farce, and sometimes it feels good to escape from that painful reality, even if it's not good for us.

"In Your Dreams" utilizes our collective sense of animated adventure film familiarity to tell an emotional, mature story that is still easily digestible for viewers who will be more excited about Baloney Tony's laser farts than the perfectly unleashed needle-drop of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." For a debut feature, Alex Woo has more than proven he's got the goods, and we should all look forward to whatever he has cooking next.

"In Your Dreams" is now available to stream on Netflix.